Monthly Message from our Rector
Two New Years and One Christmas
The period our Common Ground magazine covers in the most recent issue (34) is not Just Christmas, but two new years! It includes the Church’s new year (which starts at advent), our Christmas celebrations and the calendar new year. As we start a new church year the Bible readings focus this year focus on Matthews Gospel, so in this letter I will be talking about some of the big themes in Matthews Gospel, that Matthew uses the Christmas story to introduce.
Ancient writers would often use both the introductions and conclusions of a story to highlight their key themes and Matthew’s gospel is no exception, so these are themes to look out for over the coming year.
One of the unique aspects of Matthew’s nativity story is that he reflects on the title from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, that Jesus is Emmanuel – literally “God with us”. Matthew understood, as he wrote his gospel, that he personally knew God, through Jesus Christ. And the very last words of the gospel are Jesus’s – a promise that “I will be with you always, to the very end of the age”. Jesus promises to continue to be personally with his followers (including us), through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, just as he was with them on earth, right up to the moment he comes again.
You might also notice, the huge number of Old Testament prophecies fulfilled, quotations and references in Matthew’s gospel – so some would describe it as very Jewish. Yet, at the same time, Matthew’s gospel is one that’s speaks of a church, comprised of all sorts of people, from all sorts of places and backgrounds. Even the opening paragraphs of the gospel contain genealogies that reference people from different nations and backgrounds as part of a list of many heroes and heroines of the nation. And Matthew is the only gospel to feature the wise men coming from the East to worship Jesus as well as his travels to Egypt. At the conclusion to Matthews’s gospel, Jesus tells his followers likewise to “go and make disciples of all nations…”
The good news of Jesus Christ, that Matthew bears witness to, is for all people in all places. This Christmas I pray that you would especially know Jesus as Emmanuel – as God personally with you.
December and January Sermon Series
In December and January we will be focusing on particular aspects of Matthew’s gospel and drawing upon some of his key themes. In December our Advent Readings, will range through the book of Matthew as we look at Jesus’s predictions about his return, John the Baptist preparing the way and also later in prison asking whether Jesus is the Messiah they have been waiting for. And picking up on details of Matthew’s nativity, not least that Jesus is Emanuel – God with us. Our final joint service of the year, will have a new year focus and draw upon some of the themes of spiritual and practices and transformation that we have looked at over the last year and we will look forward to 2026. And as we move into January and begin the new year with celebrating the wise men coming to worship Jesus, we will start to see how Matthews looks outwards and the ways in which Jesus models and calls us to live not just in relation to God, but to others.
Revd Peter Francis
Rector Rodborough, Woodchester & Brimscombe
Telephone: 01453 759680