(Jan. 1) Sunday Snippet

Genesis, the book of beginnings, opens with the image of newness everywhere. In fact, if asked how to describe God, one could reasonably say that the God of the Bible is the God of new beginnings.  God is the one who is perpetually “doing a new thing” (Isaiah 43:19).  God is the one who has the ability to make “all things new” (Rev. 21:5).  God is the one who extends to US an invitation to become a new creation, to sing a new song, to enter into newness of life with Christ. 

As a sign that we humans need new beginnings, God decides to do something extremely different, unexpected, unconventional – God sends to earth a sign that things are going to be different...good news about the Birth of a Savior is told first, to shepherds!  Not to queens or kings, not to the high and mighty, not to the rich and powerful, but to poor lowly shepherds keeping watch over their flocks.  

And where are the shepherds suppose to go find this King of Kings?  Not to Jerusalem.  Not to some elaborate gold temple or pearl laced palace, but to some place that was really no place at all, a cave-like structure/a barn-like stable near Bethlehem wrapped in rags lying in a feeding trough.  The old way is ending, a new beginning has begun. The Word has become flesh.  Heaven above now dwells with the earthlings down below.

And so as we step boldly once again across the threshold into another new year…perhaps our greatest HOPE should be that GOD is NOT finished with US; that God is still at work in creation; that God is alive and well and still at work in our lives and in the life and work of The Church; that God is still speaking to us, whether ever so faint (or loud and clear)…God is the God of new beginnings, of second chances, of transition, of renovation…

Our work as Christian's, our work as the Church, in part, I believe, in the years to come, is to help people discover that God is still speaking to them as well; that God is not finished with any of us; that God will continue to “unconventionally” surprise us all.