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Day 21 - The Annunciation

from Ben Them: a Tale of the Christ by Ben Swithen

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on Jesus' conception:

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Despite my fear of needles, four times a year I get to give myself a subcutaneous injection. Out of the four, two fall on feast days: one today, and one at Christmas. If you’re doing the math, you’ll see March 25th is 3 months after Christmas, and thus 9 months before it. That’s right, the 25th of March is the day we celebrate the conception of Jesus!

They call it the feast of the Annunciation, which is a fancier term for announcement. It’s the only feast day in Lent, but nobody seems to pay it any attention whatever. People pour honour and blessing and commercialisation on Christmas Day, but Christmas had no miracles. It was just a baby being born. Like most babies, Baby Jesus didn’t even do any tricks! It is the part of Jesus’ life where he does nothing and says nothing. Christmas? Overrated, imho. But the annunciation? That’s the greatest miracle. That’s the moment God was present on earth, ready to start gestating. To my mind, this day is the one worth celebrating.

It’s also the point that Mary gets asked to be the vehicle of the Christ’s conception, and she’s really up for it, very keen, full of prayer and blessing. Good on her! I remember my mum wondering aloud whether Mary was the first to be asked, or whether a string of other candidates had been approached by the Holy Spirit and said ‘no thank you’. Being mother to a Messiah is a heavy obligation, and it wasn’t an altogether happy life.

So what can you do to celebrate annunciationtide? Well, this would actually be a good day for a nativity play, since this is where the opening scenes appear. There are also a number of Christmas carols which are really Annunciation carols. The first to leap to mind is ‘The Angel Gabriel’, aka ‘Most Highly Flavoured Gravy’. If you’re really dedicated, this would be the appropriate day to put up your Christmas decorations, and begin 9-months of Jesus-centric hooting and hollering.

Incidentally, the 21st day of Lent is not always the feast of the annunciation. That’s true if you’re listening in 2022, 2033, 2044, 2101, etc. but if you happen to be listening in a different year I’m afraid you’ll need to listen to this episode out of order. Now, where were we? Ah yes: Christmas is Coming, the goose is getting fat. Please spend a penny in the old man’s hat. If you can’t afford a penny, why not do a poo, or to be more sanitary spend a penny in the loo.

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from Ben Them: a Tale of the Christ, released March 2, 2022

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Ben Swithen Sheffield, UK

Ben Swithen is a person.

Here you can find their music - solo work, and a Doctor-Who- and-Cheese double-concept concept-album by The Potential Bees (who are a two- or three- person band), which forces both concepts into every song).

You can also find Ben Swithen on Youtube, but why would you even? ... more

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