What’s new?

​“What’s new?” The new is inviting, isn’t it, or is it scary or even unwanted? Three little scenarios…

The new is inviting… one of the folk who did our Advent course in Boroughbridge told us in one of the sessions about her puppy. She and her husband went out for the afternoon leaving said puppy loose with every door in the house open. They came back to find two huge bars of Dairy Milk under the Christmas tree eaten with bits of Christmas paper everywhere and upstairs a hidden large box of celebrations chocolates got into and chocolates and wrappers eaten. They had to rush puppy to the vets to get him to get his feast out of him. He saw new things to explore and it was fun at the time. 

The new can be scary. You get an upgrade for your phone. It takes ages to work out how it works. Or is that just me? You start a new job and it might feel overwhelming as there’s so much to take in. When life’s circumstances hit us that change things, that can be frightening as we adapt to a new way of being.

There is a story told about a dialogue between a Bishop and a Churchwarden.  

Bishop:  How long have you held office? Warden: About forty years Bishop. Bishop: You must have seen a lot of changes in that time… 

Warden:  Aye, and I’ve opposed every one of them! 

And yet… our faith says on this second Sunday of the New Year, on this first Sunday of Epiphany, don’t be negative or scared or block the new. God’s mercies are new every morning, great is his faithfulness even the world is spinning fast and spiralling out of control. What does the new brought on by a bomb or a threat mean for people? What about Venezuela, what about Gaza which has gone quiet, what about Ukraine, what’s going on in Iran? And bombs dropping on Syria now? 

What are the people of Greenland thinking? Someone yesterday sent me a Matt cartoon. Two elderly people are sitting staring at an unopened box of chocolate biscuits. And one says to the other “my diets going badly, if I spot a biscuit it’s like Trump seeing Greenland.”

This season of Epiphany is literally a season to help us despite the world to be clear about the nature of God. We need time to think about what it means that Jesus has come. We had our Epiphany party at Grewelthorpe on Tuesday. One of the readings shared was called the party’s over and the author pleaded for time to think…

Here is the good news today. There is a new song. There is a new heaven and a new earth. Today. It’s new. It’s come. It’s for us. Right now. 

“ O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth

Sing to the Lord, we say to all who will listen, bless his holy name; tell of his salvation from day to day”.

Rarely has that new song been more needed in our nation and in our world.   Year by year, the earth’s climate is changing.  We are living in the midst of the greatest human migration in history. In every country including our own there are questions of identity.  

Who are we as a nation?  Inequality grows year by year. We seem to be divided as a people. The world faces immense challenges.

What kind of a song are we called to sing as a Church in such a time?

When the world is being shaken, we must sing a new song of hope
When the world is hurting, we must sing the new song of healing and salvation.
When the world grieves, we sing new songs of resurrection.
When the world grows more unfair, we must sing God’s new song of justice.

To those who are enslaved and prisoners, we teach new songs of freedom
To those who are afraid, we share our songs of courage
To those who are dragged down by sin, we sing of God’s forgiveness
To those who are confused we sing God’s clear new song of truth

In this divided world, our songs reach out to strangers, to welcome and build bridges.
In this restless world, our songs tell of God’s peace and our final rest in heaven
In this polluted world, we sing a new song of care for God’s creation
In this world of vanity and pride, we sing songs of humility and meekness
In a world which lives for itself, we sing of love of God and neighbour.

The song we sing is the song of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is a song of great power and love.  Perhaps we do not sing it very well or as clearly as we could.

Perhaps we have forgotten its immense potential to transform human life.  Perhaps we have lost confidence in the immense importance of the message entrusted to the Church.  We need to find our voice again. We can’t do Christmas frivility all year – it will make us ill like that puppy with over excess.

But we need the song of the angels to be sung into 2026 don’t we? We need to be Jesus in our community. There is a cartoon circulating at the moment. 

Jesus is with a crowd and he says blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the poor in heart, blessed are the meek, and some wag in the crowd says “mate, what sort of Christian are you?”  In every place, God calls us to sing a new song in the midst of this weary world.

Every year Radio 1 has a winner of the Sound of the year. This year it’s 22 year old Skye Norman. She said yesterday she has been singing since she could talk. She gave her first performance at the age of six, singing Cyndi Lauper's notoriously tricky True Colours at a school show.

"I don't know how, but my little voice managed to do it at the time," she laughed.

Before the song had even finished, she knew she'd devote her life to singing.

"It was just magical. It was my first time having an audience, and I felt so comfortable."

What new song are we singing?

Then someone new – something new – has come. Let me take you to our Gospel reading. 

This is our good news, friends. The Spirit descends upon us, the heavens open, and God speaks – not with judgment, punishment, or condemnation, but with joy, grace, hope, love. 
We are God’s beloved children – forgiven, claimed, named, baptized.

If you were to read Matthew chapter 3 in the original Greek, there’s something very interesting about the grammar its writer used. Throughout this gospel, the writer often uses the present tense to describe something that happened in the past. This is one such passage. So, the text doesn’t actually say, “Then Jesus came from Galilee.” It says, “Then Jesus comes from Galilee.” 

It doesn’t say, “Then John consented”; it says, “Then John consents.” Scholars have discussed why these passages might have been written this way. Many people think that it is so we, the readers, feel that the action is happening right in front of us, and that we are a part of it. Today! 

Even when we read the English translation of this passage, we get a sense of urgency and action. 

It seems that the author of this text wanted us to be able to imagine ourselves as part of Jesus’s story. We can imagine ourselves standing outside of time, participating in the action. 

At this point in the year, both in our culture and liturgy, we have left Christmas behind. The decorations in stores came down weeks ago, my friend posted with a picture of Easter eggs in Aldi “hurry, 12 weeks to Easter, get your eggs early” and, at church, we are in the season after Epiphany. Jesus isn’t a baby anymore. But, the power of Jesus’s human birth, the world-shattering effect of his Incarnation, remains still with us. Jesus took on our humanity in his birth and continued to share in what it meant to be human throughout his life - and the thing I find attractive about him is he transforms peoples lives on the spot by being alongside them. Incarnation doesn’t get put away with the tree. 

We sang it at Grewelthorpe on Tuesday the last carol of the season – while shepherds watched - its last line - the work of God has begun but never ceases, so I dare to suggest to us that the work of the church begins again this Sunday. We sing a new song. We share Jesus the new expression of God’s love. We do it in our worship together, we will do it this afternoon in the cathedral as we join the farming community to bless the year, we do it in pastoral care round hospital beds, we do it preparing and sharing baptisms and funerals, we do it at bereavement café which meets this Wednesday, we do it at coffee mornings, we do it planning the future with policy and hopeful vision together. 

O sing to the Lord a new song. This is my son with whom I am well pleased. We are that crowd excited and inquisitive about this Jesus amongst us. This is your God. 

This what the Church stands for: to live out the life given to all who seek to follow Christ the Lord - of whom Dr Matthews, the former Dean of St Paul's Cathedral wrote: "People knew where he had been because of the trail of gladness that he left behind him." I like to think that at best we, the Church, are part of that trail of gladness. That is what Epiphany is all about, and that is what we celebrate today. And through this year. Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day”.

The whole of creation as I said earlier is summoned to worship and to joy.  The kingdom of God is breaking in: the kingdom of justice and mercy and peace. Not one day. But today. 

Each day there are new blessings to appreciate, new wonders to discover, new adventures to be had. There is nearly always a new song to sing. So… 

What’s new? Everything!

Epiphany - Journey’s end??

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So we’ve reached the feast of Epiphany. The magi from the east have found the Christ child. They’ve presented their gifts. They’ve worshipped. And they travel home by a different road. They ignore the wails of a threatened tyrant and return from the child different people having been surprised where they found him and what he looked like. 

Epiphany is a making clear what God intends for us all along: to seek him, to find him and to enjoy him. We don’t do a lot of enjoying in the church! We worry a lot how to keep it going. BUT! To have a future we need to do far more celebrating of what God is up to. For that to happen we need to make our own journey spiritually. And every day get our focus right. 

Tonight the church in my patch that has perhaps had the largest numbers out from the village, our LEP in Grewelthorpe had an Epiphany party. 85 of us enjoyed a concert of village talents, copious amounts of wine (not for me driving home on an icy night) and a huge supper. We ended the concert with while shepherds watched which ends that the work of God has begun - and will never cease. Thanks be to God! 

Thank you for reading these daily reflections since Advent Sunday. I’m glad to know people have been reading them! I’ll be back in Lent with a mixture of written and by request some recorded talks will be back! Two of my school friends wrote lovely things about my wittering for last Sunday recorded on Christmas Eve. 

Let me finish these seasonal ramblings with the wise Jan Richardson. She hits the nail on the head what the journey we’ve been on and need to make again and again means…

HOW THE STARS GET IN YOUR BONES

Sapphire, diamond, emerald, quartz: think of every hard thing that carries its own brilliance, shining with the luster that comes only from uncountable ages in the earth, in the dark, buried beneath unimaginable weight, bearing what seemed impossible, bearing it still.

And you, shouldering the grief you had thought so solid, so impermeable, the terrible anguish you carried as a burden now become— who can say what day it happened?— a beginning.

See how the sorrow in you slowly makes its own light, how it conjures its own fire.

See how radiant even your despair has become in the grace of that sun.

Did you think this would happen by holding the weight of the world, by giving in to the press of sadness and time?

I tell you, this blazing in you— it does not come by choosing the most difficult way, the most daunting; it does not come by the sheer force of your will.

It comes from the helpless place in you that, despite all, cannot help but hope, the part of you that does not know how not to keep turning toward this world, to keep turning your face toward this sky, to keep turning your heart toward this unendurable earth, knowing your heart will break but turning it still.

I tell you, this is how the stars get in your bones.

This is how the brightness makes a home in you, as you open to the hope that burnishes every fractured thing it finds and sets it shimmering, a generous light that will not cease, no matter how deep the darkness grows, no matter how long the night becomes. 

Still, still, still the secret of secrets keeps turning in you, becoming beautiful, becoming blessed, kindling the luminous way by which you will emerge, carrying your shattered heart like a constellation within you, singing to the day that will not fail to come.

—Jan Richardson

from How the Stars Get in Your Bones: A Book of Blessings

The fifth day of January - hard journeys

This scene rather amused me when I saw it in church the other day. The three kings done in! How might the story have ended? They could have been slaughtered by Herod for stirring the pot. Today, Herod might have sent the military to Bethlehem to capture his rival or deal with these strange visitors threatening him. 

Or maybe we can read the scene differently. Maybe the magi need a sleep after all that travelling and excitement. They had an angel warn them in a dream not to return to Herod, so they must have had a sleep. 

Whatever, how the story ends is up to us. What we do with it is up to us. The church is here to remind people of the story. After Christmas it’s okay to be exhausted! Don’t rush into January too quickly. Rest in where the journey has taken us before rushing on. Even Mary and Joseph must have needed to switch off after everything they went through. I noticed in a nativity scene also in church the other day both of them had toppled over! 

I don’t blame them. 

The fourth day of January - Travelling

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As January opens and we face reality after holiday, we need a bit of communal escapism. The Traitors for example  is TV we talk about. The next day. And we look forward to see how the next episode goes. We join in working out what’s going on. It lifts our spirits. We see these communal discussion moments rarely. When J R Ewing was shot on Dallas, when Den divorced Angie on what is still the most watched Eastenders episode ever, when we found out how huge dramas like Happy Valley and Line of Duty ended. Often the ending to the drama was nothing like we thought it would be. Or we are disappointed with the ending having painstakingly journeyed with the story. We watched a film like that the other day. I’ll not tell you what it was in case you loved it!  

At the beginning of a New Year we commemorate the feast of the Epiphany: the revelation and manifestation of God’s Son to the whole world through the visitation of the wise magi from the East to see the young Jesus, the promised King. 

I was in a restaurant on Friday night. I overheard incredulity from one person to another:

“Have you still got your tree up?” “Yes!” And the person thought that clearly silly. We’ve put Christmas away. We’ve seen Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus in the manger and some shepherds visiting. That’s the end of the story isn’t it? Well actually it isn’t.  

The events of Epiphany took place a long time after Jesus was born. There’s no mention of the manger or the overcrowded Bethlehem that Luke wrote about in Matthew’s Gospel.

The magi are pretty interesting. Traditionally they are the ‘three kings.’ But there’s nothing to say there were only three of them. Also, it might be more accurate to describe them as magicians. The Greek word for ‘magi’ originally referred to Zoroastrian priests who studied astronomy and astrology. Though the term was used more widely than this. 

‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’

It was common practice in those days to link astronomical happenings with the birth of great men. The Wise Men were hoping to find the King who would bring an end to war and suffering and injustice. They were hoping to find the King who would bring everlasting love and joy and peace to this world.

There was an air of expectation so palpable that anyone with eyes could see something momentous was about to happen. Let’s step aside from the Bible for a moment and see what else was being written around the time of Jesus’ birth.

In the year 37 BCE, the poet Virgil wrote his Fourth Eclogue, a beautifully written poem about the immanent expectation of a man sent down from heaven whose birth would inaugurate a new age. Two Roman historians, Tacitus and Suetonius, wrote of the expectation of a world leader to arise out of Judea.

It was also a common expectation of the day that a sign from the heavens would accompany such a momentous event. There were plenty of impressive portents from which to choose. Jesus was likely born in what we would now call 4 BCE. Seven years before Jesus’ birth, Halley’s Comet made its circuit through our skies. Three years before Jesus’ birth, Jupiter and Saturn were in alignment three times. The planet Jupiter signified a king while Saturn was routinely associated with the Jews. This would have fueled Herod’s insecurity and local political and religious speculation. Finally, a year before Jesus’ birth, Chinese astronomers recorded sighting a supernova, a bright light suddenly appearing in the night sky.

What all of this tells us is that, independent of the Bible, we can read of a relatively common expectation at the turn of the era that momentous change was coming. Furthermore, that change was expected to be noted with signs in the heavens.

Historians suggest that it took over two years for the Wise Men to find Jesus. They may not have fully understood what it pointed to, but God was guiding them in a special way and they were curious to find out where it was leadingThey’d planned for this journey for ages. They had to trust that the message they had read in the stars really was from God and was leading them to something special. They were among the first to recognise the significance of this little child. And they arrived at the Holy Family’s humble dwelling to kneel before the Christ child and offer him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, gifts reserved for a king. Their journey was one of faith from beginning to end and it was filled with purpose and significance. 

Of course, the magi encountered many obstacles along the way on their journey: they got lost a few times, took some wrong turns, had to be warned by angels in their dreams, and encountered a dangerous trickster and enemy named King Herod. Scholars estimate it took the magi two years to actually arrive at the feet of Jesus before taking a very different way back home, in order to protect the young king from murder. Their many delays are why we liturgically celebrate the wisemen’s arrival on January 6th—the Feast of the Epiphany — not on Christmas Day.  

Here is the truth of this event to lead us into 2026…

In the story of the magi, at the beginning of another year,we recognise that we, too, are on a journey; we, too, will encounter and face trials and tribulations, make wrong turns, require the help of God and angelic beings, face danger, and will gain enemies along the way. But we are urged on in our journey not to give up, not to get bogged down and can only plodge, there’s a good Northumbrian word which literally means wading through mud. Those moments on a journey challenging as they may be, we must try to “keep on keeping on,” knowing that life is a seeking of something better ahead of us all the time.

The ultimate story of our journeys will have a good ending  even more exciting than the Traitors if we press on, just like the journey of the magi. It will end at the feet of Christ the King, where we, too, ragged and weary as we may be, will finally get to bow down and worship our Lord, finding our healing and redemption by God’s grace.  

God called out to the Magi from the heavens or they would have never found Jesus. God, not the Magi, initiated the Magi’s quest. God guided them to their destination though the Magi never knew where exactly where their journey would take them. Yet, the Magi played their part as they did not simply stay home admiring the star in the sky. They hit the road, enduring all the troubles of travel including having to go against the local king, Herod, when they neared their destination. Yet all of their actions came second. God initiated the journey.

We may think that we are spiritual seekers, we are the ones on a quest for God’s presence. But that’s not the way scripture presents the story. Scripture tells us that God is the seeker. God is revealing God’s own self to us in the creation, in scripture, in our very life experience. We are asked only to open our eyes, to see, and then respond as the Magi did in coming to adore the one who made us and then entered human history to redeem us. 

During an interview before his death on 29 November 2001, after fighting a long battle with cancer, former Beatle George Harrison was interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine about the important issues in his life.

He said: Everything else in life can wait but the search for God cannot wait. And that’s so true.

The search for God is, I believe, the most important issue each one of us will face in our lives. Don’t you agree? 

Let me end like this. The poet Godfrey Rust sets the Magi in London. This is rather special…

Coming as they did from the first century
they had a few problems with London traffic
and were seriously misled by signs
to the Angel and King's Cross.

Inquiring diligently about the star
they were referred to Patrick Moore 
who said while he hadn’t actually seen God he would keep an eyebrow raised.

In Harrods the camels
made a mess over Soft Furnishings.

On the Underground
commuters glared at No Smoking signs
as incense wafted gently through the carriages,

and when the great day came
they saw the entire voting population
slumped on sofas by four o'clock,
rendered senseless by too much
dead poultry and the Queen,

while over Liberty's and Hamley's
the flickering angels sang
Glory to God in the High St

and they found him,
with the inns full up once more,
in the old familiar place,
bringing their unregarded gifts
to the empty stable 
of the human heart 
where the infant Christ is born
again and again.

 

Creator of the heavens,

who led the Magi by a star

to worship the Christ-child:

guide and sustain us,

that we may find our journey’s end

in Jesus Christ our Lord.

The second day of January - Traitors

Rev Richard Coles had this lovely quote about world events on the Today programme this morning: 

​“I was worried that the twist in The Traitors format might get bumped off the Today programme by the terrible fire in Switzerland, or the health of the President of the United States, or collapse of the world order, but no here it is. Hoping they’ll get a comment from the Prime Minister and the Archbishop-elect.”

As January opens and we face reality, we need a bit of communal escapism. The Traitors is TV we talk about. The next day. And we look forward to see how the next episode goes. We join in working out what’s going on. It lifts our spirits.

It seems to me everyone needs something to look forward to. The M and S in Durham this afternoon was full of Easter eggs. 

People are already planning summer holidays, I’ve messages about Lent and Easter to deal with and the city council here are wanting views about the Christmas lights for this year - now! Keir Starmer, our Prime Minister says it’s going to be better. But do we believe him?

What, as Christians, have we to look forward to, talk about, engage about, enthuse about? Surely it is hope. We know a God who has the next episode planned, who has more of the story ahead, who invites us to watch and see how things might be ahead. I like what the theologian Jurgen Moltmann had to say about hope:

 

Do we after two days of a New Year refuse to accept the world as it is and insist on the world as it will be? What have we to share? Well I think the late Billy Graham had it right. He once said it’s all going to be okay. “I know the end of the story” he said, “we win!” 

So let’s see what opens up to us this year and talk about it. Let’s spend time watching and debating. We do it with the Traitors. How about we do it with God? Who is that secret traitor? My money is on the ex detective Amanda!