On the first day of 2013, on a lovely cold morning, I’m at my desk as usual studying the Episcopal daily reading-except now that I’ve looked at it, I’ve rebelled, because it offers me passages for the rather obscure feast of the circumcision of Jesus. So today I’ll use readings which celebrate beginnings. (If anyone would like a reflection on the correct passages, see my blog 335.) I guess I’ll continue this daily blog throughout the year in the hope that it may be useful to others as well as myself.
New Year prayer in Bhopal, India
DAILY HEADLINE FROM WORLD NEWS: JUSTICE FOR BHOPAL THIS YEAR?
Genesis 1
Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
Parashah 1: B’resheet (In the beginning) 1:1–6:8
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. So there was evening, and there was morning, one day.
6 God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the water; let it divide the water from the water.” 7 God made the dome and divided the water under the dome from the water above the dome; that is how it was, 8 and God called the dome Sky. So there was evening, and there was morning, a second day.
9 God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let dry land appear,” and that is how it was. 10 God called the dry land Earth, the gathering together of the water he called Seas, and God saw that it was good.
11 God said, “Let the earth put forth grass, seed-producing plants, and fruit trees, each yielding its own kind of seed-bearing fruit, on the earth”; and that is how it was. 12 The earth brought forth grass, plants each yielding its own kind of seed, and trees each producing its own kind of seed-bearing fruit; and God saw that it was good. 13 So there was evening, and there was morning, a third day.
14 God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to divide the day from the night; let them be for signs, seasons, days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the dome of the sky to give light to the earth”; and that is how it was. 16 God made the two great lights — the larger light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night — and the stars. 17 God put them in the dome of the sky to give light to the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 So there was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.
20 God said, “Let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open dome of the sky.” 21 God created the great sea creatures and every living thing that creeps, so that the water swarmed with all kinds of them, and there was every kind of winged bird; and God saw that it was good. 22 Then God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, multiply and fill the water of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 So there was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day.
(A: iii) 24 God said, “Let the earth bring forth each kind of living creature — each kind of livestock, crawling animal and wild beast”; and that is how it was. 25 God made each kind of wild beast, each kind of livestock and every kind of animal that crawls along the ground; and God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, in the likeness of ourselves; and let them rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the animals, and over all the earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the earth.”
27 So God created humankind in his own image; in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.
New year in Sydney
28 God blessed them: God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and every living creature that crawls on the earth.” 29 Then God said, “Here! Throughout the whole earth I am giving you as food every seed-bearing plant and every tree with seed-bearing fruit. 30 And to every wild animal, bird in the air and creature crawling on the earth, in which there is a living soul, I am giving as food every kind of green plant.” And that is how it was. 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So there was evening, and there was morning, a sixth day.
2nd CORINTHIANS 5: 17
This means that our knowledge of men and women can no longer be based on their outward lives (indeed, even though we knew Christ as a man we do not know him like that any longer). For if someone is in Christ there is new creation—the past is finished and gone, everything has become fresh and new. All this is God’s doing, for he has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ; and he has made us agents of the reconciliation. God was in Christ personally reconciling the world to himself—not counting their sins against them—and has commissioned us with the message of reconciliation. We are now Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were appealing direct to you through us. As his personal representatives we say, “Make your peace with God.” For God caused Christ, who himself knew nothing of sin, actually to be sin for our sakes, so that in Christ we might be made good with the goodness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 PHILLIPS
Faith in God the Creator is fundamental to the “religions of Abraham”, Judaism,Christianity and Islam. The universe and every life in it begin with God’s blessing: they are good in God’s eyes. Every year, and of course every month and week and day, begins with God’s blessing, as does this first day of 2013. I believe in the goodness of creation. And yet, know that there is much that’s wrong with me, with my society and with the world in which I live. Therefore I believe that the good Creator has given such astonishing freedom to his creatures, right down to the randomness of subatomic particles, that there is room for chaos and evil. To be sure, I also believe this a limited room, but I know that for myself sometimes and much more often for less lucky people, the chaos and evil seem to occupy most of the space.
New Year at Taj Mahal, Agra
It is not my business to defend what the Creator has done, as if I understood God’s mind, but I recognise that it is from the randomness of non-human events and from the dangerous human capacity to choose, that newness is possible in the universe. Paul tells the Corinthians that God has taken responsibility for chaos and evil by becoming subject to them in the life of Jesus Messiah, demonstrating in this way not only complete solidarity with his creatures, but also a persuasive love that tempts them to re-unite with the divine life, revealed in Jesus’ resurrection. Paul calls this “new creation” as if the old is to be abandoned, but elsewhere he describes the present creation as being in labour with the children of God.
So, at the start of 2013 I stand between the beginning of creation and its God-given end, in a time and space which is characterised by chaos and evil as well as order and goodness. Here God has come to be with me in Jesus, convincing me of his/her love and persuading me – some of the time- to join the transformative process by which God’s creatures are reunited with God’s goodness. In this way God’s original blessing bears fruit.
It seems right to begin the year with a version of the serenity prayer:
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