New Mercies

Welcome to 2025! It’s a new year and offers an opportunity to “reboot.” Some people make New Year’s resolutions, some people make fun of New Year’s resolutions. Some people take advantage of the new calendar to set goals. I hope you do. We are change oriented people. Let me pause so that truth can sink in. There is a lot of talk about how “people” (and that really means us) resist or don’t like change. There is certainly some truth to that, however, it is equally true (and maybe more true) that, as Christians, we have dedicated ourselves to an ongoing process of change. In theology, we call it sanctification, which we usually interpret to mean growing in holiness.

The change of calendar is kind artificial, but there are rhythms built into creation by God Himself. These rhythms offer opportunities to pause, reflect, and realign. The most obvious is the rhythm of night and day. In the middle of the book of Lamentations – a lament over the destruction of Jerusalem – Jeremiah writes these words of hope (Lamentations 3:22-24):

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”  

Did you catch that? The mercies of God are new every morning! This is a poem, but the meaning is clear, God continues to offer mercy to us. And the rhythms of His creation provide a tangible opportunity to reconnect with Him and the mercy He offers us. So new year, new mercy. New day, new mercy. New moment, new mercy. With God being so rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4), what goals are you going to set in this new season? In particular, what goals are you going to set to be more like Christ, to engage with His mission more intentionally, and to delight in Him more fully?

 Pursue Christ – He is enough,

            Pastor Jeff

Wondering About Wonder

Every so often I have one of those moments. Like when you looks up in the winter sky and see a huge halo around the full moon, or find yourself standing in the middle of a herd of Welsh mountain ponies at the edge of the Irish Sea, or find yourself dwarfed by six great “cartoons” from the life of Jesus drawn and painted by the master Rembrandt. You have your own, but they are the moments that make me feel really small but in a good way, or remind me that there is a reality more “real” than what you ordinarily experience, or simply leave me in a state of pure delight. Wonder!

I like the definition of wonder that reads: “a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration.” We sing about the wonder of the Cross, “When I survey the wondrous Cross…” But at Christmas I am challenged to think again about wonder. The stories of Jesus’ birth are so familiar. They are comforting. We even describe them as special or precious, but is it just a kind of sentimental attachment? When something becomes so familiar to us do we lose the ability to truly wonder at it (see “feeling of surprise” in the above definition)?

When Jesus says to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2 that they have “abandoned the love they had at first” is it possible that a loss of wonder is part of Jesus’ challenge? I don’t know for sure, but I think it is worth considering the possibility. Part of worship, I believe, is wonder. Looking afresh and with unashamed amazement at God Himself and His glorious acts. I wish I could prescribe a simple three step process to recover wonder. I can’t, though there are some strategies that we can employ, starting simply with lingering when we have one of “those” moments. What I can do is encourage you to find those things that help you to enter into that wonder which is so characteristic of children. Put down all the “serious” things, all the bustling about, for a pause to listen to Handel’s Messiah, or read an excellent and joyful book, or play with a child. The Holy Spirit does wonderful things – things that are full of wonder – surprising and admirable.

For Christmas this year, one of the best gifts you can ask for (and work toward) is that the Holy Spirit with restore a sense of wonder to you, specifically related to the entrance of the Son of God into our experience one night hundreds of years ago – a night that literally changed everything.

Pursue Christ – He is enough,

            Pastor Jeff