Turning the page – Epiphany 2024

Happy New Year all!

We enter the season of Epiphany from January 6 through to Ash Wednesday on February 14. It is well to consider who Jesus was and is as Son of God, Son of Man, Emmanuel, God with us. The One we anticipated as the Light through Advent when we were invited to focus on our human need for hope, peace, joy and love.

Whenever we turn a new page, whether it be a new year or a church season, it is good to remind ourselves of some basics whatever the new learning of a season, chapter or year of our lives brings. The first Sunday of Epiphany reminds us of the baptism of Jesus. We have heard so many times of God’s voice declaring the deepest truth of the identity of Jesus, reflected in our own baptisms. ‘You are my beloved. With you I am well pleased.’ It’s always about love and how God loves us.

Love is one of the tenets of the spiritual life that is about our ‘being’ coming before our ‘doing’. Whatever we achieve, whatever we face, on the path ahead, we must not lose the clarity of our values and awareness of whose we are as we journey with others, whoever they are. We must remain grounded in our being, in the truth of our belovedness to God who knows us. Loving others is sometimes easier than loving ourselves – that’s where forgiveness and humility come in, as well as our experience and ability to return to God’s embrace of love. It is in God, and in the knowledge of God’s Son, Emmanuel, that we live and love and have our being.

Sometimes it doesn’t feel like that in the stresses of life’s ups and downs. We can lose our way in our plans, hopes and dreams for 2024, whether it be in our personal, family, church, neighborhood or national life. We may be starting off on a good path with our energy levels, health, budgets, relationships, but consciously imagining moving forward holding the hand of God will be our anchor. And perhaps the path won’t be what we anticipated. Perhaps not as bad or as good as we had wanted. May God in Christ, God with us, be our joy and our strength!

With love and prayers for the journey together,

Rev Helen