Howe of Fife Parish Church
Church of Scotland
Registered Scottish Charity
SC 005381
Anyone in need of a minister please contact :
Rev Bill Hunter 01337 832717
As Noddy Holder sings at us every year, “I wish it could be Christmas every day”. Well, it would mean we don’t have to go through this dreich time of year when the festivities of Christmas and new Year are fading into memories and the warmer days (we hope) and longer nights come round. Or at least till Easter when we get our next big chocolate fix!
Apparently January is the most depressing month of the year and the 23rd January is the most depressing day of the month. Sorry if that’s your birthday. Maybe you should take a leaf out of Eeyore’s book, but I hope you don’t end up floating down the river.
So what has the Church to say about the dreichest of the dreich? Well, actually we’re in the midst of the liturgical season of Epiphany. That time starts on 6th January when we remember the visit of the Wise men to Jesus in the stable. It is also called Twelfth Night and continues till the start of Lent when we begin the countdown to Easter. One of the big themes of Epiphany is light. Both physical and spiritual. As the nights begin to stretch we see hope growing. But also we think of Jesus coming as God’s Light of love and truth and hope. The light that shines through the darkness of all that is wrong, all that denies God’s presence, all that we want to change. At the start of john’s Gospel it says that the Light shines in the Darkness, but the Darkness has never grasped it, or out it out.
Sometimes it’s hard to hold on to that message in the world where infants cam be murdered by their mothers. Where innocent protesters are at risk of death from their own governments. Where people live in fear of what might happen. Where there is nothing but doom and gloom in the economy and we’re all wondering what will happen next. But the darkness has never put out the light. Over generations and millennia the light has kept shining, or glowing, maybe sputtering and fragile, but it is always there.
So don’t let the dreich time get to you. Look into the light and remember God is here. God is with you. Together – you, me and God, we’ll pull through.
Rev Bill Hunter