It is very hard to predict the unpredictable. In any case the passing of chronological time is what it is. It is hard to invest great meaning into the change of calendar dates. Nevertheless we are human and we are affected to some degree by all the hoopla that surrounds New Year. If we have had a difficult year past we hope for a better one to come. Most of us have been affected in some way by the economic downtown of the past eighteen months. It is natural to hope that markets, especially the job market, will pick up in this New Year. Resolutions are an aspect of New Year that many of us indulge in. We make grand promises to ourselves to lose some weight or work at a relationship, or become more organized or to try and be nicer people. There is nothing wrong in that process at all and some people actually keep to their resolutions. But most of us do not or have given up even trying!

Every year we get enquiries about whether or not we are holding a Watch Night Service on New Year’s Eve. I reply that no we are not but that we do celebrate the Mass of the Holy Name of Jesus on New Year’s Day. The tradition of the Watch Night Service is originally part of the Methodist tradition and is popular in a number of denominations. But while there is nothing wrong with that tradition it is not part of Episcopal tradition mainly I guess because New Year is basically a secular celebration. When I was growing up in a low church Anglican Church we did have a Watch Night Service but then we did not have Midnight Mass at Christmas. That was reserved for the Roman Catholics and high church Anglicans. Now everyone has Midnight Mass.

All this is to say that New Year has no particular spiritual significance. But that is not to say we have nothing to bring to it. On the contrary we as Christians have much to say to the world at New Year or any other time for that matter.

Today’s gospel from Matthew for instance has plenty to say to us. It is an odd passage relating events after the Nativity in Bethlehem. On Christmas Eve and earlier we heard a lot of Luke: the annunciation and visitation; the journey to Bethlehem; the birth in the manger; the angelic announcement to the shepherds and so on. Matthew by contrast focuses on Joseph from start to finish. The birth is dealt with almost peremptorily. The focus in Matthew moves from Joseph to the three Magi and King Herod and back again to Joseph in today’s portion of the narrative.

What we hear in today’s gospel is a series of Joseph’s dreams: dreams of angelic commands and warnings followed by Joseph’s response and a journey to named places, be it Egypt, Israel and Nazareth. Dreaming is an important part of Matthew’s birth narrative. All is revealed to Joseph from the fact of Mary’s pregnancy on in the form of dreams. What do we make of all this? For those of you who know your Jung you will be familiar with the important place of dreams in Jung’s psychology. There was great interest in dreams in the Bible and in the world of that time. Whether or not we take our dreams seriously most of us would admit to other seemingly non rational sources for our decision making be it our conscience or our intuition or simply that something does or does not feel right.

We make decisions all the time on these bases which may defy logic or rational analysis. Just think of Joseph for a moment. He was encouraged to stick with an unmarried pregnant young woman and to have faith in her and her baby in the face of all sorts of societal disapproval. In today’s gospel he was being asked to uproot his family not once but twice and to make long and probably dangerous journeys for their ultimate protection. That sort of decision to change countries or make big moves or to emigrate is never easy for any of us and is always attended by uncertainty and risk and to entail some degree of loss. But what impresses me about Joseph and which holds a message for this civil new year is that Joseph “followed his dreams”; he dared to make decisions which involved risk and uncertainty and to step out in faith and trust. Above all he trusted in his dreams, his intuition, in the murmurings of his heart; or from a faith perspective, the movement of God’s Spirit within him; what today’s gospel speaks of as Joseph’s angelic dreams. The truth is God through his Holy Spirit does give us those “nudges”, those “prompts” that help us make decisions; that cause us to take risks; that make us act with unaccustomed boldness. So in this New Year may we be given clarity of sight, acuteness of ear and the courage to act according to God’s call and directions.

But there is another dimension to Joseph’s responses to his angelic dreams which acts as another pointer for us in this New Year. And that is his trust in and obedience of the call and command of God. “Then Joseph got up” is repeated each time. Joseph did not hesitate to obey God’s command because he both believed and trusted in God. It is that trust in God which we celebrate and recommit ourselves to in every eucharist but especially at every baptism. In the Baptismal Covenant we affirm the words of the Apostles or baptismal creed as well as committing ourselves to its consequences in the promises that follow. That commitment in which we all share at each baptism is a fine statement of what we believe and what we stand for. That is the basis of our belief and trust in God. If we trust in that expression of faith and obey its content we are making a good start to any year of time let alone this New Year.

The old evangelical hymn goes “Trust and obey; there is no other way; to be happy with Jesus, but to trust and obey.” Joseph trusted and obeyed the commands he received in his angelic dreams and thereby not only protected his little family but allowed the grand purposes of God to unfold and to be fulfilled.