Wise Christmas

IMPORTANT events in the Christian calendar are to be regurlarly reviewed if they are to impact on the lives of people and communities.

- By Bishop Duleep de Chickera

This is certainly true of Christmas.Community integrity

Years ago a modest rural community did exactly this, urging a pre-Christmas probe of the events around Jesus' birth. From the outset, the wisemen aroused curiosity. Who were these visitors? Were they Jews? No. were they Christians? Of course not. As they probed the text, the representative character of those around the baby, became starkly clear. Apart from family, the local shepherds and the stabled animals, the only others present that first Christmas, were sages from distant religious cultures.

With time, the celebra tion of Christmas saw a sharp reversal. The church claimed exclusive owner ship of an inclusive gift and deftly excluded 'outsiders' from full participation.

But the Biblical ver sion of the 'wise outsiders' remained. It affirmed that the birth of Jesus inspired the wise to initiate a meeting space for diverse religious cultures, notwithstanding the long and ardous journey such initiatives entail. Far from exclusion, Jesus' birth narratives, announced the real presence of the 'outsider' when the 'Word became Flesh.'

The wise recognise the gift of life as an invitation to inte grate sincere explanations of life; true religion. Religion gone bad, stalls these values and distorts history.

There is more to the visit of these sages.