Rev’d Caroline - [email protected], 01285 712467
Rev’d Vicky Falvey - [email protected]
From Rev’d Caroline
Readings for Sunday: Isaiah 49.1-7; 1 Corinthians 1.1-9; John 1.29-42
Through these last couple of years it has felt that the world is headed in a strange and troubling direction. We see nations and groups turning to force and violence in a way that we have not seen for many decades, and a pervading sense of division, cynicism and selfishness; these dark trends running like fault lines through our communities. It is hard to know where blame might be placed, if it can indeed be placed at all. New technologies and means of communicating and miscommunicating offer new ways for such darkness to be spread and amplified, but they are just tools. No, it seems more right to look deeper and further back, and to recognise that these divisions and evils are part and parcel of humanity’s darker side. This darkness is rooted much deeper than we might like to admit.
In this season of Epiphany, our major theme is ‘seeing’. Both our capacity to see the wonderful truth of who Jesus is, and what he has come to do; and also the acts of God that allow us the opportunity to see – his revealing his plan and his Son to us. In this season we celebrate the fact that God has opened himself fully to us, showing us absolutely everything we could need in the person of Jesus Christ. In Jesus we see the Father – in his actions, his words, his presence, his gracious love for those he meets.
The present darkness in the world stems from the evil desire for personal power. We see people framing themselves as the only ones to listen to, emphasising the force they wield, making themselves seem big and threatening and important. In Jesus we are reminded of how fake an image of power this is. True power belongs to our Lord, who comes not with threats and bluster, but with a truth and a presence that lights up the world, even in its quietness. Jesus comes to us not to oppress or control, but to be given “as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth”.
The truth and power of God is revealed to us – now it is our task to attend to that revelation, to see, to understand, and to follow, just like those first disciples. And in this, may the glory of our Lord blot out the darkness of this present time and set ourselves once again on his path of light. Amen.
Rev’d Caroline
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