I want to celebrate and share the joy as we
hear the news of the birth of a baby boy. It is a great day for his parents and
we hold them in our prayers as they experience all the mixed emotions of new
parenthood. It is right to be glad for them, unreservedly glad for them.
As I sat on the train this morning I read
some of the reports in the morning papers. Just hours after the birth, with no
more details than the weight of the baby boy and the essential fact that he and
his mother are well, the papers have produced special supplements and pages of
reports. They talk about the ways in which this child might be brought up. They
try to guess where the mother and child will go for the first few weeks after
leaving the hospital. They talk about the baby’s future role as heir to the
throne. They try to imagine what Britain will be like when he is expected to
become king. They have pictures of royal
babies from previous generations, in the absence of any pictures of this child.
The child’s future is being mapped out in
public expectation, and he is only hours old.
I find myself reflecting on another birth.
Yes, you guessed it – the birth of Jesus. What might his parents have been
expecting for him? Perhaps they already knew that he was special for reasons
beyond those that made him their special child but I doubt they imagined then
what the future would hold. This child, born in relative obscurity was to
change the world. This child was to reshape human understanding and show
through his life and teaching the power of love. As Mary and Joseph cradled him
in their arms, what could they have known of all this?
When a child is born, new relationships
begin and new possibilities are opened up. For all of them the circumstances of their
birth and childhood will affect how and if that potential is realized. Where
children are born into poverty or oppression
their potential is constrained and we must do all we can to give children everywhere the opportunity to
grow up healthy and free from hunger and fear.
Today I remember and pray for the children
of the world. Today I pray for all those mothers and fathers who have welcomed
a new baby and for those for whom the miracle of birth is shadowed by pain,
fear, anxiety or loss.
Today I pray that the Kate and William’s
son will be free from the constraints of expectation and privilege, free to
surprise his parents and all of us as he realizes his potential. And I pray
that he will grow in a relationship with God, because it is in that relationship
that he will find fulfillment, and in which his potential will be fully realized.
We sang and prayed together and the words and music were heard clearly by those outside the walls of the priory reminding me that the community here on Lindisfarne was established as a base for mission to the surrounding area. At the end of the service we were commissioned to be witnesses to the gospel and all those present were given a pilgrim's badge to take away with them.
On Sunday I was invited to preach in the Church of St Mary the Virgin. The congregation here always includes visitors to the island and people from different Christian traditions. Of course, the size of the congregation, like everything else on the island, is affected by the tides. 
