It was winter, John tells us.

It would be very easy for us to accept John’s off-the-cuff comment as simply a statement about the weather. But perhaps John is more describing a season of life, a season of faith – a diagnosis of the interior condition. Have you ever experienced a winter-like season of faith? A sense that everything is grey and drab and numb and cold, with no signs of life or growth?

John was describing the faith of those who had gathered together for the Feast of Dedication/Hanukkah. This tradition was nearly two hundred years ago; so for nearly two hundred years, they had gathered, remembered and celebrated. The problem though, was that in their consecrating an event of the past, they stood frozen in the past. Their hardened, wintery hearts could not hear Jesus’ words, understand His works, or recognise who He was. They were so stuck in the past that they failed to experience God’s presence in the here and now – in the changing of water into wine, in the feeding of 5000, in the healing of the sick, in the raising of the dead, in the commandment to love God and each other.

Friends, this is not just a 2000 year old Jewish problem. So often we consecrate our churches and past events, but keep our wintery hearts for ourselves. So we become people of doctrine over revelation, insularity over engagement, ritual over sacrament. And, dare I say it, our properties become more sacred to us than our relationships with God and with each other.

This makes sense – it is always easier, safer and more comfortable to consecrate the external than the internal. To consecrate ourselves would change how we see, hear, know, believe and live. It would be uncomfortable, to say the least.

But Jesus is not about comfortable commandments. Consider the Beatitudes; the great commandments; turn the other cheek; do not judge; sell your possessions; be faithful; take up your cross; be the Good Samaritan; forgive infinite times; wash each other’s feet; follow me.

Following Jesus is often demanding and uncomfortable. But take heart; there is no greater joy than being a follower of Christ. There is joy in being a person of faith. There is joy in meeting together to worship and fellowship together. There is joy in eating and singing and sharing and praying together. So let’s thaw out our hearts. Christ promises us abundant life right here and now, not simply when we die. Eternal life has already begun – let’s live it!