From the Churches September 2023

Reflecting the new partnership between Churches in Gorleston, this column will now feature leaders from different churches in our town
 
This month we hear from Rev Sue Upton, Assistant Minister at St Andrew's and member of the ministry team, during the period when St Andrew’s is without a vicar
 

I am making everything new

Happy New Year! That’s the academic year in case you were wondering
 
As far back as I can remember I have loved September, as a child all those new exercise books – with not a spelling mistake in sight – that’s only because I hadn’t yet written anything in them of course. And then later, as a teacher, getting to know this new batch of youngsters who had so much potential, as yet untapped, in a classroom that was so clean and tidy and organised. Yes September has always been something of a blank page, waiting with eager anticipation to be written on
 
But that is just one type of New Year. We enjoy another new start on January 1st when we all have to get used to writing a new year number on everything, and we make resolutions that will enable us to lead healthier, happier, more fulfilled lives – which we keep for varying lengths of time, depending on our determination to change
 
Each birthday can be something of a new beginning too, especially if it’s a birthday when that 1st digit changes. I vividly remember not liking no longer being twenty-anything. Now I’m surprised that I can remember that far back!
 
The Church celebrates its New Year on Advent Sunday – this year on 3rd December. We begin again to work our way through the life of Jesus, preparing ourselves to celebrate afresh His coming as a baby, but also looking forward to the time when He will come to this earth again at the end of the age. What a new beginning that will be!
 
So many opportunities for new beginnings every year
 
Sometimes new beginnings are thrust upon us at odd times of the year by retirement, bereavement, or the breakdown of a significant relationship, or conversely by a birth in the family, the start of a new important relationship, or by the start of a new job
 
And so it is with faith. We can have a new start with Jesus any day and every day. The Psalmist tells us that God’s faithfulness and mercy are new every morning. And every morning, or indeed at any point in any day, we have the opportunity to parcel up all our mistakes, all our unwanted baggage and then to leave that parcel with Jesus at the foot of His cross. Then we can walk away into that fresh beginning, that new page that, as yet, has no mistakes on it
 
Jesus can give us a new beginning in a way in which the world does not and cannot. How will you use the gift of this new day today, the day that is clean and bright and ready to be written on, the day that God will guide us through if we ask Him to, the day that is full of opportunity and promise even if it doesn’t look like that when we wake up, but with God’s help, forgiveness and mercy can be that new start just when we need it
 
courtesy of St Andrew's Church in the Gorleston Community Magazine

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