January 2007 Message from the Pastor

I think it was a mistake to begin numbering the years. It may make sense to measure time and numbers help with that but somewhere along the line we stopped describing the years by just using numbers. It was probably more meaningful to describe them with other terms. “In the year of King Uzziah’s reign” or “During the year of the dog” may give more definition to what is important to us at a particular time.

How might we name this new year? Do we expect something big to happen or to be especially memorable? Maybe you can really do this work only in retrospect. For example, it may be too presumptive to say, “The first year of peace in the Middle East” or the “first year of true global cooperation.” While we all wish these things will happen this year, it may be absurd to claim these names and then find later that there was an increase in regional violence and global disharmony. But still, what can we say about the year that might distinguish it?

Indeed, distinguishing years is hard. If we say, like Isaiah and Jesus did when they stood up and said they were designated to “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” we wonder was that just one year? Shouldn’t every year be that year and what’s to distinguish one year from another? As hard as it may be to limit a year to just one or a few things, maybe it would help us to gauge our progress or intentions as a world.

For example, calling this the “first year of true awareness and action on global warming” might inspire focused attention on this universal concern. But whatever the theme is, it ought to capture what we all are willing to work on together.

In the church, we will focus our attention on the Gospel of Luke, (we often call this year of Gospel readings the “year of Luke.”) and try together to learn from this powerful story of Jesus’ life. We will also focus on one aspect of our life together that is deficient. I can’t say yet what this aspect is as it will be identified soon by a representative sample of our members as they complete a special survey. The hope will be that by concentrating on this aspect, we will strengthen it and other dimensions of our common life.

For us at least, I pray that we can say without hesitation that this is “the first year of growing compassion (an important theme in Luke) and vibrant spirituality.” Wouldn’t it be great if people could see in us the bright and loving Spirit of Christ enriching our lives and the lives of those around us? That’s my Epiphany wish and New Year’s prayer for us. Remind me to look at this again at the end of the year and see how we’ve done.

Pastor Jim Friedrich