January
A new year perhaps causes everyone to think about the future
and wonder about what it will bring. We would all like it to be a time of hope
when we can look forward to good things to come.
For many people at the moment, though, it is hard to hope as we look ahead.
We are living in difficult times, and there is no immediate sign of the economic
problems of our world letting up. There are a large number of people whose
jobs are under threat, or who have indeed lost their jobs, and there may be
little sign of anything to take their place. In a similar vein, young people
are finding it extremely difficult to get into any form of employment. Businesses
and charities are having to tighten their belts. For those who rely on savings,
returns have been extremely low. Some people are ending up in debt, perhaps
with threats to their homes.
Other people have more individual problems, which again may make it hard to
look positively towards the future. There may be long-term illness that has
to be lived with, or the loss of someone we have loved may make the future
look bleak.
The Christian Faith is supposed to give a message of hope for the future. But
what grounds can there be for any sort of hope when everything looks dark?
I am not going to suggest that there is any simple answer to this. It is trite
nonsense just to suggest that “God will sort it all out”. Many
are going to have to face the difficulties that will come, with God or without
him, and there are problems that have no solution just as there are losses
that can never be replaced.
Nevertheless, I do believe there is a basis for hope, because I believe that
ultimately God is in charge, and he is the one who loves us beyond all imagining.
That means that the future is not governed by randomness so that it may turn
out for ill just as easily as for good. It means rather that the future is
in God’s hands, and he will bring about what he has planned, which in
the end is for the good of all of us. Quite obviously, this does not guarantee
that the things we fear are not going to happen. There may be troubles ahead,
for similar things have happened to other people, and you and I are in no way
different from them. But it does gives us grounds for hope through the troubles
and beyond them.
The Christian Gospel – the “Good News” – is that, despite
all appearances, God truly is in charge. That is not an easy thing to believe
and no-one should claim that it is. I, myself, do not find it any easier to
trust than anyone else does. Yet I find that when I go back to Jesus, then
I have no option.
There may well be many difficulties to face, but let us go into 2012 with hope
for this year and the years ahead.
Your Rector,
David