Rectory notes – Thou who wast rich TV screenwriter to programmes boss: “I’ve a smashing series idea, boss”
“You’ve two minutes. Shoot.”
“Think “Back to the Floor”, “House Swap”, “Holiday Swap” – rich person gives up their privileges for poverty (relatively speaking). Take it to the max. Who’s richer, more privileged than God? He gives it all up to try life at the bottom of the pile. No angels hand and foot. No smiting powers. Nothing.
“He comes to Earth (this isn’t Doctor Who). Chooses Britain – OK, not bottom-bottom, for the me audience. Rural Britain – you need rural screentime, you said. Go for Devon – hook the second-home dreamers. Less Countryfile, more This Country – the rough edges between the hedges.
“Whack God with reality. No luxury pad. His family on the edge. Struggling financially, unmarried parents when he’s born. He grafts to make ends meet to support the family when his father dies.
“How will He deal with the poverty? With the people? If God loves the world, let’s test him out!
“We’ll catch the atheists, always drawn to a God-bashing. We’ll get the religious – they always want to protect God. And everyone in between – the ‘spiritual but not religious’. People want God to be less rules-and-regs, more real and honest. And human. Look at Kaos’s success.
“Think multiple series – the near infinite life scenarios. And as it peaks, he gets himself killed – he’ll have rattled a lot of cages. But then: does God die?
A whole second run!
“Opening episode? His birth. Poverty? In a barn. Romantic impact? Baaing sheep. Origin story? Angels mimicking Songs of Praise.”
“You start with Call the Midwife?” the boss exclaims. “It’s a No. God becoming human? Too crazy.Come back when you’ve something credible.”
We too struggle with the extraordinary story of Christmas and beyond. Yet as St John writes, ‘The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood’ (The Message). As the carol goes, ‘Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour, all for love’s sake becamest poor’. May this God dwell in
all our neighbourhoods this Christmas.
