Well, here we are once again at the start of another new year. Traditionally, this is a time for making new year’s resolutions, so it’s a time for looking forward. But the turn of the year is also a time when we tend to look back too. A time when we look back over the old year, to think about what’s happened during the year that we’ve just left behind, to take stock of the year, perhaps to think about what we could have done differently or better, so that we can make that new year’s resolution and resolve to do or be better in the coming year.
But, as we look back over 2020, regardless of how the year has been for us personally, I think all of us will see it as a year unlike any we’ve ever known before. The coronavirus pandemic meant our lives were very different during 2020 than they have been in any other year we’ve known. Our freedom was restricted because of lockdowns and tiers, and all these things caused tears of a different kind too as people were separated from their families and friends and the pain and suffering that caused, not to mention the pain and suffering caused by the illness and death that the virus brought into the lives of so many people. So I don’t think 2020 will be a year that many, if any, of us will be sorry to see the back of. But even as we head into the new year of 2021, we know that we can’t really put the past year behind us properly, just yet, because coronavirus is still with us, our lives are still restricted, and so many people are still suffering and dying because of the virus.
If we were to look at the past year as a journey, certainly since the first lockdown in March, we’d probably see it as a journey with lots of twists and turns. It’s been a journey that we seemed on a few occasions to be coming towards the end of, only to find that we weren’t and that we still had a long way to go to the end of the journey. That’s been true generally, and it’s certainly been true of our journey through the year as members of the Church. When we were told we had to suspend services in March, I’m sure we were all hoping it wouldn’t be too long before we could be back in church to worship the Lord, together, again. But, when we were allowed back, it was to services that were very different to the services we had before the lockdown. Then, a few months later, we were right back to the start of the journey because we had to suspend services again.
We’ve had to cancel baptisms and weddings. We couldn’t have funerals in church. And even though we can do all those things again now, we’re very much restricted in how many people can be in church for them, and in how we actually do the services. And it’s the same story for our worship. We only need to look around to see how different things are. It’s almost 9 months since we’ve been able to sing during our worship. And all this seems set to carry on well into this new year. When all this started, I don’t think anyone thought we’d have to celebrate Christmas in Covid-19 secure churches and in services without singing, but now, I think we’re all just hoping that we can at least celebrate Easter in church this year, however we have to do that, because we couldn’t do that at all last year. So it’s been a long journey with lots of twists and turns, and it’s a journey that isn’t over yet, we still have some way to go before we reach our destination which is a return to something like normal life both in church and in our daily lives.
And in this, I think we’re very much like the Magi, the Wise Men, who followed a star to bring gifts to the Christ-child. We don’t really know too much about the Magi, but we can tease a few things out of the little that we read in the Gospel. The name Magi suggests that they were from Persia, modern day Iran. They followed a star that they’d seen rising so we think they were astronomers or astrologers, and unlike today, there was probably no difference in those two terms at the time of the Magi. That suggests they were from Babylon which is in modern day Iraq. The gifts they brought, especially frankincense and myrrh, suggest they came from Arabia. So they were probably Parthians because the Parthian Empire covered all of those areas, and many others, at the time. So they made quite a long journey to find the new-born king of the Jews. We also know that they didn’t know exactly where the new king would be born. So their journey was broken as they made enquiries and tried to find out where to go, and what their final destination was. We know from the Gospel that, from the time they first saw the star rise, it took the Magi two years to reach Herod in Jerusalem before they finally found their way to Bethlehem where they could present their gifts to the Christ-child. So just like us, as we journey through the coronavirus pandemic, the Magi made a long journey, full of twists and turns, a journey they must have thought they were coming to the end of, but weren’t, before they finally got to where they wanted to be.
When we think of the Magi, we perhaps think most easily about the gifts they brought to Christ. We see these gifts as gifts fit for a king, and we see their spiritual significance. Gold as the gift for a king, frankincense as an offering to God, and myrrh as an ointment for embalming the dead, symbolising Christ’s destiny to die on the Cross. And we often think about the way we can offer similar gifts to Christ in our own lives. The gold of our time and talents, not to mention our financial support of his Church. The frankincense of our worship and our prayers. And the myrrh that symbolises our faith in him as our Saviour, the one who died and rose again from the dead for us, and the healing his life and resurrection brings to us and to the world, and that we’re called to bring to the world in his name. But today, as we journey on through the coronavirus pandemic, whilst not forgetting those gifts, I think we should really think about something else that the Magi offered to Christ.
In one of the seasonal blessings we end our services with during the Christmas season, we pray for a number of things associated with the story of Christ’s birth. We pray for the joy of the angels, the faith of the shepherds, the obedience of Mary and Joseph and the peace of the Christ-child. But when it come to the Magi, we pray for their perseverance, and their perseverance is something that I think we really do need at this time.
I don’t think these past months have been the best time of anyone’s lives, but some people have found them very difficult indeed, and difficult from a point of view of their faith. Speaking to people, I know that some don’t want to come back to church until things have returned to normal, but we don’t know when that will be. Some have decided, for various reasons, that they won’t return to church even when things return to normal. Some people have struggled, and are struggling, to keep their faith. Some have struggled, and are struggling, to pray. Now, I’m not denying that things have not been easy on this journey, and they’re still far from easy as we continue on the journey, but it’s now that we need to show the perseverance of the Magi so that we can keep going and make it to the end of the journey.
We might not be able to do what we usually do in church or for the Church at this time, but we need to persevere in doing all the things we have done, and would do again, in better times. We need to persevere in giving our time and talents the Lord, and our financial support to his Church, in whatever way we can, and to whatever extent we can through these hard times. We might not be able to worship the Lord in the way we want to at this time, but we need to persevere in worshipping him, however we can, at this time. We might find hard to pray as we, and the world goes through this difficult time, but we need to persevere in prayer, nevertheless. And it doesn’t matter if we can’t find the words to pray at this time: don’t the Scriptures tell us that at times like this, the Spirit who knows the thoughts of our hearts, will intercede for us with sighs too deep for words? We might find it hard to see the end of this journey, but it will end. And amidst the pain and suffering that the world has gone through in the past year, and is still going through now, we might find it hard to understand where God is in all this. But we have to persevere in faith that he is with us, that Christ, who endured the pain and suffering that human life can bring, and died for us, will never abandon us; that he is true to his promise to be with us always, not only along this hard road and to the end of this hard road, but to the end of the world itself.
One of the signs that we’re on a difficult journey at the moment, is that we’re keeping this feast of the Epiphany of the Lord on 3rd of January rather than on the twelfth night of Christmas, the 6th of January, which is when we usually celebrate it. What that has done is moved the celebration a little closer to the turn of the year, to that time of looking backwards and looking forwards. So, as we look back on a difficult journey through 2020, and forward to an uncertain journey into 2021, perhaps today is a good day to make a new year’s resolution. And perhaps a good resolution to make would be a resolution to persevere in faith regardless of what lies behind us on the road or may lie ahead of us on the road.
A resolution to travel on, with God, towards the end of this hard journey and onward into the better times ahead that will come.
Amen.
You will find The Propers for the Epiphany of the Lord here.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 