Pastor’s Corner January 2017
Happy New Year!! May this new year bring you abundant joy, overflowing blessing, renewed health, deep peace, and unending hope. May the light of Christ fill this year with His bright love, and may this holy light shine through whatever darkness may come your way. May 2017 be the best year it can possibly be for you, your family, and all whom you hold dear. And finally, may 2017 be a year of peace and hope throughout the world. May the poor be lifted up, the hungry fed, the oppressed set free, the lonely and forgotten remembered, and all who need to hear good news have good news proclaimed to them.
Of course, we have no idea what will actually happen in this new year, for us, for our family and friends, for our nation, or for the world. The future is always a mystery in some way or another. But the beginning of a new year is a great time to be reminded of the one constant and sustaining truth, the one truth that is the same last year, this year, and every year to come – the loving presence of God in our lives.
Whatever the new year brings (and again, my deep prayer is that everything it brings is good), God is with us. We walk through this new year with Jesus by our side. We are daily blessed, we are daily empowered, we are daily lifted up, through all things, in all circumstances, and at every moment.
We are always beloved children of God. We are always washed clean in the water of baptism. We are always fed at the table of holy communion. Our prayers are always heard. Our lives are always lived in the abiding presence of God. Old year, new year, every year, this does not change.
And so we are able to welcome this new year with joy and hope, not because we are certain of what lies ahead, but because we are certain that, regardless of what lies ahead, we face all things with God by our side, with God as our strength, with God as our source of grace and love and hope in all things.
So I hope and pray that 2017 is a wonderful year for you and yours. I hope and pray 2017 is a wonderful year for our nation and the whole world. I hope and pray, because I know God is with us. The Emmanuel of Christmas is the Emmanuel of all the rest of the year, as well. Whatever else 2017 may be, it is blessed, because God is here, with us, for us, beside us, before us, above us, within us.
May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds, you and your loved ones, in Christ Jesus our Lord, through all of 2017. Happy and Blessed New Year!! See you in church!!
Peace,
Pr. Paul
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