Hands up those of you who made New Year’s resolutions this year; hands up those of you who have already broken them? So much for good intentions; I suspect actually that most people who make resolutions break them, if not sooner, then later.
There are of course the usual ones, to lose weight, to do more exercise or to give up smoking; in fact the take up of gym membership in January usually soars but not so many people carry on later into the year.
Unfortunately promises made are often broken, if not the promises we make to ourselves or for ourselves, then the promises we make to other people. It is so easy to utter those two little words ‘I promise’ but sometimes we are totally unable to keep the promise and it may be through no fault of our own. We can’t always promise someone who is suffering that it is going to be alright, or that it won’t hurt, when it many or that their interpretation of ‘alright’ isn’t the same as ours.
We have just celebrated the birth of Christ. The babe born in a manger in Bethlehem was God’s promise to mankind to deliver and save mankind. It was a promise re-iterated throughout the Old Testament especially in Isaiah. We can read from chapter Isaiah 60:1-3.
‘Arise shine for our light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you’ and verse 6 reads:
‘A multitude of camels shall cover you and young camels from Midian and Ephrah all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.’
And we know subsequently that it was wise men from the east riding camels and bringing gifts of gold and frankincense that come to worship the baby Jesus. It was a promise written not only in scripture and prophesy but in the skies, as a star, for the wise men to read and to follow. This is what we celebrate, when we celebrate epiphany, the arrival of the wise men with their gifts, the culmination of a centuries old promise coming true, dressed in flesh and delivered as promised to a virgin from the house of David.
As the story unfolds further, as we go through the years and we head towards Easter, we will see God’s promise delivered again with the death of his Son at Calvary. God promised to overcome death and sin, indeed to take all our sin once and for all and to deliver in its place the gift of eternal life.
Jesus too makes his promise; he promises not to leave us comfortless or alone, he promises to send his Holy Spirit in his stead. And when we get to Pentecost he sends his spirit as promised and that same spirit is with us today and every day.
Unlike us, frail mortals, God keeps his promises. It is good news that we are able to hang onto when times turn bad or get difficult, whatever and wherever our life is at, God is with us. Emmanuel – means ‘God with us.’
The child born in a manger is the best news that we can have, offering hope for all of us. As we celebrate Epiphany we celebrate the wise men who followed the star to the manger bed to witness for themselves God’s promise fleshed out.
And that brings us back to the reading from the gospel of John 1:1-3, ‘In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. It was in the beginning with God’. The word, God’s word, his promise there at the beginning of time, there through all time and the word became flesh and lived among us and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son full of grace and truth – and laid in a manger for all mankind, for all time – the eternal promise.
Jan Walker (lay reader)