Unwanted Baby

On 24th November this year, at about 7.30am, a group of cyclists were riding down a bike track beside the M7 highway west of Sydney, Australia when they heard a noise, like the faint meowing of a kitten. They stopped riding and looked around but saw nothing. Eventually, they traced the sound to a storm drain by the side of the road. They pulled off the concrete cover and found a one week-old baby, wrapped in a hospital blanket, lying at the bottom of the drain.

The little boy had been squeezed through the drain's narrow opening, dropped and left for dead. He was found malnourished and dehydrated. Sydney had been sweltering in temperatures above 30C and it is thought the baby, who had been abandoned five days earlier, would not have survived two hours longer if those cyclists had not heard his cries. It was a miracle he survived the fall and was discovered when he was.

You probably heard this story in the news. His mother is facing charges of attempted murder but the little boy is now in good care and is doing well. I paid particular attention to it because I happen to share a birthday with that little lad; 18th November. I wondered what it would have been like, for me, to grow up knowing I had been rejected or mistreated by my own mother.

It’s more common than we realise. According to the NSPCC, about one in ten children in the UK have experienced neglect at some point in their lives. About 200,000 babies are aborted in our country each year.

New laws in the United States have made it possible for unwanted new-borns to be abandoned at specific locations, known as safe havens, with no questions asked, and with no threat of prosecution. These laws have had to be passed because the phenomenon of unwanted babies is on the increase.

And as I reflected on the sadness of all this, it occurred to me that Jesus too entered our world as an unwanted baby.

It would be unfair, strictly speaking, to say that Mary, his mother, didn’t want him. In fact, the Bible says that she accepted that her child was from God and she trusted the Lord for whatever would follow. But I don’t think she would ever have planned her life this way. To be pregnant before her wedding in her society was scandalous and deeply shameful and it still is throughout the Middle East. She could have been stoned for it. As she wondered as a little girl what motherhood would one day be like, Mary would never have wished for her first pregnancy to be overshadowed by public disapproval and disgrace.

Joseph certainly didn’t want him, at least at first. It took him time to come to terms with the idea that his fiancée was expecting a baby that wasn’t his - but without her having been unfaithful to him. We know he wanted to call the wedding off and was ready to walk away. That was only ever about this unexplained pregnancy. As far as Joseph was concerned, Jesus was an unwanted baby.

Then Mary and Joseph’s wider family didn’t want him either. If their home town was Bethlehem, there would certainly have been relatives of some sort living in that area. But when they arrived in Bethlehem, no one opened their home to them, they were persona non grata - so they had to look for somewhere to stay in a local hostel. But they felt Mary had brought dishonour on their good name. They disapproved of Joseph marrying what they saw as a loose woman. As far as Joseph and Mary’s wider family was concerned, Jesus was an unwanted baby.

Then the Innkeeper didn’t want him either. A young couple turns up looking for a room but his hostel is already overcrowded and he’s short staffed. He’s got drinks and evening meals to serve in his congested tavern, a full complement of breakfasts to prepare and serve at first light, rooms to turn round before midday, paperwork to do… the last thing he needs is another hard luck story on his doorstep. Mary and Joseph were just another problem. It wasn’t his fault the girl was pregnant. As far as the innkeeper was concerned, Jesus was an unwanted baby.

Then Herod didn’t want him either. Anyone who had a claim to his throne, even a new-born infant, was not to be tolerated. Herod thought nothing of killing two of his own sons the moment he suspected they were a threat to his reign. Anyone showing the slightest ambition of claiming his title “King of the Jews” was ruthlessly eliminated. As far as Herod was concerned, Jesus was an unwanted baby.

All through his life Jesus was unwanted. The Scribes and the Pharisees hated him. His own brothers thought he was out of his mind. Those from his home town tried to stone him. Judas betrayed him. The Temple Guards arrested him. The Chief Priests and Elders indicted him – though they couldn’t get their testimonies to agree. Pontius Pilate condemned him – though he couldn’t find a thing wrong with him. His closest friend Peter disowned him - though he had sworn loyalty to him just hours earlier.

Isaiah the prophet foretold about Jesus 750 years before he was born saying, “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.” All four Gospels agree that he was precisely that.

As you know, this year marks the 100th anniversary of World War One and the unofficial Christmas truce that broke in several places on the Western Front.

No one quite knows for sure where it began or which side was the first to start singing Silent Night. But soon, German and British soldiers were singing in unison. Slowly, a few squaddies emerged from the trenches, hands in the air. No one fired. So more came out.

The dead, left out in the middle of the line of fire, were recovered and given a proper burial. Eventually they all met in the middle, exchanged gifts of cigarettes and chocolate and played football together. There were prisoner swaps as well.

The following year, only a few units arranged ceasefires. There had been strongly worded orders from high command on both sides not to fraternise with the enemy.

Jesus was once again an unwanted baby, this time by the military generals who sent millions to their deaths in a war hardly anyone knew the reason for.

By the year after that, 1916, no one wanted a truce any more. There had been heavy losses in Verdun and the Somme and the widespread use of poison gas had long ended any inclination to show a bit of seasonal goodwill.

Everybody wanted peace, but nobody was prepared to accept the terms of the Prince of Peace, Jesus, the one who said to his followers “Love your enemies” and “Put your sword back in its place.”

To end, I want to read you a few lines from Bonny who is a social worker and who might well have been an unwanted baby. Because she wrote,  

“As a child I suffered years of abuse. Even into my thirties I had flashbacks of the terrible things I suffered. Years of hating people who had hurt me left me with a very bitter heart. I was often ill and in complete distress with physical and mental pain.

Having become a Christian at the age of 31 the issue of forgiving those who hurt me reared its head. I did not want to do this. I recall banging my fists on the floor and telling God in no uncertain terms that I would not and could not forgive.

But as time went on I began to realise forgiveness was not about those who had hurt me. It was about the damage that not forgiving was doing to me. I learned that forgiving is a decision I could make, not a feeling I should feel. So I said these words, ‘God I do not feel like forgiving but as an act of my will I choose to forgive. I ask that you forgive the people who hurt me and forgive me for all the wrong things I have done.’

An amazing thing then happened. As I forgave, God took away the dreadful flashbacks and pain I had felt all those years. The flashbacks began to get less and less and the physical pain in my body began to heal.

I now know that God can rewrite a life no matter how sad or painful it has been.”

From his unpromising beginnings as an unwanted baby, no one has transformed more individual lives and impacted human history more than Jesus of Nazareth.

As you celebrate Christmas this year, I feel God would say to us, “What about you? Will you accept my Son? Everybody else rejected him but what about you? Will you put up with him? Will you let him change your heart? Will he be Lord of your future?

Carol Service talk at Saint Mary's Long Newton and All Saints' Preston on Tees, 21st December 2014