January 2010

The shops may think that Christmas is over for another year, but we know better! Our Christmas celebrations continue and then merge into Epiphany, the celebration of the coming of the wise men. That journey was all about living out the consequences of the birth of Jesus.

Like the wise men, we have been drawn to the babe in the manger. It may have been an invitation from a friend, rather than a star (!), or a note through the door, or a poster at the church or just knowing when the usual services take place, but we were there, celebrating and worshipping, experiencing the welcoming, all-embracing arms of Christ.

If it is right to worship the infant Christ one day in the year, it is right to worship him every day. He cannot be our God "occasionally", not just at Christmas. He either is God, and our God, or he is not.

Worshipping Jesus as Son of God at a Carol Service, or on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, is to be drawn to Jesus, just as the wise men were. Having come, everything is different. The wise men returned to their own country, but they were changed. They had to work out how to "live Christmas", how to live out the implications of what had happened to them. This is not some intellectual quiz or challenge. It is about a relationship changing us.

To be met by the living God in the infant Christ, is to know God among us, with us, differently. We cannot "unknow" him. We can only go deeper, called further on along our journey. We don't need camels but we do need fellow companions, which is what the church is.

Jesus came so that we might become the people we can be at our best. His coming let us see how we humans should be. Having shown us, he has not gone away and left us helpless. He has given us his strength and power, his Spirit, to help us achieve that "best".

As the New Year begins, we have work ahead of us: to become who we are, made in God's image and likeness. It is the work that the wise men undertook. It is the out-working of Christmas. It is our work.

Let us continue the celebrations and the work: God among us, God dwelling in us, God changing us.

And so to the happy New Year that I pray for you.