PASTOR'S PENNew Year Resolutions and New Year Beginnings..."So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" - II Corinthians 5:17 Happy New Year 2102 - I pray for God's many blessings on you and your family this new year and always! Many people see January 1, not only as the beginning of the new calendar year, but as a new beginning for various things: academic semesters, budgets, and starting/re-kindling passions. We used this marked time to 'wipe the slate clean' and begin anew. We make 'new year resolutions' and work to keep them (at least for a while!) While I am not against making/keeping these 'new year resolutions' (I, too, make them and TRY to keep them), I wonder if it is too easy to take them upon ourselves to make/keep and forget to put GOD in the picture. Let me explain... During Advent last year, I began reading "God in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas" by Dietrich Bonheoffer. This devotional book has readings until the end of Christmastide, which is Epiphany (January 6) - and the devotion from January 1 challenged my thinking a bit... "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." This saying...reveals deep Christian insight. At the beginning of a new year, many people have nothing better to do than to make a list of bad deeds and resolve from now on - how may such "from-now-ons" have there already been! - to begin with better intentions, but they are still stuck in the middle of their paganism. They believe that a good intention already means a new beginning; they believe that on their own they can make a new start whenever they want. But that is an evil illusion: only God can make a new beginning with people whenever God pleases, but not people with God. Therefore, people cannot make a new beginning at all; they can only pray for one. Where people are on their own and live by their own devices, there is only the old, the past. Only where God is can there be a new beginning. We cannot command God to grant it; we can only pray to God for it. And we can pray only when we realize that we cannot do anything, that we have reached our limit, that someone else must make that new beginning. Bonheoffer is reminding us that only God is truly able to start us anew - to change and transform us - and that we alone, even with good intentions, cannot achieve this. We are called to align ourselves to God's will, acknowledge our inability to change on our own, and pray for God to start us anew. As we begin this new year, I pray that we will keep God in the center of all our 'resolutions' and hopes. The Bible passage above claims that "in Christ...everything has become new"! And it is this Christ that we relinquish ourselves to, put our faith in, and hope in order to be made new - to truly be given a new beginning. Here's to beginning 2012 with the God of new beginnings! Peace and blessings, Pastor Grace CLERK'S REPORT
DEACONS' REPORTCoffee Fellowship: The Deacons would like to thank the individuals who have contributed to the coffee fellowship during the month of December. |
Jan Der, Co-moderator
