A black and white Christmas

The French artist Jean-Francois Millet is best known for his evocative paintings of peasant life in France; ‘The Gleaners’ is perhaps his most famous work.  The Barbizon school which he co-founded sought greater realism in art; taking scenes from nature as their subjects, and introducing loose brushwork and bright colours, they were the forerunners of Impressionism.

Millet’s ‘The Flight into Egypt’ is in quite a different vein; the scene in this pencil drawing is brooding and opaque.  The couple trudging silently through the darkness would be entirely anonymous but for Millet’s title and the strange glow emanating from the bundle which the man is carrying.  This is Joseph, Mary and the infant Jesus – fleeing by night the murderous threat they faced in Bethlehem.  Alone and fearful, without any human support or help, they hope to find refuge in a strange land.

Although Millet drew this 150 years ago, it symbolises the black-and-white Christmas that countless people are facing this year.  Two million Syrian refugees are struggling to survive as winter storms are buffeting their camps.  In the Central African Republic, 700,000 people have fled their villages in the last few weeks due to sectarian violence, and thousands of Filipinos are still wrestling with the devastating consequences of typhoon Haiyan.

Here in Britain half a million people will spend Christmas alone, and for most it’s not by choice.  They may be warm and dry physically, but they’re lonely and lacking support: their poverty is relational.  Thousands of parents whose marriage has failed will be prevented from seeing their children next week due to court orders; they too face a black-and-white Christmas.

The couple in Millet’s picture would have been anonymous to any who saw them, yet their lives were immensely significant.  Like the shadowed faces of Mary and Joseph, the faces of the people who are physically and relationally poor this Christmas are invisible to us; they are ‘just statistics’.

But the birth of Christ shows that each and every one of them is immensely significant.  Will you let the light of Christmas change the way you see them?


Friday Five is an initiative of the Jubilee Centre in collaboration with Relational Research (formerly Relationships Global)

Goodbye Madiba!

(updated post from June 14th 2013)

Quote

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” Abraham Lincoln

News

The tributes that have been flowing in since Nelson Mandela died last night emphasise the extraordinary relational footprint he has left in the nation and the world.  Tony Blair said what stood out to him was the way Mandela ascribed to everyone the same dignity – he would converse with the doorman and the lady serving the tea, not just with the politicians.  He valued shared humanity above political and social status. 

The history of South Africa over the last 20 years could have been very different had Mandela not been such a remarkable leader relationally.  Despite the inhuman conditions of Robben Island prison, Mandela came to treat his captors with courtesy and respect, to the point where some felt they were more like Mandela’s guests than his warders.  He later invited his jailer to his presidential inauguration in 1994.

Following his release he engaged with the white government leaders with dignity and courage, which slowly won their trust and allowed a passage towards peaceful elections.  Mandela could so easily have been driven by bitterness, resentment and anger which might have led the country towards showdown and civil war.

Other stories tell how Mandela gained the loyalty of the white elite by keeping the same security staff in the presidential palace after coming to power.  The film ‘Invictus’ shows how he earned the trust of the wider white population by embracing the Springboks – who epitomised Apartheid – and enthusiastically supporting their successful bid to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Mandela’s domestic life was more troubled, and his first two marriages ended in divorce. Nevertheless, his commitment to forgiveness, his accomplishment in uniting South Africans across racial and tribal divides, and leading them without retribution or recrimination from Apartheid to democracy, will ensure his long walk to freedom will inspire others for generations to come. 

Read on…

The trial of Nelson Mandela in 1964 led to his 27 years of imprisonment; read his remarkable speech at that trial, carefully documenting the grievances of the black South African population and the ANC’s strategy here.  

Walk the talk

Treating people who are prejudiced towards you with dignity and respect can be transformative of the relationship; is there someone you need to respond to in this positive spirit?

The last word

From the Bible, Matthew 5, verse 39: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”