The First Christmas – and Christmas Now

To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

John 1:12

Dear Students, Parents and Carers

During this season I have attended a round of carols for various parts of our student body, parents and community. The music of our choristers, with wonderful organ accompaniment by Mr Fox, has been majestic, uplifting and sublime. Its tone and intent has been worshipful. 

Theologically, this is appropriate but, contextually, discordant. Our veneration of the Christ child, while a necessary aspect of Christian doctrine, is one suitable response which needs to be held in tension with others. The birth was not what we would expect of God. There were no trumpets, no panoply, no equivalent of a red carpet, no ancient form of motorcade, no chariots. Jesus was born in squalor to earthly parents who were nobodies and, in the opinion of the Roman empire, born nowhere, i.e. in the very East of a far flung empire, in a troublesome province called Judea. Jesus was born in a barn and laid in a manger, i.e. an animal feeding trough. It would have been putrid, with the animals around, accompanied by their dung and their bellowing. The tendency, commenced by Medieval artists to sanitise all of this or, worse, present the baby Jesus with an ethereal halo, misses the point. This was divine visitation ‘from below’ or, as Paul puts it in Philippians 2:6-8, (Jesus) “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”. The notion of God humbling himself into a servant role was radically different from any other conceptions of God. This God, and his son Jesus, was not the usual capricious, rapacious, potentially hostile God of the ancient pantheons. This was a God who is good and who asserted that he was the only God.

The ordinariness of this, as an aspect of God humbling himself to “reach down” to humanity, is seen in the audience. They were shepherds, common people, certainly not the royal courtiers one might expect to attend the birth of God. There is a sense of Jesus’ majesty seen through his visitors, those we know as the Three Wise Men. In context, they were probably astrologers (the ancient world did not distinguish between astrology and astronomy), who read the cosmic signs that alerted them to the significance of this baby.    

This God was to have a kingship, but not one like the Roman Emperor Augustus, based on military suppression of occupied provinces. The gifts brought by the Wise Men were strange to present to a baby king, as they were the necessary ingredients of funeral rites. This baby, as God himself, was to die in a mission of salvation or, as the Gospel of John puts it, “to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

What then of 2,000 years later, and why is this significant at Shore? The essential point is that, in losing (an excruciating execution by the Romans), Jesus, or the Nazarene as he was known, actually won. Our civilisation is enormously in debt to Jesus’ concept of virtue and right living. It can be said, that in a radical counter cultural development, Jesus “invented” humility. It is a key character attribute we admire and seek to emulate at Shore. From a historical perspective, science, secular humanism and individual conscience and agency are direct repercussions of Jesus’ transformation of the world. He stands in direct contrast to the ancients, like Aristotle, who believed that basically all of existence was fixed and unchanging. 

At Shore, our heritage is Anglican, which we regard as mainstream Christian. It is, therefore, important to know the antecedents. If we sanitise the baby Jesus and the squalid circumstances of his birth, we lose the point of God humbling himself to be one of us. Perhaps the way to suggest our appropriation of this is to say that around our Christmas table, we need a “seat for Jesus”, in other words, a recognition of the full circumstances of the Christmas season. 

And so then to holidays. The nature of schools is that Term 1 begins as hugely busy and then each subsequent Term is even more full on! Staff as dedicated as ours (teaching and support staff) have the sense of running an exhausting race and just falling over the line at the finish. Boys are also tired, and need a rest. The year has been fast paced. 

We have just received word from NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) and would like to congratulate Thomas Graetz who has been selected for his HSC Visual Arts Body of Work for the Art Express Exhibition at Hazelhurst Gallery. Also, congratulations to Fred Loxton whose HSC Drama Individual Project: Director’s Folio has been selected to be part of HSC Onstage in February 2024.   

In closing, volunteering plays a pivotal role in the School and helps foster a robust parent community. To help ensure a smooth and welcoming volunteer experience in 2024, it’s important to note that, as per the requirements of the NESA, all parent volunteers must complete a Working with Children Check (WWCC) through Service NSW. The process is straightforward and free for volunteers. I encourage you to get started on your WWCC at your earliest convenience, as processing times may vary.

Thank you to parents and carers for your support of the School during 2023. Best wishes for a lovely Christmas, New Year and holiday break.

Dr John Collier
Headmaster