THEMES OF A YEAR NOW ENDING
As the year ends this weekend, I have been thinking about some of the themes that our church and our world have had to deal with this year. I have been helped by television year-end reviews, and the non-stop reporting of the death of Saddam Hussein just yesterday. My feelings about his death are somewhat like our memories at the end of the year. It is a moment of resolution. Even with the flaws in the trial, he was treated more fairly than he treated the people who were executed at his command, including his own relatives. And yet, there is no joy in one more tragedy. Even revenge is not very satisfying. We have to start with higher principles than revenge and punishment if we are to create a world that is satisfying to live in.
Return to the Top
Go to the Middle
Go to the End
SYMBOLS OF A YEAR IN THE LIFE
Our
church has been involved in the life of our city, neighborhoods, and
individuals. We have sought variety, balance and quality in our worship and
education programs. We have tried
to be responsive to the needs of our members, and to be a light of hope in our
community. We continue to ask, What is the kind of church we want to be?
We have approached certainties with
questions. And where life has presented us with problems, we have responded
with a quest for the timeless certainties.
I have asked Kelli Upshaw to draw some symbols on this white board to represent some of the aspects of the life of our community that we have observed in the last year.
|
(SYMBOL CHURCH CROSS) |
|
Lets start with the Christian year. We have sung about, prayed about, and preached about the church year. There have been seasonal events such as Lent, Easter, Advent, Christmas, springtime and harvest. For those religious celebrations, ceremonies and memories, let us use the symbol of the cross.
|
(SYMBOL STICK FIGURE) |
€ |
Our year was also marked by personal
events such as births, weddings, funerals, graduations, travel, sickness and
health, richer and poorer. You and I intersected with God at new junctions of
life. It seems that as soon as we think we have one thing figured out, there is
another puzzle to solve. For these personal spiritual memories, for our own
triumphs and disappointments, lets use a stick figure of a person. We remember
the lessons God has provided us in this year.
|
(SYMBOL A ROSE) |
|
This
has been another year in which our church has been involved with local events.
The planting and the harvest seasons have spiritual meaning when you live in
the wine country. We are involved in
ministries to the homeless, gifts to children and families at Christmas,
foodbags are provided each week for the hungry. Music is one of our gifts to
our community; we prepare meals for students, and provide education for
preschool families. And so lets use the symbol of a rose to remember another
year of involvement in our community.
|
(SYMBOL GLOBE) |
|
We are also a church involved in the
world. We are a church of travelers, and that is a deep interest of my own. We
study national and international events. We have learned more about the history
of European culture in the American West.
We pray about Iraq, and soldiers and Saddam Hussein. We pray for
solutions in the Middle East, in Darfur, relief for the victims of a Tsunami,
and victims of a hurricane in our own country. And so lets draw a globe to
remember a restless and violent year in the life of our planet. And lets put
the international space station above that to remind us that there will be a
time when we leave our globe, just as sailors left their native lands in search
of new worlds.
Return to the Top
Go to the Middle
Go to the End
Middle
A FRAME OF FAITH, FRIENDS, FAMILY
Now how about putting a frame around that,
Kelli, to symbolize the portrait of a year that ends at least on our
calendars tonight.
Tonight people will celebrate, and tomorrow
we start the year with a clean slate. So with the New Year I would like to wipe
the slate clean.
The scriptures
say:
7. Cleanse
me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Psalms
51
THE YEAR THAT IS ENDING.
So
lets erase the white board.
There is problem with the white board. It
does not completely erase.
Kelli, did you use a permanent marker by
mistake?
There must be a lesson in that, too.
We cant completely erase
the good memories,
and we cant completely
obliterate the mistakes.
We have done some things that the Lord has
told us not to do. We have omitted things that we could have done. We have
received both the praise and the criticism of others. Time will help us deal
with it, but we can never wipe out the past completely. So we begin the New
Year with a few stains.
In
the Bible, God said, "Even though you wash yourself with a lot of soap,
the stain of your guilt is still there."
We
must have God's forgiveness to take away those stains -- and we can have God's
forgiveness because of Jesus.
Return to the Top
Go to the Middle
Go to the End
SO WE WILL HAVE TO
ADJUST OUR FORMULA
Each
year we begin with a clean slate, but there are stains upon it. And for the stains that we
cannot remove, we need not only an eraser, but also forgiveness.
The people asked Peter, What shall we
do?
38. Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39. The promise is for you and
your children. The Book of Acts
So our starting point is a somewhat clean slate, together with the greatest tool of our faith, forgiveness.
That is the way we look ahead. Happy New Year.
1.
Let us resolve to be faithful no matter what the year ahead may
bring.
2.
We are all afraid of something. But we will name it and move on.
We will be driven by our hopes, not our fears.
3.
Stay on track
4.
Remain flexible and keep on going
NO INSURANCE
But
even that does not insure success.
Is
there anything constant through all this?
Yes, a solid border -
communities in which we live, the faith that we hold, and the love with which
we surround ourselves. Faith, family and friends, thats the way we start
another year. Kelli, draw us a border of crosses and
stick figures.
Your life is significant at any age. Do
not pretend to be small, and do not shrink away from making a difference for
good in the lives of others.
Return to the Top
Go to the Middle
Go to the End
OUR DEEPEST FEAR
by Marianne Williamson from A Return To Love:
Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles
Our deepest fear is not that we are
inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our
light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to
be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually,
who are you not to be? You are
a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing
enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around
you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in
everyone.
And as
we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do
the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically
liberates others.
So let your light shine.
The Lord will make all things new,
and yet nothing that
God has made is forgotten.
Give yourself permission to shine,
to love others, and
to bring out the best in yourself,
and in others.
TWO PEOPLE LOOKING
FOR HAPPINESS
Rabbi Herbert Bronstein was
Senior Rabbi of North Shore Congregation Israel in
I
set before you, for example, two persons in search of happiness:
On
one side an elderly woman confined to a hospital room, practically immobile, in
pain, gradually losing the faculty of sight, who has known personal loss of
those dear to her. And on the other side a wealthy, successful young man in his
physical prime, with family, with means to travel, means to enjoy a great life.
Which
of the two would you say was the happier? At least in one case of which I
know, you might have been mistaken.
Once
I visited that elderly woman who spoke poetically in her hospital bed and
appreciatively, with a kind of deep inner-feeling, of the light coming into her
room towards the end of the day, of the colors of the flowers on the window
counter, of her deep satisfaction with her life, of her pleasure in her loved
ones, of her gratitude for my simple ordinary visit. Everything about her was
positive. On the way out, with a wink and a smile, she got me at a weak moment
to contribute to one of her favorite charities.
Later I stopped briefly at
a social gathering where I met a young man in the prime of success and health,
who had so magnified some alleged, imagined, or perhaps real trickery or
chicanery on the part of business associates, that he had worked himself into a
rancor of bitterness, making himself a very miserable person.
What I learned from these
two people is that happiness accepts the imperfections of life, happiness comes
from within.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
And so with that reminder, I wish you
Happy New Year. May your happiness come from within.
May it truly embrace your past with both gratitude and forgiveness, and may you
discover, in the year ahead, a way to use the power that God has given you to
liberate yourself from all fears, and liberate others from their fears as well.
Behold, I will make all things new.
In the name
of our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Dr. John H. Cushman
Presbyterian
Church of the Roses
2500 Patio
Court
Santa Rosa,
CA 95405