Christmas is a key time for watching rubbish on the TV. As usual, there is plenty of it about at this time of year! 

So today has been a bit if a slobbing around day. It started with catching up on the Christmas day Dr. Who, which I really enjoyed. It will be a shame when David Tennant leaves. He has taken over from Jon Pertwee as my favourite Doctor. After that I watched the Christmas edition of Poirot, "Appointment with Death". Again I think that David Suchet is the ultimate Belgian detective beating even Peter Ustinov and Albert Finney. Of course all this was mindless entertainment and non the worse for this! However the great joy of the day was a programme from BBC 2 about the painiting "The Mystical Nativity" by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli.   

I have to be honest and say that I had never seen or even heard of this painting until I had watched this most informative programme. Of course the centre piece of the work is the traditional image of the Christmas story. Joseph is pictured as an elderly man (probably asleep). Mother and child both staring at one another with clear joy. The "Kings" have no earthly gifts or worldly crowns. The clear suggestion is that the only gift we can offer Christ is ourselves and our adoration.   It is also suggested that Bottecelli , was hugely impacted by the revolutionary preacher Girolamo Savonarola. He had encouraged people to a life of holiness which required them to dedicate themselves to Christ and remove all earthly trappings. For the artist this meant no longer painting the pagan images he had previously done for commissions. For others it meant giving up their jewellery. Much of this stuff ended up been burnt on huge fires in the town centre. This is the where the phrase "Bonfire of the Vanities" originates.

The very top of the painting has a latin inscription in Greek which reads:  "This picture, at the end of the year 1500, in the troubles of Italy, I Alessandro, in the half-time after the time, painted, according to the eleventh [chapter] of Saint John, in the second woe of the Apocalypse, during the release of the devil for three-and-a-half years; then he shall be bound in the twelfth [chapter] and we shall see [him buried] as in this picture" The legend is that this inscription was actually hidden under the frame as this was an obvious link to the teaching of the now disgraced and now executed Savonarola. Below that is a representation of heaven which is done in gold leaf (a technique he would have learnt when he was a goldsmith). The angels and all dancing with joy and they hold crowns and olive branches. Below the nativity scene there are 3 angels that are embracing humans. It suggests that the birth of Christ bridges heaven and earth, man and God. This is further evidenced by the images of demons being killed by their own weapons.  

Significantly, Christ is seen reclined on a cloth that is reminiscent of a shroud and the stable is in a cave which is suggestive of a burial tomb. All of this  prophicises his death. 

So as I continue to watch lots of rubbish on the box and remain committed to eating my way through a dozen turkey sandwiches, this treasure of a programme not only educated me about the Italian Renaissance, it also allowed me reflect once more on the amazing significance of the birth of Christ.

Ian Anderson is not known as being a huge fan of Christianity or the church but this song from a few years back has an interesting message:

"Christmas Song"

Once in Royal David's City stood a lonely cattle shed,
where a mother held her baby.
You'd do well to remember the things He later said.
When you're stuffing yourselves at the Christmas parties,
you'll just laugh when I tell you to take a running jump.
You're missing the point I'm sure does not need making
that Christmas spirit is not what you drink.

So how can you laugh when your own mother's hungry,
and how can you smile when the reasons for smiling are wrong?
And if I just messed up your thoughtless pleasures,
remember, if you wish, this is just a Christmas song.

 I have just discovered the amazing album, Strange Communion by Thea Gilmore. I cannot recommend it highly enough. On the song, Book of Christmas, I was challenged by this lyric:

There was a star in the east

Magi in their turbans brought their luxury toys

In homage to a child born to capsize their values, wreck their equapoise

       A smell of hay like peace in the dark stable, not peace however

      but a sword to cut the gaudy and knot of self-interest

      the fool-proof golden cord

      for Christ walked in where philosophers tread

      but armed with more than folly

      making the smooth place rough

       and knocking the heads of church and state together.

     In honour we have taken over the pagan feast of satanalia

     for our annual treat.

     Letting the belly have its say.

     Ignoring the spirit whilst we eat.

     And conscience still goes crying through the desert

       with sackcloth round his loins.

     A week to Christmas.

     Hark the Herald Angels beg for copper coins

    Thea Gilmore -Book of Christmas   

I am indebted to my friend Mark Hollingsworth for this great quote. 

 INTELLECT CARRIED TO ITS FULL DEGREE WILL LEAD ONE TO FAITH. BUT SOMEDAY YOU’LL NEED TO DROP THE HAND OF INTELLECT AND GRAB THE HAND OF FAITH. YOU SEE, INTELLECT ONLY GETS YOU TO THE PRECIPICE OF LIFE’S ULTIMATE MEANING—BUT IT WON’T HELP YOU GET OVER IT.

-Dante 

When I lived in East Anglia a few years ago, I visited Kings College Cambridge and had the pleasure of seeing "Adoration of the Magi" by Peter Paul Rubens. At this time of year we are regularly drawn to this story as we read the gospel of Matthew. 

 ^{1After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi[a]from the east came to Jerusalem 2and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east[b] and have come to worship him."}