Inside Out... or Outside In?
   

Perhaps Christmas is outside in?
The characters in the familiar nativity scene
all come in from the outside...

Shepherds come from outside the city,
despised by the righteous people because their
work keeps them outside the religious in-crowd;
outsiders spending their nights vulnerable with their flocks,
no one to watch over them.

Wise men come, wealthy and learned, but outsiders too.
Strangers in a strange land, foreigners in odd clothes,
treated with suspicion; ‘not really like us’.

Mary and Joseph come, Galileans, outsiders,
“Nothing good comes from there you know”...
Travellers with no package tour, no hotel reservations.
are they refused room because they speak with strange accents?
Because they are poor? Because she is pregnant?

Jesus comes, born an outsider, living with outsiders,
touching outsiders, lepers and gentiles, sinners and prostitutes:
dying as He is born, outside the city on the rubbish dump…..

Christmas is for outsiders:
the ones who need God with them because they have no one else;
because people fear them, shun them, and shut them outside.

Are we outsiders?
If we recognise our need, put aside our self-sufficient pride,
and admit when the darkest night surrounds us
and we feel the cold draughts of hatred or indifference.
We are afraid,
and cannot find the candle flame within us
to light our path to safety...

Then we have prepared a place of welcome for
the Light that comes,
the Word that speaks our hope and peace,
the One who opens the door,
bringing outsiders in to warm themselves
at the fire of God’s passionate love – Christmas is for us.