REFLECTION 5TH JANUARY 2025, SAOTT 

By Rev Dr Fei Taule’ale’ausumai 

Well, we have arrived at another new year 2025.  For us it is a new beginning an opportunity to start anew, clearing out the old baggage of last year and making new resolutions to do thing perhaps differently or even better, perhaps even relaxing some of the rigorous routines we might have had last year regarding, work and family, study or even recreational time.  Let’s pray that this New Year will be full of wonderful and new surprises. 

As part of my new year’s resolution, I decided I wasn’t going to put up with a faulty printer at home anymore, so I saw one at Warehouse Stationery for $29 a HP Deskjet printer.  I thought can’t go wrong with $29.  I picked it up yesterday.  It was one of those wireless printers and so you needed to go online to connect.  It came up online error C0000022, that my computer was faulty and to click the helpline which I did.  I gave my details and immediately a host came online to chat with me, she said I needed to talk to a technician and within seconds my phone was ringing.  The technician said he needed to get remote access to my computer to connect the printer.  He led me through some instructions and wah lah he was inside my computer operating it from his end.  He came to conclusion that my computer was infected with malware, and that I needed to buy a firewall immediately as it was about to crash.  He gave me a price of a lifetime guarantee for $699.  Hang on a minute, wasn’t he working for Hewlett Packard and wasn’t his job to connect my printer, not to sell me malware?  He said I needed to act immediately as my computer was about to crash.  I said, sorry I’m not paying you that and how do I know he was legitimate? He said weren’t you put through to me by the help line?  She asked me to call you.  Oh well he said, I can’t help you then and abruptly hung up.  OMG.   

Welcome to the new world 2025.  We are living in a world where we cannot tell the difference between what is truth and what is a lie.  It may only be a matter of time when my bank details and account will be hacked now.  A $29 purchase turned into a $699 malware threat and who knows what else lurks around the corner, I wasn’t naïve, I was very much on to him but somehow, he managed to get remote access into my computer, yes, I was very worried.  I will send my complaint to HP tomorrow.   So for now it’ s back to clearing up paper jams and feeding paper one by one into my very old printer or so I thought.  I also bought a new rheem of paper today and as a last resort I replaced my old rheem with new paper and guess what, it worked like magic.  Maybe it was the paper and not the printer.   

But welcome to the reality of the new world we now live in.  We have to be cautious of almost everything, especially banks and online sales and even down to booking plane tickets etc. because of fake websites mirroring the real thing.  Even the people we chat with online and even face to face sometimes are fake.  For those of us in our 60’s and over, we are not as technical savvy as our grandchildren and great grand children.  3-year-olds know how to operate iPad and computer games.  Children are the go too when we come across a problem with our computers.  Today, many of us are trying to make sense of this new techno age that we now live in.   

In our New Testament reading from the Gospel of John, this was also written to a community of early followers of Jesus who were trying to make sense of this extraordinary person Jesus who had changed their world.  John was trying to explain what it meant that Jesus had come to live on earth for a time. It’s not easy to understand, until we come to the end of the passage, and we hear what it is that Jesus does that makes him stand out from everyone else: he brings grace and truth into the world.  

As we start a new year it’s easy to think that Christmas is over, and life goes on as normal (perhaps we note that with a certain amount of exhausted relief). Let’s remember that Christmas is so much more than celebrating the birth of a baby, but it’s celebrating a person who only had to be born to change and challenge the world.  

As we begin this new year, how do we hope the world will change? Is it beyond hope to pray for an end to all the wars that are happening in this world?  Is it beyond hope to expect that senseless acts of murder, terrorism, violence, abuse, sexual abuse will ever end?  Perhaps over a meal this week, spend some time talking about the things you hope for, then you may want to light a candle and pass it around the table. As each person holds the candle invite them to say something that they hope for during this year.  Every second Sunday in January my family begin a time of fasting at 12am midnight until 12pm lunchtime.  It is only a very short time of fasting but our family wherever we are in the world will join together in this family ritual to pray for one another and for the world.  Remembering in particular those who are struggling and vulnerable.  We pray for our children and grandchildren the new schools they will be attending, new jobs, exam results etc. then at 12pm we break fast with a prayer of thanksgiving and a family meal together.   

As we move from Advent through Christmas and into Epiphany, the voice of God is expressed through the power of the Word – the logos – as well as in the figure of Wisdom.  This voice sounds forth and new life comes into being – the life we experience through the person of Jesus Christ. 

In John’s prologue we hear strong echoes of Genesis 1, as well as Proverbs 8:22ff where we read that it is Wisdom who was with God at the very beginning when creation was first spoken into being. It is Wisdom’s voice that speaks what is good and pleasing into confused and broken communities. Wisdom would have been a familiar figure to the Hebrew audience because it was Wisdom to whom they looked for God’s guidance. 

Unfortunately, we have lost Wisdom’s presence in much of our modern biblical understandings. Because of the narrower meaning of logos, we have lost the embodiment, creativity, femininity, and also much of the mystery wisdom brought to this text. In capturing the greater fullness of who God is as both wisdom and Word, we should gain a deeper sense of God’s wondrous creativity. 

John’s gospel humbles us as we encounter the mystery of God in and through Jesus Christ. Word, wisdom, grace, and truth weave themselves into this one who has become flesh – this God who has chosen to live with us. 

From our Hebrew reading the prophet Jeremiah paints a picture of the future by describing a great dancing and singing throng, including all manner and situations of people. Together, the exiles return, weeping with joy, lovingly gathered by God. This is a powerful encouragement to keep imagining and working towards a better day for all, despite what we see around us that might be discouraging. 

God is light and is still in the world, but the darkness which John writes about is also still in the world.  We can lose sight of God in the darkness and brokenness that afflicts our world and us at times.  We can’t deny tragedies that befall people all over the world and in our own families and community.  The hectic lives we lead, striving for our own gain, the anxiety, the grief, and the depression that can affect us are the effects of the darkness that pervades our world.  But God in Jesus is light and life, and the darkness will not overcome the light of Christ.   

We, gathered here today, are witnesses to this mystery that we call God continued presence in the world.  We are witnesses to the light that this presence brings, just as John the Baptist was a witness to the light.  The epiphany in Jesus has brought God’s grace and truth to us.   

We really don’t know what it was like for the magi, the wise men when they arrived back home. We can only imagine. But their message at Epiphany is about going home another way … about avoiding Herod. It is not about certainties given, but about journeying with joy and wonder in all creation. It is about dreaming of new futures; it is about following the star of Christ.  

Our task, our purpose, that is us becoming the likeness of the word becoming flesh and dwelling among us.  That’s your New Year’s challenge to add it to your list of priorities and doable tasks for this year. How can we make a difference not only in the lives of others but also in our own lives?   

May this year be a year of blessings for us all, that we may bless those who hurt us, bless those who we haven’t talked to for years that we may be a blessing to them.  And may God bless us all in this New Year together as a church and as a family.  Amen. 

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