When hope supersedes hype

As you read this edition of Church Chat you will probably be preparing to, or will have already celebrated, the opening of the New Year.

We celebrate this event in different ways.  Some enjoy a good party and the singing of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ amid the pop of champagne corks.  Others struggle to stay awake to hear the chimes of Big Ben before falling asleep.

When we lived in Liverpool, the New Year was marked by the sound of all the ships in the docks sounding their sirens.  I also have to admit that I can remember a number of New Year’s Eves spent with friends when we have all nearly missed the moment, having dozed off after a very nice dinner!

Although it is no longer possible to frolic in the icy waters of Trafalgar Square at the turn of the year, we will all do something.

At the absolute minimum, we will have the pleasure of opening a new dairy or changing the calendar on the wall to mark the passing of one year to the next.

Somehow, the turn of the year holds a certain fascination for us. It is a unique moment in history, as one year becomes another, as 2004 becomes 2005.  But, after all the hype and the celebration, we are vaguely surprised to awake on New Year’s Day to find the world pretty much as it was on 31st December.  The numbers on the calendar may have changed but the rest of the world has not.  

There is still work to do; issues to be faced.

I suspect that our fascination with the New Year is that, in it, we see hope.

We hope that things will be better in the New Year.  We hope that, in this New Year, we will achieve what we want to achieve; we will avoid what we want to avoid.

But merely turning the page of the calendar is not sufficient.  Our hopes are fulfilled only through trusting in God's grace and mercy and laying our lives open to him in love obedience to his will.  Remember the words given by the Lord, through the prophet Zechariah, as the Israelites looked to new future living in newly restored Jerusalem: 'You will succeed, not by military might or by your own strength but by my spirit'. (Zech 4:6)

As we embark on this New Year, with our hopes and dreams for ourselves, our families and our church, this is a good verse with which to start a New Year.

It is by the power of God that we shall succeed in 2005 - not by our own strength, nor by changing the calendar but through God's Spirit working in us and through us.

May we be open to his guiding and empowering in every aspect of our lives in 2005 - and every day in every year.

by Graham Clarke.