In the Face of Christmas
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let us ask God for a good Christmas:
that no powerful nation
should tax the poor
or uproot them;
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that no unmarried mother
should be put away in disgrace;
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that no door will be shut
on those that need to find it open;
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that shepherds and sheep and all of nature
need not be afraid;
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that walls, barbed wire and angry soldiers
may not be found in Bethlehem;
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that wise men and wise women
might appear in Wales, in Scotland, in Ireland, in England,
in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Syria and in your street;
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that children may be preserved
from those who would abuse them;
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that this Christmas,
you may become a manger
and your home a stable
and the rumour become a reality
that Christ has come among us.
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