A fresh start

 ‘…From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace..’ (John 1:16)

John 1:1-18 (Year C: Christmas 2)

                                                       pic:  Front Royal United Methodist Church

Fresh Start is the name of a recent political agreement in Northern Ireland. Whatever that agreement will represent in the future annals of history there is nothing stopping you and me making a ‘fresh start’ this first Sunday of 2016.  For now, the gyms may be busy, the joggers out in extra force, the new year’s resolution list pinned to the fridge (however I suspect not in most cases!) and lots of people determined to make 2016 a different year. The demarcation of years, months and weeks is an arbitrary human construct as we inherit ancient customs of marking out time in harmony with the seasons or the moon, etc.  Here in the northern hemisphere, new year’s day has an added significance in that spring is only weeks away and there is going to a very gradual and slight lengthening of the days from here on.  It is close to the ‘end of the holiday period’ for those ‘lucky’ enough to have structured jobs, activities and studies as the case may be.  Soon, Christmas trees will be deposited in assigned collection places (can anybody think of the environment please!) and the Christmas decoration (or will we have to say ‘holiday’ period in order to be politically correct as in North America which means it is only a matter of time that such terminology will be applied here in Europe).

Some Christian traditions (e.g. Methodists) mark this Sunday as ‘Covenant Sunday’ – a time for renewal and re-dedication.  The first day of January is also marked as World Peace Day. In the Roman Catholic tradition the 1^st January is the feast of Mary the Mother of God while among Anglicans – never given to excess – the day is marked as the feast of the circumcision of the Lord.  Eastern Orthodox Christians also celebrate the feast of the circumcision.

(That Jesus, the Son of God, was circumcised is a useful reminder that (i) he was flesh and blood and (ii) he remained a Jew throughout his life. For the male portion of humanity thinking too deeply about the former truth may be very unpleasant!).

A fresh start?

The opening verses of the gospel of John – when read carefully – can represent a fresh start in our lives, circles and communities.  It has more than a hint of the seven days of creation in the story of Genesis 1. It also resonate, somehow, with the familiar hymn ‘Morning has broken’.  A light has shone in our darkness. That light was the light of the world and it is the light of our dark worlds  today, Sunday 3^rd January 2016.  No matter how far we have travelled or progressed or regressed or have got side-tracked – we can ‘start again’ to live life in a new way. The startling, exhilarating and shocking aspect of living as human beings is that we have the intelligence, will and understanding to ‘start again’ where we are, how we are and as what we are.  In a spiritual sense we, too, can be born again (John 1:13) whether at the age of 18 or 70. It is never too late or too early.

Perhaps it might be an exercise to write on one side of a sheet of paper our worst fears, disappointments and regrets. Put them into a tin box (or perhaps just throw them into the fire) and revisit them on 31^st December 2016.  Perhaps, then, the sky will not have fallen in after all and the very things we most feared didn’t happen but the things we never really thought of (good or bad) happen. Life is like that.

What can make the difference to our lives in 2016? John 1 gives us a clue. The Light has come into the world. We are not that light. We merely reflect that light. However, we can share in that Life that became flesh as we are and shared our toils, pains and hopes.  We need to get out and about more and see the world full of grace, full of potential and full of the glory of God hidden behind human suffering and environmental chaos.  And when we return in the evening or when we rise early in the morning the Word will be there to greet us and reassure us that we were never alone – neither in the ‘market place’ or in our own abodes.  The point is that we have already received from the fullness of God-who-is-love.  There is a saying that nature abhors a vacuum. But, there is no vacuum in our hearts if we dig deep enough. The Risen Christ already lives there.  ‘Grace upon grace’ awaits us. God desires to fill our hearts and our minds – if we let him. The opening of John hits a high theological note. Jesus was not just an extraordinary human being; he was the Logos or the Word which was with God and was God. This reading of the Good News is grounded in the flesh and blood Jesus we recognise in the nativity story but is also leading us to a faith in a God who has become flesh and blood and overturns our world and lives.

So, as we turn over a new chapter in our lives we can take responsibility for our own fresh start. May we

Thank the past

Experience today 

Embrace the future             (Bronnie Ware)