“MAY YOU DO AND SAY THINGS THIS YEAR THAT ARE TOTALLY UNEXPECTED” – JRR TOLKIEN, THE HOBBIT
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Dear Folks,
Even as the carols are on our lips and the music echoes in our hearts, we wade through the debris of the season toward New Year’s. Let me be clear, the beginning of the Christmas Season was the first Sunday in Advent. That was the New Year, not January 1st. Don’t worry, we’ve got a second chance but make no mistake, the January 1st New Year is pagan, not Christian, which despite all our good intentions and retro-fits, makes January 1st a poor replacement. Since we don’t usually teach this amongst our congregations, and today I am priming us for a January 1st new beginning, let’s drop that subject for now. There are many who go into the New Year with the uncertainty of life hanging over them. There are others who have a genuine trust in the Lord’s companioning. There are some for which both are true. I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year,
Others remember the faithfulness of God. Psalm 40:2New International Version (NIV)
2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
Psalm 116New International Version (NIV)
1 I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
Psalm 103:1-2 (Psalm read by my family at Christmas for 7 generations)New International Version (NIV)
1 Praise the Lord, my soul;
Romans 8:38-39New International Version (NIV) 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Still others know and have experienced an excitement and anticipation about what God will do; in us and through us. Many of us are not consistently any of the above. Many of us are rather like Tolkien’s description of Bilbo Baggins (a Hobbit of recent film fame); respectable, well-off, never had any adventures or did anything unexpected…in a word boring, predictable, a mediocrity that must seem like acrid smoke in the nostrils of God. I knew these words as a teenager. My father would often quote them on a Sunday morning…his paraphrase (I’m imaging this, I know) of the passage from Revelation – (sure you were neither hot nor cold). I know this passage for another reason. As a loutish teenager sleeping in on a Saturday morning, my father would come to my bedroom door and knock, and knock and knock more and more loudly saying (rather humorously I must admit even now), “Come out Bilbo Baggins, come out.” Remember the description from Tolkien. This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses have lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most o them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours’ respect, but he gained – well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end. I’m sure some of us can see ourselves in this, or someone else (easier). My longing, prayer and desire is to be the kind Christian described in every stage of this newsletter, but especially a Baggins/Christian, that in the power of the Holy Spirit risks and lives the fullness of God’s calling. So may they say of each of us that which was said of Bilbo, “This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours’ respect, but he gained – well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end”. Warmly, In Christ, Jeremy |