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Our December / January Pastoral Letter

is provided by Paul Freedman

Beginnings

Where to start? How to start? What to write that has some meaning and
relevance for the two months of December and January? These are the
questions that have been in my mind since I was asked to write this
pastoral letter. I guess I’ll go back a bit and have a run–up at it.

When I was a teenager I became, and remain, a voracious reader. Over
time I began to be interested in how books worked, what made a book
‘good’ or how did this or that book speak to me? In another life I might
have gone to university and studied English, but that was not my path.
Instead, I began to read books written by writers, about the craft of
writing. Occasionally, I fancied I would become a writer too. That also
was not to be my path but I remain interested in the craft of writing.

One of the often mentioned things that writers address is what is called
‘the tyranny of the blank page’ and that is what I am facing here. The
Bible doesn’t have any advice about this but it certainly says a lot about
new beginnings, particularly at this time of year, so let’s start there shall
we?

In Galatians 4 we read: What I am saying is that as long as an heir is
underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole
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estate. The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set
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by his father. So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery
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under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set
time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born
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under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might
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receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent
the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out,
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“Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child;
and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

This is the greatest new beginning in the history of the world. By the
coming to earth by Christ we are all freed from sin and truly adopted into
God’s family. Through faith in Christ, we not only escape the need to
follow the works of the law endlessly with no hope of ever escaping our
sin, we also find a home and family as children of God the Father. We

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