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Good Morning, “And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.” These words set the scene for the greatest story ever told. Even 2000 years ago Benjamin Franklin’s maxim rang true, that in this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes. But it’s more than taxes that connect the Christmas story to the modern world. It’s Syria. Cyrenius was Governor of Syria. In the time of Jesus, a distant province of Rome. Ever since the days of the Roman Empire Europe has had designs on the Middle East. Far from the innocent tableaux of children’s nativity plays the narrator sets the story of Christ’s birth in the geo-political struggles of imperial nations. However far-fetched that might sound to us it is truth to the ears of those in Syria where Christians today are caught up in the cross-fire of warring factions, aided and abetted by outside powers. Last week the Prince of Wales held a reception to high light the plight of persecuted Christians in the Middle East. A significant event because he’s done so much to encourage understanding of Islam and to build bridges between the faiths. A Syrian Christian who’d been at the reception told me stories of friends brutally murdered. I asked him what the solution was to the Civil War that’s now making Syria such a humanitarian crisis. He said it was time for the leaders of the world’s religions to gather together the faith leaders of Syria and call the people to peace. He must then have read the doubt in my eyes. “They will listen,” he insisted. “We are a religious people. It’s the air we breathe.” So much blood has been spilt in that Mediterranean basin in the name of religion it’s difficult to see that faith is the answer. But military and political strategies have failed catastrophically. Maybe it is time for a coordinated spiritual initiative by religious leaders. That might be hard to believe. As hard as it was for those startled shepherds on hills, not a million miles from Syria, who were told by angels to go to the back streets of Bethlehem and find a Saviour. God knows the Middle East needs a saviour today. As does the whole world. Maybe one of the lessons of the nativity is that we should be prepared to find salvation in the least likely of places.