Notes from the Pastor - December 30, 2011

Sunday, January 1 – Happy New Year!

Worship in the Fellowship Hall at 8:30AM, 10:45AM and 5:13PM Worship Times.
(due to the HVAC being replaced in the Sanctuary)
Holy Communion at both morning worship times.
Sunday school at 9:30am.

 

In the church year, January 1 is the Festival of The Name of Jesus.

Scripture Readings:

Numbers 6:22-27 (The Lord bless you and keep you…)

Psalm 8 (O Lord our Lord, how exalted is your name in all the world!)

Galatians 4:4-7 (God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts)

Luke 2:15-21 (After 8 days…he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb)

One of our hymns, the Gospel Acclamation, will be “Jesus, What a Wonderful Child.” Listen to John Legend sing it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT8CUf4Oxdc.

 

Some of our Prayer Concerns – Lord, in your mercy…

+ Ruth Seabock, Randy Ingold, Judy Ingold, Patty Mesuch, Jeannie Bost, Geoff Yount, Maxine Kirchin, Norris Hallman

+ The Old Year 2011 (memories, events, joys, sadnesses)

+ The New Year 2012 (hopes, plans, resolutions)

+ United States of America military personnel and their families including Christopher Todd Metcalf, Adam Moose, Chris Atwater, and James Yount  

 

Thought for the Week

A Prayer for a New Year

Gracious God, whose Spirit, in the beginning, hovered over a primordial lifeless void, whose Word, in the beginning, witnessed all creation and named it “Good,”

 

– we give you thanks today for the presence of your spirit and for the power of your word in this new beginning. For life and for new life, for creation and for recreation, for the enduring presence of One who is our Omega and our Alpha, hear now our gratitude. 

 

“As year succeeds to year,” and as we gather anticipating life in this new year, we now pray: revitalize your vision in our lives and sustain the life-giving potential of that vision throughout the year.

 

When, in this year, despair threatens to turn life into a mere struggle for survival, “Be Thou Our Vision,” and bring the expansiveness of your hope back into view.

 

When, in this year, purpose wanes and we wander about with no clear sense of where to go, “Be Thou Our Vision,” and refocus us on your purposes.

 

When, in this year, we flounder and fall, fail to be who we can be and to do what we can do, “Be Thou Our Vision,” and remind us of the sufficiency of your grace.

 

When, in this year, our sights become blurred by prejudice and animosity, by some myopic narrowness, “Be Thou Our Vision,” and help us also to see the goodness of all persons created in your image.

 

When, in this year, we cannot see beyond the smallness of our own world or the limitations of some immediate context, “Be Thou Our Vision,” and help us to perceive the entire created order in some new light.

 

And, when, in this new year, we encounter grief and loss, when life ebbs and for any whom we love, even then, we pray, “Be Thou Our Vision,” and comfort us with the faith that you are life beyond all of the life we now know.

 

Sovereign God, as in creation’s beginning, so now again, intermingle your spirit in all of the stuff of our lives. Throughout this year, give us both the courage to trust and the creativity to celebrate. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

           

- prayer by the Rev. James Leach