2016 – Another New Year! ‘Happy New Year’ is a common exhortation on New Year’s day and subsequent days after, as friends and family make contact via various modes of communication ,not having a clue whether their cheerful greeting is appropriate or not! So at the beginning of 2016 I pray that it will be one where you are very aware of God’s presence in your daily life, whatever the situation you have found yourselves in at the breaking in of this new year, and on into the coming months.
Many of you will know that the ending of last year and beginning of this year has been horrendous for me as I so nearly lost my dearly beloved Chanty, and had to make the decision last week whether to go through with major spinal surgery or have her put down. I give thanks to God for my wonderful vets (introduced to me when I first arrived by dear Barbara Willson) who had the courage to persuade me to go for the surgery, and at least give her a chance. Today I collected her from hospital near Cheshire Oaks, and as I write, she is fast asleep, and it is the first time I have seen her out of pain since the evening of 27th December. I know so many of you were praying for her, and I thank you all from the deepest depths of my heart, and if Chanty could speak so would she! Not a great beginning of a new year, but definitely aware of God’s presence throughout.
As I have said in our preaching card, ‘In April 2016 I will have been Vicar at St. Mark’s for five years, and therefore it seems right to spend the first three months of 2016 seeking God’s will and way for the future vision of St. Mark’s in the local community, city and wider world. We will do this by modelling Jesus’ way of seeking His Father’s will – that of prayer. In January at all services we will give time and space for intentional prayer as we discern ‘Where are we going’? Do read more about the preaching series from the Preaching leaflet, and pray for what God might be asking of us.
As I visited my Spiritual Director today she encouraged me to hold on to what was so good during Advent and Christmas, and I do thank God for the wonderful services and opportunities of sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ through the Christmas story. Also I want to thank each and every one of you who had the courage to invite someone/or more to one of the Christmas services, and I pray you will know God’s blessing. Keep praying for those you invited as well, that the seeds sown will be watered by the Holy Spirit. I was also very much blessed by a book that I read during Advent and Christmas called ‘Journey to the Manger’ by a NT theologian called Paula Gooder. In fact to be honest I only read the last chapter yesterday on the train back from London after dental surgery, which was a reflection on Simeon and Anna (appropriate as we thought about Anna and prayer last Sunday).
However, as we go into this New Year, hopeful and expectant, I want to share a reflection that Paula wrote on Joseph and Mary’s flight into Egypt following the slaughter of the children in Bethlehem. This day is remembered on the 28th December as the ‘Holy Innocents’, which is also my birthday, and somehow being born in Baghdad has a very poignant meaning to me personally. Also following Jan’s powerful preach on Sunday evening on forgiveness reminding us that forgiveness is a response to what Jesus has done for us, and that it brings freedom from imprisonment, I feel even more strongly that this Word is for us as we move forward into a new promised land. A land of freedom, and not of fear and fetters! I do apologise for the length of this January blog but please stay with me………
Paula says, ‘One of the things about freedom is that, as human beings, we are really very bad at it. No sooner are we free than we find excuses to be slaves again. The Israelites did this in the wilderness – longing to be back in Egypt where they had been slaves, but at least had food. The Galatians too, though freed by Christ, want to submit themselves to a new slavery (Gal 5.1).
And it is with this in mind Matthew’s message becomes even more powerful when Jesus went back to Egypt as a baby, to the place where God’s people were first freed from slavery, so that the whole process could begin again. Like Moses, Jesus came to set us free. Unlike Moses, he came to set us free from everything that enslaves us – not just the Egyptians. Jesus has come to bring us freedom. Jesus going back as a refugee to Egypt reminds us that, through him we can be free from all that imprisons us, and sometimes it is a slavery or imprisonment that we have ourselves imposed – perhaps through unforgiveness, deep hurt, or pain that keeps us enslaved as a victim. As Paula reminds us, ‘Jesus ‘came to lead us in a never to be repeated Exodus from all slavery of all kinds. The question we face, she suggests, is whether we can follow Jesus to freedom and keep on following him, so that we do not re-enslave ourselves by what we think or do’.
My prayer for us all in our local community, and for all who worship at St. Mark’s, is that in this year of 2016 we may find freedom, freedom in Christ, to be the person/people, community, city and nation, that God has called us to be! Made in His image, and called to ‘go and make disciples of all nations’.
‘Loving God and making His love known’
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