Articles - From the Vicar

The moon is born
and a child is born,
lying among white clothes
as the moon among clouds.
They both shine, but
the light from one
is abroad in the universe
as among broken glass.

As we enter December I turn to the poetry of R.S. Thomas once again, this time quoting the whole of his enigmatic poem Nativity. The fragility of these two stanzas is such that it might seem to be an act of literary vandalism to comment further. Nevertheless I think it worth reflecting a little on some of the images that the poet conveys. For instance, what might we able to deduce about R.S.Thomas's view of the incarnation from his linking of the unique event of a child's birth to the regular appearance of the moon? Whose light is it that shines abroad in the universe? The moon's - or the child's? And is the 'broken glass' of the final line an image of beauty or of horror?

We will all have our own way of answering these questions; we will all have our reactions to the poem as a whole. Indeed one of the great gifts of poetry is that it invites the reader to respond to its promptings without dictating the nature of that response. The same can be said of the birth of Jesus which we shall celebrate once again this month. The God who is revealed to us in the Christ-child is the God who loves rather than compels his children into the Kingdom. The God whose light shines so brightly in the Christ-child is the God who waits patiently to search out and heal the dark places of our hearts. And the Christ-child who enters the brokenness of his creation is the God who will weep from the cross, loving and yet ultimately rejected. Thus are the white clothes of the manger replaced by the broken glass of thorns and nails, cruel reminders of our still dis-ordered world.