O Lord how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

The Old Testament readings today from Proverbs 8 and Psalm 104 are redolent with poetic imagery of God as creator – such wondrous things God has made – bringing into being something from nothing – the very potential for anything was made possible by God – and from this is then formed the earth as we know it and the creatures that we marvel at – the seas, rivers, hills and mountains, green plants and fruits, animals and birds of every kind – living things too many to number – from the smallest thing that is made to the great Leviathan – a great sea serpent or dragon – and all that is needed for their sustenance. Everything is held in existence and contained in balance by God’s loving care.

For me these words offer such reassurance and comfort – a reminder that however chaotic things might appear in our lives and in the world – that it is all underpinned, all resting, as it were, on God. Everything has its purpose and has come about because of God’s loving intent.

And everything needs God – the beginning of all things and the reason we exist at all – its mysterious, glorious, but not always easy to make sense of in our everyday lives or to explain in a way that always makes sense to others.

But then in the readings from the New Testament it all comes into sharp focus.

Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God – suddenly there is something for us to grasp – the mysterious character of wisdom who was there before anything was made, is now understood to be Jesus himself – ‘the firstborn of all creation’ – everything has been made through him and for him and all things hold together in him. It all becomes clear- here is someone we can recognise, someone we can see, and can get to know.

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell – what wonderful words – but also a reminder though that just because things become clear in the person of Jesus – we must not make the mistake of reducing God down to our human level alone!

The very definitely mysterious and glorious words of John’s Prologue sum all of this up too – Jesus is the beginning and the end of all things – he is life, and light – the most basic requirements or building blocks of the possibility of existence.

He is the Word of God – God’s plan and intent, the breath or life-giving Spirit of God – the embodiment of God’s love – and as God in human form, we can now see, touch, hold and know this love for ourselves.

It makes sense because it becomes sense – the mystery and glory of God becomes tangible and knowable – and yet just how this can be is in itself is simply more mysterious too!

The Word became flesh and lived among us and we have seen his glory – full of grace and truth.

Seeing and knowing Jesus is what makes God real for us – and we often experience a call from God to help make Jesus known in the world through our lives. Sometimes this becomes a call to a particular vocation or ministry. There are many forms of ministry, not just ordained, and we are all involved in the church’s ministry in one way or another.

For some of us – it might involve a particular process of vocation, selection and training leading to ordained ministry, like for myself, Revd Becka, Canon Bill, Canon Helen and Archdeacon Alison – or to one of various forms of lay ministry, such as Honour, training in Youth Ministry, and Russ, currently on placement at St John’s has been with us as part of his training as a Licensed Lay Minister.

But for us all today – what does this in between time between Christmas and Easter, Epiphany and Lent mean for us this year? What might we do this Lent to learn more about the one who is the ‘image of the invisible God’ and who is the Word who becomes flesh and lives among us, as one of us, in us?

 Lord, as we know you in Jesus, help us to see you too in all creation and in every person, that we may mirror your likeness in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Service: Reverend Michelle Dalliston. 4th February 2024. (St John’s Church Peterborough UK)

Readings: Proverbs 8.1, 22-31; Psalm104.26-end; Colossians 1.15-20; John 1.1-14