Broadcast January 4 2010
Good morning. We are beginning not only a new year – but a new decade.
One news magazine described the decade that has just passed (the “noughties”) as a time of disaster.
We’ve had 9/11 and many other frightening terrorist attacks throughout the world, tsunamis, Hurricane Katrina, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, global economic meltdown, and the emergence of climate change as an issue clamouring for dramatic attention. And this is a very partial list!
Thinking back over this period I feel anger and despair at the actions and inaction of some countries – including, at times, my own. Just now Christians are celebrating the Epiphany - a time of hope – when we remember the coming of the wise men, who brought gifts to the Christ child, believing that Jesus had come to bring the light of hope, the light of new understanding, the light of a new beginning.
So although it can be frustrating to see dreadful events highlighted in the news and to feel that we are powerless to change or prevent them - we “ordinary” people often have more power and more reasons to hope than we usually assume.
We all have a chance to shape the future through our participation in society, by the way we live our lives, and how we treat our neighbours.
And maybe what the news has been highlighting over the last few years are not the only issues for us to consider.
Maybe we should ask ourselves what has been happening to us over that time? How have we grown? How have we changed?
Are we more compassionate - or more self-centred? Are we more open and loving - or closed and exclusive? Are we willing to embrace a simpler lifestyle - or are we acquisitive and materialistic?
It’s impossible to predict what any new year will bring. The future will always remain uncertain. But we can choose what kind of people we will be and we do it day by day in the decisions we make for ourselves - big and small.
And so in this season of Epiphany – with its idea that light has broken into our world, and that the darkness can never extinguish that light - despite the troubles on this earth, lets remember that each person (however humble), has the ability to make this world that bit kinder, fairer and more positive.
It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.