In his Christmas sermon , our Rector Fr Mark Soady reflects on the crib created 800 years ago by St Francis of Assisi, and what it says about the Incarnation being about the salvation of all creation.

A précis of Fr Mark’s sermon:

“Surely one of the highlights of this years was the Coronation of HM King Charles III. Unlike HM’s Mother’s Coronation 70 years ago Westminster Abbey was not full of Coronet and Ermin wearing Peers sat in tiered seats. The reduced attendance included ‘ordinary folk’ chosen for their contribution to society and the Peers had to enter a ballot for their seat. The modernised Monarch wanted to make his king making more inclusive. The birth of the Son of God was first witnessed by the outsiders of the day. The Shepherds, by the very nature of their job, were not part of the life of the City of Bethlehem as they needed to be on the hill day and night looking after the sheep.

Another highlight of the year for us as been the appointment of Rt Revd Phillip North as the new Bishop of Blackburn. At the start of his Diocesan Episcopacy he said two of his three aims were to make the church more involved in social justice and having children and young people at its heart

When I was young, it was said ‘Children should be seen and not heard’, well that may not be the mantra today, but the views/ opinions of these youngsters are still not listened to. Some young children are abused and have no voice to call out their abusers.  So it is true to say that the young like the Shepherds are not heard by the authorities.

A key part of working for an increase in social justice is to give  a voice to the voiceless, to support those in society who do not have the basic needs to live  a full human life – things that so many of us take for granted.

This year marks the 800th Anniversary of the St Francis of Assisi setting up the first Crib. St Francis is of course know for his love of animals, these animals not only inhabit the Crib, but are privileged to see the Incarnate God ahead of the Shepherds, ahead of all humans expect the Lady who carried him, Mary and his Guardian Joseph.

The American Catholic Theologian Henry Karison claims:

Due to the nature of the incarnation, many Christians have erroneously thought that all that God was only concerned with the salvation of humanity. While it is true that there is something special about humanity (as there is with the Jews), this special nature is misunderstood when it is used to suggest God neglects or is not interested in the rest of creation.

Salvation is from humanity, but it is not limited to humanity.

Though Scripture clearly suggests humanity is special, it also does so by pointing out God’s interest in the rest of creation.  “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”  (Matt. 6:26 RSV).

So we are called also as part of our work for social justice to be good stewards of the whole of God’s Creation. Let us respond to the Incarnation of God as we celebrate this Christmas