As we reach the last day of 2017, our thoughts inevitably turn also to 2018, the year ahead.

We like to celebrate the start of a new year by joining together to celebrate and have a party, so tomorrow at 4 p.m. we will be gathering in church to enjoy food, fellowship, party games and fun. The parcel has been wrapped; there’ll be lots of silly games, and we can enjoy each other’s company, knowing that we are joined together as members of God’s family through all He has done for us!

We pray this new year will be a time of blessing and spiritual growth, individually and corporately. We are looking forward to joining with other local churches in prayer meetings (the first one will be on Tuesday 9th January at 10.30 a.m. at the Salvation Army), outreach events (the Dinosaur Day at Phoenix Park on 15th April will be great fun and we are looking to hold a joint event on Good Friday too) and are also eagerly anticipating a church wedding in September 2018. Let’s commit to seeking God together in 2018 and to serving Him in different areas to see His kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We can be those miracle makers Mark spoke about this morning as we allow God to transform all we give Him into something far beyond our wildest dreams.

Mark spoke on the feeding of the five thousand this morning (though since that number did not include women or children, the feeding actually must have been much more!) Speaking from Matt 14:13-21 and John 6:1-14, he commented that this familiar story involved Jesus, His disciples, an unnamed boy and a crowd of people. Each had their part to play in this miracle.

Jesus would probably have preferred solitude and quiet to mourn his cousin’s death, but instead was followed by a crowd of people. He had compassion on them and healed their sicknesses – something which clearly took a long time, resulting in them becoming hungry. Jesus asked His disciples, ‘Where shall we buy bread for all these people?’, a question that tested their faith as they thought about the cost and logistics of trying to feed so many. Jesus already knew what He planned to do (Jn 6:6), but gave them the opportunity to become part of the miracle.

The boy gave his packed lunch to help Jesus and so he too became part of the miracle to feed so many. God takes the little we have to offer Him and multiplies it. Jesus was able to meet the physical needs of the crowd in healing them and to meet their practical needs in feeding them, but by involving them in this miracle, He also fulfilled their spiritual needs and inspired them. Jesus involves people and the little we give Him can change history. We too can be miracle makers as we yield everything to Him. What can He do through us in this coming year?

Garry continued his message on ‘Christmas Light’ at the Christmas Day service. Having explored the idea that God is light (1 Jn 1:5-9) and that Jesus is the Light of the World (Jn 8:12, Jn 1:1-5), he reminded us of our responsibility to share that light (Matt 5:14-16). Once we have received the light of God, that light needs to be front and centre of our lives. Those who belong to clubs are keen to talk about their hobbies; we have far greater news than a hobby to share! Christ wants us to be passionate about what He has done for us.

Jn 3:19 reminds us that light challenges darkness, and we can face a range of reactions to the light of Christ in us. Some people have preconceptions about Christianity (and God) which make them hostile to the light; our job is to live the life so well that those preconceptions are shattered. An example of this is Günther Bechly who organised the celebration of the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth at the Natural History Museum in Stuttgart with a display of a balancing scale where Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’ more than outweighed all the books on creationism. He decided to read those books for himself and ended up speaking with many of the authors and coming to abandon his belief in evolution which led to the museum terminating his employment. There was a cost to his change of heart and conversion, but he counted that as nothing compared to the liberating light of the gospel.

Jesus is a stone that makes men stumble and a rock that makes them fall (1 Pet 2:6-8). The Greek word ‘scandalon’ was a ‘trap stick’, a snare, and Christ can be offensive to us, pointing out where we are wrong and telling us that God is offended at our sin and we need to repent and accept His forgiveness. Nonetheless, as we walk in the light, His light exposes the darkness and leads others to the light as well. Our responsibility and privilege is to share the light of Christmas throughout the year.

We had two Christmas Eve birthdays to celebrate yesterday, made more special because they involved members of the same family: great-grandfather and great-granddaughter.

Ironically today, Christmas Day, I am pondering Easter eggs. This is not, as some might fear, the equivalent of the supermarkets’ desire to confuse seasons and move us on from one festivity to the next with no time for contemplation. It is because I am thinking about hollowness.

Hollowness in Easter eggs is a perfectly acceptable feature, a way of forming the chocolate into the shape we want, a shape that is representative of new life.

But hollowness in life, in how people feel, is far from pleasant and rarely acceptable, especially at festive times.

Hollowness, feeling empty or bereft, feeling that there is no more purpose or hope for us, often follows bereavement, but the feeling can come at any time, especially following loss or trauma (the breakdown of a marriage or relationship, the loss of a job, even that much-anticipated retirement) or even at any time in life when we stop long enough from our frantic busyness to contemplate the meaning of life and eternal things. Hollowness is a poignant reminder that life as it is currently, even with all its joys and celebrations such as Christmas, is not yet perfect.

But that chocolate Easter egg reminds us of a life to come when hollowness does not have the final word, and that hope carries us forward into a new year. Though we may feel the weight of sin and the heaviness of loss now, we have the assurance of Jesus that our hollowness can be filled. ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.’ (Matt 5:4) He is able to fill our hollowness through His presence and the promises He brings.

We often talk of ‘lightbulb’ moments or ‘seeing’ an answer to a problem; sometimes, that seeing comes gradually (a little like how energy saving bulbs take time to warm up and let the full light shine through them) and sometimes suddenly. If we have very little light, everything we see appears shadowy and in outline, but if we have more light, things seem clearer and brighter. Too much light can dazzle us and leave us blinded.

Light is essential to life; if we have too little sunlight, we will suffer from a vitamin D deficiency which leads to an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment in older adults, severe asthma in children and even cancer. Artificial light is helpful, but not the same as the ‘real thing.’ God describes Himself as light (see John 8:12, 1 John 1:5). Jesus is the light who has come into the world (see John 1:1-5). Moreover, His Word gives light (see Ps 119:105, Ps 119:130) – giving us access to truth and life.

The result of this light is that we are called to live in the light and walk in the light of the Lord (see Is 2:5, Is 9:2, Is 49:6). The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel (2 Cor 4:4), but God shines His light into our lives, leading us into that true knowledge of Him (2 Cor 4:6). The result of this is an awesome responsibility to live in the light (see Luke 12:47-48, 2 Pet 1:19). We must be prepared to let God shape our understanding of truth, so that we do not view life with rose-tinted spectacles, having wrong views of God and other issues which, if left uncorrected, may lead us astray, but allowing God’s word to shape us, lead us and direct us into all truth. As we rejoice in the coming of Jesus, the Light, let us rejoice and live in the light that He has given and let us continually walk in and towards the light of the Lord.