New year:
crisis or opportunity?
Happy
New Year everyone. Is a new year for
you a crisis or an opportunity? It’s a
big blank sheet of paper and we don’t know what’s going to be written on it. There are things that were written on last
year’s piece of paper that some of us wish we had known. I expect Spohie of Wessex wishes she had
known a little about how the press works sometimes. I expect John Prescott wishes he had known that an egg was coming
his way – he could have avoided making boxing history. It would be very useful to know lottery
numbers in advance. But more
seriously, we could do with the gift of knowing about things like September 11th
in advance. If we could learn more to
anticipate the challenges that we face as humanity, the blank piece of paper
could be less of a crisis and more of an opportunity.
And
who knows what this year holds for us as a community of faith? Who knew this time last year that we would
be asking the town for £1.5 million pounds?
Crisis or opportunity?
And
so when we turn to the Scriptures at the turn of a year, what do we find
written in the lectionary to inspire us to meet what lies ahead? A meditation on circumcision – both the
circumcision of Jesus and some complicated words from Paul written to Jewish
Christians about how the outward sign of circumcision doesn’t actually matter
at all. What matters is faith, what is
going on in the heart.
So
you won’t be surprised if I’ve been feeling a little taxed over the last few
days of merriment trying to pull these things together! But what we need to know, whether a new year
is for us a doorway or an obstacle is that this new blank sheet of paper of our
lives that lays before us with all its wonderful and terrifying potential can
have only two authors: ourselves or
God. Who will write the story of our
year? Who will be the guiding force
behind our decisions, our relationships, the changes which happen?
What mattered to
Abraham, Paul says, was the way that he trusted God, and that is what faith is
about. We don’t know what this year
holds. But the faith we are asked to abandon ourselves to is like what happened
one night when a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the
roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to
his son, "Jump! I'll catch you." He knew the boy had to jump to save
his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As
can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling:
"Jump! I will catch you." But the boy protested, "Daddy, I can't
see you." The father replied, "But I can see you and that's all that
matters."
You
may be feeling like the year ahead is frightening in uncertainty for you, but
as the old saying goes, “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who
holds the future.” Martin Luther wrote that God our Father has made all things
depend on faith so that whoever has faith will have everything, and whoever
does not have faith will have nothing.
If we have one resolution that will see us through it’s to have trust in
God. To have faith.
It
would be easier, in a way, to write our own stories this year. To fill up the blank page with our own
achievements, our own resources, our own needs. We might find it easier to trust in appearances, to live on the
outside, to do the right religious things, to ensure no one can fault us. Circumcision can be like that. But putting on a good front before others,
or indulging in fake piety or religiosity isn’t real, it isn’t living, and it
won’t help us to grow as Christians who are trying to become more fully human
and more what God has made us to be.
Trust
in God and each other enables us to jump.
It will create in us the ability to dream dreams of the future which are
better than now. Where old patterns of
behaviour aren’t simply maintained, but where new things in us can grow and
blossom to the glory of God. Defeat
doesn’t have to be inevitable. People
can be lifted out of poverty. Wars can
cease. The hungry can be fed. We can be reconciled with family or
neighbour. We can grow in
intimacy. People can hear of Jesus
Christ. There can be surprises, new
delights. Shepherds, doing the same old
thing night after night can hear good news of great joy and be changed forever.
It’s
a big blank piece of paper, and God wants to write new things on it. Our part is not to hold on to God – but to
allow him to hold on to us. He will not
let us go. It might seem an uncertain
path we tread, but he can see us and that’s all that matters.