Plenary, 28 Mar 2007

Meeting date: Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Official Report 377KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. The first item of business, as it is every Wednesday, is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is the Rev Neil Gardner, minister of the Canongate kirk, Edinburgh.

I do not know about members, but I find myself increasingly irritated these days by some of the silly stickers that people fix to their car windows, invariably with some sort of light-hearted reference to their children inside: "Princess on board", for instance, or "Messy person on board". In the latter case, it is usually difficult to tell whether the declaration more accurately applies to the parents or the child, but in any case it is obviously just a fashionable joke. It all seems quite at odds with the serious intention behind the rather more frequently seen car sticker that says simply, "Baby on board". Written in black letters and set in a yellow diamond, it was apparently originally intended—like similar labels on petrol tankers—to warn fire and rescue services what was inside in the event of a serious accident, and to advise them to search for a baby or child who might otherwise be overlooked in the wreckage. "Baby on board"—very sensible and very serious.

Part of the Apostles' Creed moves us very quickly from the birth of Jesus as a baby to his suffering and crucifixion, and fits neatly with this point in the Christian year when, among other things, holy week and Easter are looming ever closer over the horizon and Christmas seems far behind.

"I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried …"

In the church, especially as Lent unfolds, we cannot help but focus on that suffering, but it is also important to remember—in conjunction—the birth: to keep the baby, as it were, on board and in the world, where the vulnerable Christ child can so easily be overlooked in the wreckage. How much better equipped we would be to endure the hazards and frustrations of our suffering world if we kept the baby on board.

The last verse of a favourite hymn sums it up perfectly:

"How shall we love you, holy, hidden being,
If we love not the world which you have made?
Oh, give us purer love, for better seeing
Your Word made flesh and in a manger laid."

"Baby on board". It is not so silly after all, but very serious and very sensible.