Do you suppose Jesus was an uncle? He probably had siblings, though the Catholics are skeptical of that. They love the idea of Mary being too pure for sex. Who can say! Jesus seems like he’d be plenty avuncular. I’m fortunate to have a nephew, and I feel Jesus could have been a boon to his niblings, which is to say the children of his siblings.

I’ll come back to him in a moment. I think a lot about family and positions in it.

When my great grandparents were my age they were in world war 1.

When my grandparents were my age they were in World War 2.

And when my parents were my age they had me and two other entire children.

When I make that comparison, I often think of myself as an unaccomplished human. I’m not a young professional, a regular professional, a banker, vicar, doctor, soldier or parent. I’m not a spouse, stout member of a growing family, a pillar of the community or anything my parents and their parents were. On a deep level this troubles me, de temps en temps, though to be honest I’m extremely glad I’m none of those things. Being in a war and being a wife or husband or parent sound monstrous, unending nightmares, unless they’re what you deeply desire.

My brother is an encouragement to me here, as he’s not a parent or a professional or a responsible adult. He’s an enthusiastic self-motivated engineer and from time to time is full of desolation and despair. That’s a pity, but it’s a colossal encouragement to me. I’m the same except that where his home is full of all kinds of saws, 3D printers and Arduinos, equipment for all physical projects, mine is full of instruments, microphones and piles of fabric for sewing adventures. If he was a married, respectable doctor I would find my own life more wretched and strike at myself far more. I am told I look on myself too aggressively, and this is something I’m trying to work on.

I’m not a parent thank goodness, but I am fortunate to be an auntie, or some kind of pibling. That’s a parent’s sibling. I would find no comfort and reality in being called an uncle - I can barely cook rice - and though I considered being an ankle - somewhere between auntie and uncle - it sounded too foot-heavy. My sisters Hannah and Fiona - one of whom is by blood and one by law - exceed me and my brother - for all their wild eccentricity - by being the family’s most socially normal of us. Able professionals, wives with wives and mothers with a child, and I’m envious of their excellence in ways. They can both roller-skate, you know, and appeared on Couples Come Dine With Me.

It is a good thing to be an auntie however distant and remote I am from Durham. I’m fortunate to have seven aunties of my own, and will speak highly of all of them. Based on my own experiences, I thought that everybody really liked all their aunties, but having surveyed my friends it seems I’m quite a rarity in having a commendable bunch. I am not a respectable professional adult, but I think I can be passably materteral, which is the junction between maternal and avuncular, and that’s better than nothing.

I can see Jesus working as an uncle. I can conceive him as a shepherd, a relative, fraternal, but not, I think materteral. He was no aunt, but I won’t hold that against him. He wasn’t a parent or a soldier, and I find that very encouraging.

I am the end of a branch of a family tree, and I’m content with that. It is not the worst relationshup I’ve had with a branch. As I said last year, the Old Testament shows marrying and child-bearing as the number one way to grow the Kingdom, but the New Testament shows remarkably little interest in either of those. Jesus was no begetter of persons. Dear listener, be an aunt or an uncle or a pibling if you would like to, and try to be one well. It’s more than enough.