for the women in Deer Park Correction Centre next week…
You could easily think, here in prison,
that Christmas is just a romantic notion,
a fairytale
a plan of God’s
that didn’t quite work.
You could easily think, this week
that this is a season for everyone else to celebrate,
a story for everyone else to believe.
But the story of Jesus’ birth has more in common
with the inside of a prison
than it does with the glossy pictures in a Kmart catalogue
and the sparkle of Carols by Candlelight.
So this Christmas,
hear it again:
this story told first by shunned prophets, dirty shepherds and a single mother
of a love that is as old as the universe
and as new as this moment
and wait for God’s love to be born again.
that’s great. that’s a contemporary retelling of christmas. that’s what the age needs to hear. gosh, i wish i could visit a prison for worship at christmas. how that would flip the whole story in a real way. the last time that happened was in a stinky cow shed reading it.
i know, how lucky am i?
[and wait till you hear about where we're going with the asylum seeker stuff as well...!]
will look forward to hearing the stinky cow shed story when i’m in adelaide…