PSA 1 January 2012

Ken Howcroft. “He came to his own…..”. A sermon on New Year’s Day. The ending of one year and start of another is a time for reflection. Half way through the Christmas season it is time to ponder what the Christmas story means, just like Mary stored up her memories and pondered them in her heart. The opening to John’s Gospel is like a deep and profound meditation on the meaning of it all. As we grapple with it, we have to hold on to the picture of that tiny baby. When a newborn baby is put into your arms you have all the wonders of life, and suddenly everything seems to make sense – the life brings light and that in turn gives us life. If you want to see what God who spoke in the beginning and created the universe is like, look at his Word made flesh in the form of Jesus. Jesus does not come to where God is not, because God has created everything. Rather when God comes to us in the form of Jesus, he comes to where God already is, even though we often do not recognise God in the world. Jesus is the human face of God. We are blessed because God has created us and the world in which we exist. When God comes to us in Jesus we recognise and receive more of the fullness of God. We receive blessing on top of blessing, grace upon grace. And if we accept Jesus into our hearts and let him grow up within us, we will find that we are becoming children of God in the world because we are one with the Son of God. The readings were Ephesians 1:3-14 and John 1:1-18.