Happy New Year!

I hope it is going to be a good year – who knows?

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language

And next year’s words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning.”

Those are some words from T. S. Eliot – a poem called ‘Little Gidding’, and seem to me to be very appropriate for a New Year. We are so often glad to see the end of a year if it has brought its fair share of sadness and challenges and problems. We wait for this new start which the end of an old year seems to suggest, and the hope that a New Year will bring better things.

Many will be very pleased to see the end of 2024 and the poem suggests all the ways in which a new year could bring about change for the better. I hope 2025 is a better year for everyone; I hope that it brings health and happiness for you all. But realistically…most years bring mixed blessings.

We began our preparations for the Birth of Jesus way back in Advent , looking forward with anticipation to an event – an event which changed the course of history, lighting a candle for each Sunday in Advent and moving through significant themes of hope, peace, joy and love.

As we begin the New Year we are very quickly into that Festival called ‘Epiphany’ – that celebration of the journey of the Magi, the Three Kings- Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, or wise men from the East.

The Christmas story is not complete without this journey of the three sages who followed the star to find a newborn King. In their search, they took great risk by travelling at night, but they wouldn’t be put off until they had found what they were looking for. They didn’t know where their journey would take them but they did know who they were looking for. And when they found their King, they went into the stable, and offered their gifts to the child before them.

Since Christmas, and now in this season of Epiphany, we will hear stories in which God in Jesus is revealed………………….and the focus will be on Jesus, in his own baptism by John in the River Jordan and how he was commissioned for his vocation and ministry. And then we move on– for here he is beginning his public ministry.

Jesus begins his ministry not in his home village but in the centre of the local fishing industry where the trade draws crowds. He picks up where John left off, preaching the same message. He looks for support and for supporters and calls local fishermen to join him in the task of calling men and women – calling all people and all who would listen – to God.

What was it about Jesus whom those down-to-earth fishermen saw? They would know nothing about his history that we know…………………. of Mary’s call…………….of Jesus’ birth, the star, the inn…………… of the visit of the shepherds and kings …………………….and of the cross.

Now it’s our turn. We become God’s people not by great gifts of oratory and eloquence, but by choosing the right moment to speak sincerely about our own experience of faith………. about talking of those ‘epiphany’ moments, however ordinary.

At the end of the month we hold a joint Benefice Service with Alrewas Methodist Church for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

We have gone through times of unity and great disunity…and great hope that there might be greater unity…but in recent times it seems that the church will never achieve harmony let alone unity!

We will also see, this month, another (or returning!) America President installed. I remember just 4 years ago, the inauguration of President -Joe Biden. His words seemed very significant. He talked about a great political gift – that of “empathy”. We are still in the Christmas /Epiphany season when we celebrate a great gift – that of Jesus Christ coming to us as a tiny child – ‘God-with-us’ - God becoming human and empathising with us in every possible way. We call it the mystery of the incarnation……..but it is very simple really. The God who came to us at Christmas is in every way able to empathise with humanity – he was one with us. The shepherds, Mary, the Magi realised the gift of grace ……………and those first disciples saw fit to spread the news.

We have to seek God’s presence like those Magi and to follow a star; we may not know where it will take us, and there is no promise of an easy ride!

But to enter the stable where Jesus is found is to take part in an epiphany for ourselves – to find that God is often revealed in unexpected places and through unexpected people.

So………….

’Travel safely, and may you find your stable with a manger and a child.

Listen carefully, and hear the child cry to you and take him to your heart.

Watch closely, and see the guiding light

that shows you the road to travel.

And as you listen for the cry and watch for the light on your journey,

feel the presence of hope and peace and love.’

Rev'd Elizabeth Wall