It may be just me, but I must admit that I’m struggling to get my head round Christmas and the new Government regulations about households! Reading the wonderful Isaiah 43 this morning, with its vision of sons and daughters being gathered from the north and the south, the east and the west, sent me back to the relevant website to try to work out just who could join us for Christmas this year among our sons and daughters (three of them in Cambridge, the east, and one in Nairobi, the south) let alone my brother (from Durham, the north) and my mother (from Somerset, the west). And how about other guests we’ve usually invited to join us for the big day itself? It’s all very complicated especially with the three household limit.This idea of ‘household’, of course, has its roots in many ancient cultures (including Hebrew culture), where it generally referred to what we would call the ‘extended family’, including any live-in servants the family employed, any animals, and often the property itself. The Greek word ‘oikos’ (from which we derive our words ‘economy’ and ‘ecology’) was then taken up by the New Testament writers to speak of ‘God’s household’ and ‘the household of faith’ – a far broader idea, reminding us of our familial commitments to our Christian brothers and sisters and not just to our natural and nuclear nearest and dearest. Christmas, of course, is the one time of year where we often recapture that ‘household’ vision, drawing together those within our extended families (and often some outside of them) not least to live out something of that vision of a God who ‘sets the lonely in families’ (Psalm 68:6). Whether wisely or not, the Government has recognised that such a vision, properly regulated, should take precedence over health concerns for the newly-designated ‘five days of Christmas’ from December 23rd. But having lived in extended households for almost half of my adult life - sharing our homes with a wide range of singles and families, among them a whole clutch of interns and prospective ordinands - I wonder whether this extraordinary year might refocus our minds on what a Christian household truly entails post-pandemic. Not necessarily travelling the path of community living, though I for one would recommend that where the circumstances are right. But discovering fresh ways to ‘gather’ God’s people from the north and the south, the east and the west, to ‘set the lonely in families’, even to ‘live in love and faith’, to coin a phrase. Households are for life, not just for Christmas. Every BlessingBishop Andrew
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Andrew was an apostle of Jesus and the brother of Saint Peter. He was born between AD5 and AD10 in Bethsaida in Galilee, on the sea of Galilee where he and his brother were fishermen by trade. Hence, Jesus summoned them to become his disciples by telling them: "I will make you fishers of men."St John's gospel tells us that Andrew was also a disciple of John the Baptist, who led him to follow Jesus. Andrew immediately recognised the Messiah and hastened to introduce him to his brother. In fact, the Byzantine church calls Andrew "the first called". From then on the two brothers were disciples of Christ.Historians of the early church insist Andrew travelled widely preaching the gospel of Christ with claims he reached as far west as the Black Sea and Kiev. From there he travelled to Novgorod in Russia.Andrew is believed to have been martyred by crucifixion in Patras in southern Greece in AD60. Relics of St Andrew are kept at the Basilica of St Andrew in Patras, the Amalfi Cathedral and Sarzana Cathedral in Italy, the Church of St Andrew and St Albert in Warsaw as well as St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh.St Andrew is, of course, the patron saint of Scotland and the St Andrew's cross (saltire) forms the flag of Scotland and a part of the Union Jack. But other nations make claims to St Andrew for his divine inspiration. Georgia acclaim him as the first preacher of Chritianity to visit their land.In Cyprus they claim that St Andrew visited their island when his ship was blown off course. They say that on reaching shore Andrew struck the rocks with his staff and that a spring of healing water gushed forth.Today he is officially seen as the patron saint of Barbados, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and Scotland. So the Scots don't have an exclusivity on their patron saint.
