Newark Congregational Church

Here is the text of my latest Credo article for the Newark Advertiser this week.

Mark

One of my tutors when I did my theology degree once said – ‘You can sum up the whole of the Bible in two words – Begin Again.’ What did she mean?

Have you seen the film Groundhog Day?

A quick summary for those who haven’t. A TV weatherman Phil Connors (played by Bill Murray) goes to the annual Groundhog Day event in a town called Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania.

I haven’t got space to explain what Groundhog Day is but what you need to know about the film is that for some reason when the day is over and Phil wakes up in bed to his alarm on the next morning it’s still Groundhog Day. And this pattern repeats for day after day after day. Whatever Phil does he’s trapped in this endless cycle. He finds himself, against his will, beginning again every day.

Now, not unreasonably, Phil is first of all completely flummoxed by what’s going on and then becomes immensely frustrated and bored by each day being just like the last. But then he begins to see opportunities. He realises that every time he begins again, every time he re-lives Groundhog Day, he can try and live that day better. He uses this knowledge to improve his chat up lines, but he also becomes an expert jazz pianist, he saves a man from choking in a restaurant, he saves a boy falling from a tree from injury.

Many of us use the Turning of the Year to try to begin again. We’ll make resolutions, full of hope and optimism that we can make improvements in our lives. This year will be the one when we’ll eat more healthily, take more exercise and lose some weight. Personally I’ve resolved to practice my saxophone every day.

I wonder how many of these promises will make it to the end of January?

It’s worth remembering, before Christmas becomes a distant memory, that the coming of Jesus into the world is the ultimate example of beginning again. In the book of the prophet Isaiah we hear God say:

‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!’

The coming of Jesus allows the whole of mankind to begin again. Another way of putting it is that, in Jesus, God presses the reset button on our relationship with him. What is more God is prepared to press our personal reset button time and time again.

But we mustn’t see that as a chance just to go on doing the same selfish things. Our side of the bargain is to use every press of the reset button to become better people. Just like Phil learned to do in Groundhog Day.