Weekly letter from St Luke's - 2nd January 2021

Dear Parish friends

We are celebrating the feast of the Epiphany.

I found this poem, by Godfrey Rust, a London poet. What would have happen if the wise men overshot Bethlehem and ended up in 21st century London?

The journey of the magi (cont.)

Coming as they did from the first century

they had a few problems with London traffic

and were seriously misled by signs

to the Angel and King's Cross.

Inquiring diligently about the star

they were referred to Professor Brian Cox,

who thought it was amazing

while smiling in a constant and strangely unsettling way.

In Harrods the camels

made a mess over Soft Furnishings.

On the Underground

commuters glared at No Smoking signs

as incense wafted gently through the carriages,

and when the great day came

they saw the entire voting population

slumped on sofas by four o'clock,

rendered senseless by too much

dead poultry and the Queen,

while over Liberty's and Hamley's

the flickering angels sang

Glory to God in the High St

and they found him,

with the inns full up once more,

in the old familiar place,

bringing their unregarded gifts

to the empty stable

of the human heart

where the infant Christ is born

again and again.

Kind regards

Rev’d Timothy