Just after sunrise on the shortest day I went out for a walk, wondering what to ‘think’ and to share on 6th January. This day is known as Epiphany and on this coming Sunday we reflect on The Baptism of The Lord. And then it was there – a setting moon in a clear blue sky and with the scene the thought – a light that I could walk towards because it was right over the place I was heading for.
I never did get to where it was; any light in the sky always seems to move away but the point was made. The gospel tells us that for the Wise Men / Kings / Magi from the East the star they saw in the sky was ‘the light that guided them to where the young child was’.
The people asked John if he was The Messiah. He was not, he said, and later after he had baptised Jesus alongside others too, Jesus was praying and two things happened to make clear the presence of God. The Spirit descended on Jesus in bodily form like a dove and then a voice said ‘You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.’
The events of the visit of the Magi to the stable and the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by John are separated by three days in our church calendar this year but in reality ‘on the ground’ they were separated by many years. Both are about bringing Jesus into the light where he was seen and known.
I have read again recently of the minority group status of Christians in Britain. For two years we have made an art form out of telling people what they cannot do because of COVID. We tell good stories of new ways of sharing but in reality, at the same time as the proportion of us who are avowedly Christian diminishes so the number of us with tragic mental health problems rises. As physical safety is maintained, for some in need of company and sharing, mental health suffers. There may be no correlation, and yes, there are Christians with serious mental health issues too but my point is that in the midst of all the ‘keep safe messaging’ there is the risk that we extinguish light from the lives of people who need it.
Keeping safe should be the mantra of all of us always, in more circumstances than a global pandemic. How about turning down the volume on the rhetoric in 2022 and turning up the light so more of us see more clearly the good news of the gospel embodied in Jesus Christ – Immanuel, God with us? It’s a question and a suggestion too…
A Prayer
God beside me, as I step into a new year, be with me to help me stay spiritually safe; to worry less preserving body and more about the immortality of my soul. Give me your peace in my life that I may be a calming influence on others, energy for the listless and love for the loveless while always having my eye on the light that is there to guide me onwards, day by day and to keep me safe night by night. Amen.