I’m sure many of you will have received the annual letter from friends. I’m sure that many will share a similar flavour this year, with the tone being set by a roundup of the woes of the year.
Through advent and on towards epiphany, as our hopes have been building, there is a much more important message than this, and perhaps we should remind ourselves of the story of Job – no matter how much he was afflicted, he never sought to blame his ill fortune on anyone else. We could instead, remind ourselves of the life of Hosea, who never gave up the hope founded in his love for his wife, despite her repeated infidelities, and failure to return that love. Job and Hosea share one important characteristic: in their hopefulness and optimism, they never cross that line into denial of the harsh reality they face – instead they wear their hopefulness with integrity, despite their woes. Both the bible and our church history are full of stories of those whose resilience has kept them firm against all the pain and misfortune of life, as they have drawn deeply on the endless power of faith and hope. The most memorable of these also confront and don’t hide from the reality, as they express their faith and live out their lives as models of encouragement and hope.
In our opening greeting shared with all our friends, we have sought to buck the trend so that the core of our message is one of encouragement and hopefulness framed in the tough realities of a year of so many sorrows and regrets.
It’s good to exit the year in hope, with several vaccines showing just how the world’s best science and altruistic aims can rally together; the world’s most corrupt and dangerous man finally, after 74 years, being told he cannot always have his own way, and some ray of light that there may be some traction against some of the most deeply ingrained systemic issues of bias and deprivation. It is too easy to be sucked into the despondency that most of our media outlets have encouraged us to wallow in.
As we’ve reflected on the unfolding events of the year, we’ve been saddened as much by the lack of resilience in society as we have by the tragedy that has struck so many. It appears that in a society where self-interest has so often dominated important decisions, suddenly the majority have ceded all sense of control over their own decisions and look to someone else to take away responsibility for their own decisions – looking to be told what to do so that they can blame someone else when it all goes wrong. Let’s hope that 2021 becomes a year to rediscover the importance of resilience and responsibility. May you too draw strength and resilience from your faith as we celebrate the incarnation and epiphany messages