Some are saints, some are sinners...you may say. Perhaps in the current age we would say : “Some are celebrities, some are scroungers”
We do have a way - don't we - of putting things into binaries, black and white, yes and no, good and bad, this and that. It works for computer code but I don't know if it works for human beings made in the image of God.....
We have heard the stories about those who are poor and how they are to blame for their property because of the lack of initiative, laziness, fecklessness etc. In today’s Rochdale Observer the story about poor children not being ready for primary school can be told to us as poor parenting causing the problem. We know now how to respond to these stories - we blame rather than feel compassion or work for change.
We have seen the way some people talk about the homeless people we welcome into our churches.
Saint Nicholas, who we celebrate today did not condemn but reached out in love to the vulnerable. He was a fourth century Bishop of Myra in Asia minor which was in southern Turkey. He had a reputation for working wonders and he is known by many stories and legends. And they can't all be factual but perhaps all are true ! Many of these tell of his concern and love and care for children, how he fed the hungry, healed the sick and cared for the oppressed. There is a particular story where he saved three girls from a life of prostitution by providing them with dowries and so developed the tradition of bearing gifts to children on his feast day.
This of course is the practice appropriated by our Christmas celebrations. Nicholas is also one of the patron saints of Russia.
What was Nicholas like ? We call him a Saint and we can see that his sainthood is revealed in his life. He was motivated by love. Not by the way of talking about the world which has us put people in boxes where they are other than us. In the kingdom of God there is no such thing as celebrity or scrounger .....
This time last week at a tribunal we put our way of talking about God into action as we stood alongside a member of our worshipping community who was brought up before the Home Office accused of not being a “proper” Christian. We do not believe that and we stood together and spoke of her faith.
But deeper than the legal case was the human case. We believe that everyone who comes through that church door is a child of God, whatever their faith, whatever their nationality and economic status, they are made in God's image and we are welcoming Jesus when we welcome them.
This week a woman from Tunisia turned up at my door. She had two children and had a thousand questions about where to get help and support in Rochdale. So I brought her down to the Red Cross.
So welcoming newcomers to the town and to our worship is just one way we enact the Christian story. There are no Iranians or Aghani. No alleged celebrity or scrounger. All are precious.
Like Jesus we hear the words of the prophet Isaiah, quoted in today's scripture: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me, he sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the Brokenhearted, to proclaim Liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners."
Because like Nicholas we welcome the little children, and the vulnerable
As the shops prepare to go mad with a material Christmas, we commit to the ways of love and care, of justice and mercy. When we think of gifts let's think of Nicholas gift of the dowries.
Let us learn from the vulnerable, hear their stories, and build a world they can live in
Jesus said: let the little children come to me do not stop them for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.
Mark Coleman
Mark Coleman