On the sixth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.
So – the sixth day of Christmas and we’re halfway through the song. In the Christian folk tradition that we’re following the six geese a-laying stand for the Six Days of Creation.
On the fifth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Five gold rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.
Continuing our series on the Twelve Days of Christmas, we’re looking at the different Christian symbols applied to the folksong. The idea behind these meanings is that then the song can be taught as a kind of teaching song to help learn and remember some important “pillars” of faith. Today is the five gold rings – which symbolise the first five books of the Bible, also called the Books of Moses, the Pentateuch or the Torah (Jewish scriptures).
On the fourth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.
There is a general consensus (at least on Wikipedia) that the Calling Birds aren’t actually “birds that call”, but that this line is actually a corruption of “Four Colly Birds”. A colly bird is, apparently, olde English for a Blackbird.
The four birds respresent the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
On the second day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.
Turtle Doves instantly make me think of Home Alone 2 – where turtle doves are offered as a symbol of friendship and companionship. However within the Catholic folklore we’re following, where each day symbolises an important building block of faith, the turtle doves are for the Old and New Testaments.
Caught up in the Christian understanding of mission and particularly evangelism, is this concept of salvation and what it means. In recent times, the Church’s understanding of salvation has been fairly straightforward and in some ways quite a shallow image. Will a deeper image of salvation help to propel us towards a deeper understanding of the mission of God?
How does the image of mission as liberation help us in understanding how God is at work in the world around us, and how we can get stuck in alongside him?
What books are others working their way through at the moment?
I’ve been thinking recently, inspired by some stuff from a recent lecture at CYM, about the whole biblical meta-narrative – and in particular this idea of the story beginning with the garden and ending in the city. Beginning with Eden and ending with the new Jerusalem. I think I’ve read a few authors who have pointed this out and tried to draw observations from it – in particular recently Rob Bell’s new book and NT Wright’s Surprised by Hope.
It’s really interesting to see how we can play around with the interaction between this little bit of theology and all kinds of ideas about the way society and culture develops.
Thought I’d take a moment out on Christmas Eve for a few reflections. Happy Christmas – hope you have a good one!
There’s that classic verse from John 1 in the message version of the bible that a lot of people in the missional/emerging movements use. “The word became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood.”
It’s a fantastic way of declaring Jesus’ presence amongst us – the God who lives (or dwells) amongst us. The God who incarnates.
This God breathes his own live-giving breath into man. And walks with him in the garden.
This God knows – maybe even feels - the sufferings of his people in Egypt. And sends a man amongst them to be like him to Pharoah.
I’m currently working my way through Mark Sayers‘ book The Trouble about Paris (well worth reading), which has been causing me to think a lot about this concept of hyperreality and the effect it has on our lives and our spirituality.
Hyper-reality is this idea that our culture is constantly causing us to buy into a “larger than” life – the dream life which we see epitomised by our images of celebrity and success, and ultimately happiness. This hyperreality claims to provide us with happiness and fulfilment, but leaves us living in a kind-of denial of the actual reality we live in.
The main, most obvious way we can see the effects of this “larger than” life is in consumerism and the effect it has had on our culture and our spirituality. The hyperreal myth that “just one more” will bring happiness leads us to become both material and spiritual consumers. Hence the Church finds itself having to attract and cater for a generation of Christian consumers – who are after maximum result (perceived value) for minimum investment (cost), and are always looking for the best deal.
Welcome to the blog of James Henley. I'm a young church leader / youth worker and student based in Newport, South Wales.
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