Today’s passage from John’s Gospel picks up on two difficulties that some of us have, or, at least, if you have any ‘stubborn Englishmen’ in your crowd. My father was, for the greater part of his life, one of those folks who insisted that he was fully capable and could do it himself. There was, for the most part, little interest in asking for help. Today’s passage on the Good Shepherd emphasizes the opposite: namely that we can’t do it all ourselves, and that we need help, and in this case, the best help of all, which is Jesus. Yes, some of us have to learn it the hard way, but trusting, depending upon Jesus, letting Him help us and guide us, really is the best way.

Some people’s heads are hardly than a rock; they are that stubborn and resistant to reason or change. Possibly it is almost useless to try. But what if we were simply to love them. Those outrageous, seemingly ‘impossible’ passages in Matthew (Matthew 5:38-48) and Luke (Luke 6:27-36) suggest that we are to love the stubborn, the incorrigible, even the nasty, regardless of how they behave. It seems pretty difficult, but maybe it’s worth a try.

One of the old board games that my brother and I used to play as kids had a card entitled ‘Opportunity Knocks’, which often proved to be very helpful indeed.  I like to think that our world around us has plenty of its own ‘Opportunity Knocks’ cards, chances for us to do good to others, to put in a good word, to be cheerful and welcoming, to make amends, to be gracious and courteous in traffic, and to steer someone in the direction of God or the church.  Often it doesn’t take very much, but who knows its outcomes!  Sometimes a cheery word can make all the difference in a person’s day.

In today’s Scripture passage, God promises to do a ‘new thing’, so what is the new thing that you would like God to do?  I, for one, would like to see a cessation of the countless instances of wars and strife around the world.  But then, I have to ask myself whether I have ardently and persistently prayed for such a thing.  I have to admit that I haven’t, and therein maybe a problem.  Perhaps the same goes for the evangelization of the world, starting with my own community: have I actually prayed for this, earnestly and faithfully?  The same might be said of other ‘new things’ that we might wish for: have we really got down on our knees and asked God to bring them to pass?  I think that this might be something that we need to do.

Giving thanks to God, praising God, at all times and in all things (as the Scriptures command us to do) is something that I find infinitely difficult, especially when I look at the news of the world around us.  Yes, I do know that God knows what’s happening, and that He is in charge and will eventually work out everything to good ‘for those that love him and are called according to his purpose’ (as Romans 8:28 indicates).  Even so, with my limited perspective and knowledge, I do have trouble with this at times--meaning that my praise of God is sometimes more mechanical than a thing of the heart.  (I suspect that there are others like me, so please do pray for all of us.)  Thanks be to God.

Reading over today’s passage from Jeremiah and meditating upon it just stirs up within me a fervent hope, two hopes in fact.  One of these hopes is for a leader that will rule righteously and with justice and who will bring peace.  At times, given the present political scenes and debates, this seems almost impossible.  The other hope is for a world where these things will come to pass (that is, not just the leader, but the world as well).  I know that this will take place when Jesus returns--which could well be soon--but part of me wishes that it was even sooner.  In the meantime, however, we can pray, and obey, doing whatever Jesus asks of us.  Thanks be to God.

Today’s psalm, Psalm 69, is one of many that was authored by the David of Old Testament fame.  It describes the serious predicament that he was in at the time, and while we don’t know which, of many, predicaments it refers to, we know that his situation was dismal.  But it was not so dismal that he could not turn to God for help.  In this, then, we have a splendid example and encouragement.  We too face serious predicaments from time to time, sometimes personal and sometimes at a more distant level, maybe even national or international.  Following David’s example. we are encouraged to go to God with our concerns and give them over to Him, to take care of them as only He can.  Let us, then, be deliberate in this, in going to God for help in our time of need.

Today’s meditation reminds us that our faith in Jesus Christ must be something of a ‘renewable resource’, that is, something that we adhere to and practice every single day, indeed, every single moment.  Indeed, if the entire idea is to rely on Jesus, how can it be a hit and miss sort of thing, with our relying on Him for this or that, but not for something else?  Or relying on Him just now, but not later?  No, we are called upon to trust in Him, depend upon Him, rely upon Him, all of the time!  It’s quite a stretch, but it’s something that He will help us with.

Today’s Scripture reading and meditation point out something that all Christians need to be especially warned about, and careful about.  When we think of the ‘enemy’ as sin or ‘the flesh’, we can easily dismiss the issue and fail to see the danger, especially if we are not subject to temptations to do with our physical bodies.  But, just as easily, selfish ambition or hurts or fears or resentments or anger or envy or jealousy can rear their ugly heads, and these are just as dangerous, if not more so, for we often don’t see them lurking there.  Or we dismiss them as being normal human reactions and nothing to worry about.  and they can do tremendous damage, whether to ourselves, our families, our churches, or our communities.  So, we need to alert, and guard, about such things.  However, thanks be to God who gives us the ability to spot them and the power to overcome them.

Today’s Scripture passage ends with a lovely and heart-warming promise, namely that all who obey Jesus, all who put their trust in His grace and wonder-working power, are members of His own family--members not because of something that we do or are, but simply because of His love for us.  As the apostle Paul says, "while we were yet sinners...”, that is, while we still did not yet have anything to commend ourselves.   That, truly, is something worth celebrating.

I see some very welcome and needed instances of churches and denominations working and worshipping together, but sadly, I would suggest, some of this unity and harmony is undone when there is turmoil within the local churches and among their members.  Far too often, in my experience, there are disagreements and acrimony based either on people’s own desires and ambitions, or on unresolved issues and negative experiences from their pasts.  The problem with the first is that people don’t always put their own desires and ambitions aside and look solely to what God wants, and the problem with the second is that they don’t allow God to heal those experiences and issues and enable them to move forward with their lives.  And, I dare say, these are things that we can all work on.

Something that is quite ‘normal’, and rather problematic, is how often we forget to say ‘thanks’, thanks to our spouses and family, thanks to our friends and associates, thanks to our civic and national leaders, and of course, thanks to God.  I was especially made aware of this a number of years ago when I phoned my grade six teacher, Miss Henderson, to thank her for how she positively impacted my life.  (She was the one who encouraged me to write, and to read all sorts of things.)  But in thanking her, I was surprised and more than unnerved by her response.  She broke down in tears there over the phone and told me that I was the first to have ever thanked her.

I am sure that we do the same with God, and so today’s psalm of praise to God is a well-timed reminder, and model.  May we, all of us, be more attentive to all that God does in our lives, and thank Him for it.

Today’s passage is perhaps the most important one in all of Scripture for it asks us where we stand with regards to Jesus.  It asks this, not of someone else such as a friend or relative, but of each of us personally.  And then asks, by implication, what we are going to do with Him given our decision.  And really, this is what discipleship, following Jesus, is all about.  It is something that we have to ask, and answer, every single day.

To hear it from the Holy Bible, our God is a God of surprises, or at very least, that is the way that it seems.  But then, is He the God of surprises today as well?  Can we, do we, expect Him to do great, wonderful, and surprising things today?  And do we expect Him to do these things in our lives?  And, oh yes, do we expect Him to do these things with us?

These wonderful things that we read about in the Bible took place with and through ordinary people like you and I, and so there’s no reason, no reason at all, why He cannot do surprisingly things in us as well.  Thanks be to God.

Most of us will remember, perhaps with some fondness, the old nursery rhyme about Little Jack Horner who pulled out a plum and exclaimed 'what a good boy am I.’  It is a constant, and all too human temptation, for us to sit back, rest on our laurels, and consider ourselves to be doing very well indeed (our version of ‘what a good boy am I).  It appears that today’s psalmist had fallen into this trap, thinking that God’s help and protection had come his way simply because of how good he was.  Somehow, that it was because of God’s love and mercy, had escaped him.

Seeing as this tendency can also come upon us, you and I, we need to be constantly aware that everything that we have, and in fact, everything we do, are the products of God’s love and mercy.  In other words, gifts rather than something of our deserving.  And so, in everything, we need to give God the praise that is His due.

Christianity is unique in all the philosophies and religions that world over in saying that there is nothing that we can do to earn salvation, or merit it in any way.  Because of our sin, conscious or unconscious, only a sinless person, namely Jesus, could bridge the gap between us and God.  And so, in His love for us, He offers salvation to us free of charge, as a totally unearned, unmerited gift.  All we need to do is to accept it!  It sounds too good to be true, and in earthly, human terms, it is.  But this comes from God, whose love for us could never be matched by anything that we humans know or exercise.  Thanks be to God.

Today’s passage relating the apostle Paul’s prayers for the believers in Ephesus, puts me in mind of a question, namely, if any of us was to ask Paul--or anyone else, for that matter--for prayer, what would we ask for?  Paul asks for greater knowledge or understanding for these people, a greater awareness of just how blessed they are.  What would we ask for?  Something tangible and earthbound, like guidance or health or relationships or peace?  Or, do we also need to become more aware of how good God is, and how much He has blessed us?  Something to think and pray about.

Did someone, perhaps your parent, ever say to you during your childhood or teenage years that you were ‘getting too big for your britches’ and needed to ‘be taken down a notch’?  I know that this certainly happened to me--and it did not always bode well, especially in the short term.  But, nevertheless, it was most necessary.

Today’s passage from Isaiah is something along this same line: we humans were getting ‘too big for our britches’ and needed to be reminded who God is and what He has done.  It’s a way of putting things back into their proper perspective.  Sometimes we need that, for our own good!

Years ago, a British theologian, Burnett Hillman (B.H.) Streeter, wrote a book called “The God Who Speaks”, and in it, tried to describe the various ways that God has spoken to humankind throughout history, through creation, through history, through the church, through the Scriptures, and of course, especially through His Son Jesus Christ. The wonderful thing, to me at least, is that God continues to speak in all these various ways, and wants to be heard thereby. The ‘fly in the ointment’, however, is that we don’t always listen, and on those occasions when we do listen, don’t always follow through with what we’d heard. In other words, we don’t always obey.

But maybe this might be a good and profitable ‘exercise’ for the new year: to think of how God might be trying to speak to us. Through others perhaps, through the news maybe, through our own experiences, and of course, through the Bible: just to ask, ‘what might God be wanting to say to me through these?’ and then go from there.