From the Pastor: The New Year

Dear friends of Grace Baptist,

As I reflect on this Friday of Christmas week 2022, the 30th of December, I pause to give thanks for this past week and year.  I recall a series of questions from Joyce Rupp’s book, “Out of the Ordinary.”  In her book she has a New Year’s Meditation with thought provoking questions.  As we move say goodbye to 2022 and welcome 2023 this weekend, I share some of her questions in this pondering.  Perhaps you’ll take a few minutes, or ten, twenty, thirty or sixty to respond to these questions in a journal.

As you look back on the year just completed:

  1. What name would you give to your journey of the past year?  What image or metaphor would you use to talk about it?
  2. Who were your wise persons? What did they reveal to you?  How did this influence your life?
  3. Did any of your hopes and dreams become a reality?
  4. What was most satisfying about the year? What was least satisfying?

As you look to the year before you:

  1. What name would you like your new year’s journey to have? What gifts do you bring with you into the year before you?
  2. What is your greatest need for the coming year?
  3. How is your relationship with the Holy One as you pause on the threshold of the new year’s vast landscape? What is at the heart of your new year’s prayer?
  4. What do you hope to contribute to your community in this coming year?

This last question connects with our “Children’s Chat for All Ages” this Sunday.  As you think about what you would like to contribute to your community, whether your family, your friends, your faith community, or whatever community you may belong to, you may think you do not have much to offer.  You may think, “what gift do I have to give?”

This Sunday we reflect on two stories about giving gifts.  One is biblical (the story of the magi) the other is extra biblical.  We’ll all engage with each other in varied learning modalities this Sunday during our chat for all ages, including some singing led by me on the piano.

I hope to see as many of you as possible in person as we begin this New Year pondering the small gifts we can share with others.  We’ll conclude our worship service celebrating God’s gift of grace by sharing in the Lord’s Supper.

See you on Sunday,

Pastor David

David Braneky

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