Celebrate, Jesus is the answer

From Helen 

Today marks the second Sunday of epiphany. 2020 is definitely underway. The lights and decorations are down from Christmas, the weather isn’t great. I heard of a group of people talking about the new year and rather than say, “happy new year” they said, “well, let’s see what the year brings then ...” to be honest I feel as if people are tired and down and it isn’t that long since one of the biggest celebrations of the year.

Christmas wasn’t that long ago, we were all happy then, or at least there was excitement and happiness around about us.

This morning I have set myself a challenge. That challenge is to lift the blues, and to keep the celebration of Christmas going.

I remember in one Church one of the rooms where the Sunday school met was a good room for storage. This was all well and good, until the children queried why there was still a Christmas tree up on St.Davids day. I commented that we should celebrate the good news of Jesus’ birth all year around. This was greeted by sceptical 10 year olds just looking at me !!! 

Celebration brings excitement and to be honest we have so much to be excited about. 

In our gospel reading this morning (John 1:29-42) we heard about John baptising with water and talking about the one who would come after. The one who would change the world. Now, it is easy for us to listen to this and think, he meant Jesus. Imagine though, hearing this if you didn’t even know of a Jesus.

John the Baptist pointed the way to Jesus and by doing this he showed that there was more to come. Now, that is pretty exciting.

I have to be honest, I don’t like things changing too quickly around me. I do however, get excited by new and exciting things that are worth celebrating. Such as, a new book, a new family member, a wedding - by the way this year we have two nieces and a nephew getting married ! There is excitement and there is celebration. It is something new, but it is lovely. 

John the Baptist had seen the One, the Lamb of God, Jesus. In the Old Testament people used to see sacrificing animals as a way of making sacrifice and seeking forgiveness for their sins. By Jesus being called the Lamb of God, it was because His death on the cross was the last sacrifice that needed to be made. 

I love going into schools and talking to the children about God. One occasion I was talking to a whole primary school telling them a story about a special baby King. Now this was just before Christmas and I could hear the infants muttering with some excitement - She means Jesus.  Well, I have to admit I was rather impressed with this. But I kept on with the story, and then I asked some questions.

The children had cottoned on, that when I was there the answer was likely to have something to do with Jesus, and so they kept shooting up their hands. One little boy got so excited that he shouted out, “ Jesus is always the answer.”

To be honest, I was even more impressed and did think perhaps my work here is done !

Anyway, back to John the Baptist. A bit like the children in the school, he knew that Jesus is the answer. This is exciting and worth celebrating. Now, I don’t mean a constant party, although ... but I do mean the happiness that Jesus brings. The happiness in knowing that even when we don’t feel so happy we know that God is with us and He is worth celebrating.

Back to the gospel reading, we heard of John sending two disciples to see Jesus. They did this, and not only this but after they saw Jesus they went and told another person... you see exciting news, news that’s worth celebrating can’t help but be shared.

The children were genuinely excited in that school I was in and whether that excitement was just because they knew the answers, or because it was nearly Christmas I don’t know. But how great it would be if we were that excited, if we just wanted to shout out, “Jesus is the answer, we have found the Lord… come and see.”

God is the answer – to know God is to know the best thing, it always amazes me that we have the best news ever, we worship the Saviour and we know God loves us and yet we all often forget to celebrate this.

How great it would be if we could just smile and say, ‘Jesus is always the answer..come and see.’ That is something worth celebrating.

In the gospel reading when John the Baptist saw Jesus he knew that there was something special about him. Something so special it was worth telling others about and not only telling them but encouraging them to follow Jesus, the answer.

I gave myself a challenge to bring celebration and excitement back. Well, how about thinking of it like this. I have been to teenage and children’s parties, it can be loud. They are having a good time but the best bit as an adult is being quiet and chatting with others. This doesn’t mean that I am not celebrating just that I am doing so quietly. For you celebrating can be a feeling of being happy, a feeling where you want to praise God. When I am at the altar saying the Eucharistic prayer it is called celebrating. We as we come to the service are all celebrating and that celebration is that we have met Jesus and He is the answer. It’s not just that though, we should be excited that every time we come to pray we can celebrate that God is with us and He hears us.

Now the best bit about any celebration is telling others about it. We have seen what God both can do and has done for us and so we should be celebrating by telling others about Him. By inviting other people to join us so that we don’t become a club that does the same thing every week without wanting others to join us. 

We are the people who are to be as Jesus today, we are the people who are to point others to Jesus. We are the people who are to show in our lives the love and excitement which comes from knowing Jesus.

May God give each one of us the courage, the wisdom and the confidence to live as a disciple of Christ, and may He give us the words to witness to the light and love of Christ, and may others see in us, and hear from us, a message about God’s love for all. AMEN