I hope that you have all had a wonderful, joyous and blessed Christmas celebration with friends and family this year, and that you have also had the opportunity to spend some quiet time with our Lord in some way.

As we start our journey into the New Year, let us put to one side, just for a moment, the thoughts of New Year resolutions, the desire to lose those odd pounds that may have sneaked on over Christmas. Our readings today ask us to take a reflective pause and contemplate what we have learned over the last year and to perhaps consider where our hearts ambitions lie in the year ahead, in the context of God’s gift to us all of Jesus.

Having experienced the frenetic call from the advertising world since September last year, telling us to spend, spend, and spend some more, today Paul’s letter to the Ephesians draws us to consider: What is the difference between what I ‘want’ in life and what I ‘need’ in life?

With 12 grandchildren, I share with confidence, that those two sentiments are, more often than not, mixed up and appear to be fully interchangeable. Only last autumn, I was assured that: ‘Grandad, I need the latest iPhone for Christmas, as all my friends are getting one’. But as Paul reveals to us, want and need are two very distinct realities.

At the heart of our Christian faith is a calling to enter on a journey, a pilgrimage of life. Getting to know Jesus, striving to be more like him, in our actions, our words and our choices.

Paul shows to us that, through the gift of Christmas and the Paschal Mystery, God brings us everything we genuinely need, when our objective is a Christian life and eternal joy in God’s presence. God gives his only Son for us; God calls us his children; God redeems us, forgives us and draws us to him in purest and complete love. No favourites, no distinctions – just a longing for all the members of his human family to be with him.

Now I am certainly not naive enough to try to explain that to my youngest grandchildren at this moment in their lives – we can all imagine their faces, whether they be two years old or eight years old. But the gift of Jesus to us all is certainly something that can be celebrated with them while – for instance – encouraging them to think about which of their older or less-used toys they would like to donate to the charity shop or children’s hospital; or encouraging them to say thank you to Mum and Dad by helping out with a few chores, perhaps, while explaining to them the joy and love Jesus has for them; helping them to learn and experience the joy of giving rather than just receiving; helping them on their early steps to find their friendship in Jesus.

In our ever-demanding consumerist world, we are told the path to a happy life is simple – get more and want more. And yet Paul affirms to us that through Christ ‘we have every spiritual blessing available in heaven’ and that ‘we are destined and appointed to live for the praise of God.’ It’s in embracing the call of Christ in our hearts that we ‘hear the word of truth’ that Paul speaks off.

And this leads us to that beautiful, and poetic prologue to John’s Gospel that along with introducing his Gospel also introduces to us ‘the Word of truth’ who is Jesus Christ.

John shows us that Christ is all that we truly need in life and invites us into a relationship built on knowing, of faith and of hope: a new journey, which is what we are about to begin as we start the new year ahead.

John assures us that Christ is eternal and welcomes us into eternity. Christ teaches us the way of truth, as he enlightens us throughout his ministry. Through believing in him, coming closer to him, we become the adopted children of God. And that through his love for us, we continue to receive ‘grace upon grace’.
So perhaps as we start to think about the new year ahead, pondering the lessons about life, ourselves, our families and our faith through last year, it might be a good starting point to reflect on what we ‘need’ versus what we ‘want’ and what this might mean for 2027. And, in all we strive for in 2027, may we continue to receive the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ.