I see your true colours

Well, happy Christmas and happy new year. 2015 is now upon us and who knows what it will bring. You may have made resolutions, or thought of things that you could take up, or perhaps you have just let it pass you by as another day. 

I have never really been one for new years resolutions however when I was 9 I had been given a girl guides diary. It was great, it even had a pencil in the spine and I decided that I would write in this diary every day. I did this faithfully and still have it. I particularly enjoy reading the things that I cared a lot about. I enjoyed family time, Church, friend time and I had a best friend who I adored. On one page I talked about how amazing she was, put then at the bottom of the page there is a little star telling me to move forward. I did and there stapled into my diary is a sheet of paper where I have used pink biro which says, ‘ She is no longer my friend. I don’t like her because she called me a (and I apologise for the language) Sarky cow !’

I am not sure if any of you have ever found it difficult to get on with people, maybe people in Church, maybe family members, maybe friends, maybe neighbours… our readings this morning have reminded us of what it is to be in relationship, what it is to be the children of God. Children who are born not in a conventional way but by belief. 

In the gospel reading (John 1:10—18) we heard of the creation of the world, the creation by God who made us for relationship with Him, but who then came to earth to bring His creation back to Himself to invite us into His family.

Being in the family of God means being brought back to God. It means knowing His love, and sharing in that love. It also means that everyone around you is in the same family as you. Not to name drop but we are as adopted members of the family of God in the same family as Bishop John, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Queen, Barack Obama and of course Dolly Parton … that’s just to name a few.

Being in God’s family means that we follow Jesus and try to be more like Him. It means that we have received the good things of God – not just a bit of grace but grace upon grace, we haven’t seen a bit of glory we have seen the glory of God, we haven’t just had a glimpse of truth we belong to the family of the one who is truth and grace and love.

A love that is so great that as the reading from the letter to the Ephesians (1:3-14) put it we have redemption through the blood of Jesus. Jesus died for us because that is how much He loves us. 

God created the world, He became part of that world to bring us back to Him, and through belief we are part of His family and all we need to do is to follow Him, to seek to be more like Him. Who in the midst of our darkness, in the midst of the chaos of our lives, came announcing life and not death.  Later in John's gospel, Jesus is recorded as saying, "I come that you may have life and have it abundantly."

Jesus' way is the way of life,  and in and through Jesus, we are shown how we are meant to be, full of life, full of hope, full of joy--that even as God has poured upon us the new light of His incarnate Word, we are to allow this light to shine forth in our lives.

Jesus became flesh and lived amongst us. God came so close to us, that he actually walked alongside, and showed us how we could know Him and also how we could bring hope to a world filled with despair.  We are to be Jesus in the world today, we have a responsibility to show that the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we are to be as Jesus.  We are the people who now have the responsibility of being the Word made flesh in our communities, in our workplaces, in our homes.

The question is though, how do we do this? We can make it happen, but how. 

We do it through prayer, we do it through reading the Bible more, we do it by trying to be more like Jesus. We don’t do this alone, we do this with the power of God, we do this with our family around us. 

I was listening to Cindi Lauper a while back and her song, ‘true colours’ and I thought that the words could almost be God talking to His children reminding us of what our true colours are as we seek to be more like Him. I would like to read some of the words to you now as a reminder that God loves us, He doesn’t leave us alone and as we seek be more like Him so our true colours will show…

You with the sad eyes
Don't be discouraged
Oh I realize
It's hard to take courage
In a world full of people
You can lose sight of it all
And the darkness there inside you
Can make you feel so small

But I see your true colors
Shining through
See your true colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow

So back to the new year.  We have responsibilities to make things happen, we are a part of the family of God and it is our choice to live as followers of Jesus.  It is our choice to embrace the word made flesh and to try and be more like Him.  It is our choice to step out into the unknown of this year and to make a change.

A New Years resolution almost, but a resolution that will be of eternal benefit, a resolution that may mean a change of life, a resolution that puts Jesus at the centre, and that means that our lives will show Him to others.  This is how we will bring hope to despair.

May we this year make it our prayer, to make a difference, because we know that we can.  May we show our true colours as children of God part of His family by seeking to be ever more like Him. AMEN