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January 2007 From the Pastor's Pen “New” It’s a lovely word. It’s also a deceptive one. “New” is a
fresh start, like the blank pages of an unspoiled new calendar with beautiful
pictures above the squares of the days. “New” is also the idea that anything
with that label shouting at us must also mean “and improved.” It ain’t necessarily so. As I write this, quite honestly, I’m not ready for the idea
of a whole New Year. The realities of church newsletter publishing and
mailing deadlines being what they are, it’s not even Christmas yet
(thankfully) as I sit at this computer screen. I can’t quite wrap my mind
around the change of dates, the new, when I’m thinking of what it is that I
haven’t yet accomplished in the old. “Fast away the old year passes,” I hear
the verse of the Christmas carol say, between the “fa-la-la’s.” Maybe your dilemma is similar to mine. Jesus said, at the end of a long string of parables, “every
scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a
household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matthew
13:52) He had just asked his disciples if they understood those parables, and
they said “yes.” I’m not sure they were being completely truthful. I surely
don’t always understand them. But I think I get what Jesus is trying to say
in that verse: “discern for yourself what is good about the old stuff (or the
old year), and what can be learned from the new stuff.” Jesus brought a
message of change, of correction, of willingness to see God’s kingdom, to his
hearers---including us. He wasn’t asking people to throw out the healthy
traditions of the past, in his Jewish tradition. He was telling them to get
to the heart of the matter, to see in that tradition what most matters to
God. We’re called to do the same. I usually come to transition
points in life, whether on the calendar, like the first of the year, or at
some major life change, and look both forward and backward. I tend to use
such times as a moment to reflect, with gratitude for what’s been good, and with
sorrow for what’s gone wrong, either through my doing or the circumstances
the world has faced. I think that’s the kind of time that makes people
reflective, and what drives the inclination in us to make New Year’s
resolutions. Even when we doubt the likelihood of being able to keep them
past the first week of January, we think about what we could change, what we
want to do differently in the new year. We at We also look to what changes could happen to “better up”
what is already going well. How might we as a church be even more inclusive,
more welcoming to those who visit worship? How might we take an even more
active role in inviting people to participate at “New” may be scary, or threatening, or uncomfortable. “New”
might challenge us to grow, to try things differently. It might need to be
tested to see what will work, what will help, what is life-giving about
what’s “new”. But it also could be the change to which God is calling us. “Old”
also doesn’t have to mean hidebound, stuck-in-the-mud, or stubbornly
traditional. It might be that which we need to hang onto for security while
we grow. May we, as we live into this New Year as people of faith at
On the Journey with you,
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e-mail Pastor
Baker-Streevy
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