Thoughts from the Rectory December 2024
Thoughts from the Rectory – January 2025
Now that we are safely out the other side of Christmas (although technically it is still Christmas until 12th night), I wonder how your wisdom sensors are doing?
Are they telling you that you spent too much on presents this year in what is still for many a difficult economic climate? Are you sensing that you had a little too much of a good time – eating and drinking with abandon and now regretting it as you hop on the scales for a reality check? Are you drowning in a sea of Christmas decorations that you didn’t really need and all seemed a good idea to buy at the time, but now need to be packed up and stored somewhere?
Wisdom is a wonderful thing but so often we only gain it by going through the challenging learning first – reflecting on our mistakes and experiences and working out how to do things better in the future.
If you have been engaged at all with the Christmas story during December, you can’t have escaped the part that includes the visit of the ‘Wise Men’ to baby Jesus. It usually gets lumped in with the rest of the Christmas story, but the ‘wise men’ have a festival and season all of their own – Epiphany – which begins when Christmas ends on 6th January every year.
Over the years these wise ones have been given various titles: from magi to kings, to astrologers, to simply wise men. St Matthew’s account in the Bible refers to them as magi, who were priests in Zoroastrianism and the ancient religions of the western Iranians.
Their story is a story of wisdom. It is a reminder that they travelled long distances just to see and adore the newborn king, whose coming they had seen in the stars. I like that they are referred to as wise because their gifts signify deep, spiritual references to the future life of the baby they had spent so much time and effort searching out. Gold, frankincense and myrrh related to Jesus in very specific ways: gold for a king, incense for his divinity, and myrrh for his anointing at death.
But even more than the gifts and what they represent, these wise travellers were seekers- seekers of truth. And they found it in the One who called himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life – Jesus.
The wise will always seek out the truth, especially in the midst of falsehoods and confusion. As Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ is the source of all truth, even when it is uncomfortable to hear or grasp. And 2025 will surely be a time when we must strive very hard to seek the truth, and to make wise choices.
Perhaps in this New Year you will make the wise choice to seek out Jesus for yourself.
Every blessing for January
Rev Ruth