New Year’s Sunday Sermon 2020.
It is a new year. It is a new decade. It is a new beginning.
Every New Year we find ourselves in a solemn reflective gratifying mode as we close yet another year behind us; some want to quickly close a year marked with grief and loss, or bitterness and problems and eagerly want to open a new year of opportunities and change.
Others reluctantly linger in the old used year of wonderful events, encounters, experiences and epiphanies. Afraid to let go of yet another year as we might fear the change, the uncertainty and demands of the new year.
It is a new day. It is a new year. It is a new decade. It is a new beginning.
Every new year I am amazed ad surprised that another year has passed or slipped through my fingers, my plans and my time. How quickly times fly, and how quickly days turn into a year!
Another year passes by and we are another year older. Our kids are older too. Our friends and family.
This New Year marks a new beginning and a new time in a very profound way as it is the beginning of a decade. We have left the 2010’s behind us and are curiously and cautiously taking our first steps into this new decade.
Welcome to the 2020’s, a decade of self-driving cars, commercial flights to space, mining the moon for minerals, chip implants in the brain, drastic climate changes, dramatic political diversities and new advancements that we can not even fathom. Where will be and how will life be at the end of this new decade?
A hundred years ago were the roaring 20’ies.
The Roaring Twenties refers to the decade of the 1920s in Western society and Western culture. It was a decade and time of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the United States and Europe, particularly in major cities such as Berlin, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, and Sydney. The decade had a unique social, artistic and cultural dynamism. Jazz blossomed, the flapper redefined the modern look for British and American women, and Art Deco peaked. This period saw the large-scale development and use of automobiles, telephones, movies, radio, and electrical appliances being installed in the lives of thousands of Westerners. Aviation soon became a business. Nations saw rapid industrial and economic growth, accelerated consumer demand, and introduced significantly new changes in lifestyle and culture. The media, funded by the new industry of mass-market advertising driving consumer demand, focused on celebrities, especially sports heroes and movie stars, as cities rooted for their home teams and filled the new palatial cinemas and gigantic sports stadiums. In many major democratic states, women won the right to vote. The roaring twenties were indeed a big roar of change, advancements and growth.
For many the roaring 20’ies signified the achievements of modernity, welcoming the new and novel, and breaking with traditions that did not make sense anymore. It is hard to understand that we are indeed in the year 2020, - it sounds like a futuristic Kubrick movie more than this present time and age.
It is hard to believe that now we are entering the 20’ies again. How are these twenties going to be? What will they hold for us? Will the 2020 be roaring or will they be more relaxed, reformative, restorative?
I was out walking with Saxo on New years Eve morning and on New Years Day morning. Two distinct days of beautiful sunshine, rolling hills, trails through old oil territories, muddy paws and a wagging tail, fresh air and quit time – and kind encounters with people on the last day of 2019 or on the first day of 2020.
It was the same trail, the same views, the same air and the same wagging dog with muddy paws, - and yet it was two completely different days. My dog and I literally stepped over the threshold from the 2010’s to the 2020’s and into a new day, a new decade, a new beginning.
I don’t think Saxo had any thoughts about the significant change of time…. he old enjoyed the moment of muddy waters, trails and things to smell.
On the trail, the Olinda Oil Trail, I was once again reminded of the change in time and the historic changes in our lifetime. Walking the Olinda Oil Trail passing oil pumps – some still pumping – I was reminded of the trail of life, or more poetically the path of life. The long and winding roads that leads us to unknown territory even if we think we know the terrains, the trails, the route and the views, - we may be surprised, overwhelmed, scared, welcomed, lost or injured.
What does the trail of 2020 hold for us?
Where does the path of 2020 lead us?
If we listen to history and learn from history, we will know that the hopeful promising roaring 20’ies didn’t end as well as they started. At the close of 1920’ies the stock marked crashed, families were losing fortunes of money, livelihood and jobs. The country went int the Great Depression that would leave a lasting impression on US and the world.
Will we learn from history and will we preserve the institutions, the truths that have outlasted time and change? Will we repeat the same mistakes? The prosperity and technical advances are astounding and mesmerizing as it was to people 100 years ago, but there is also a darker side as well, when we are caught in corruption, overconsumption, inequality, injustice, climate change and a fascination of the glittery, fast and easy life, that we truly miss the blessings that we could and should share.
As I was walking the Olinda Oil Trail on the last day of the year and on the first day of the decade, I remembered the new year wishes or advices from Svend Brinkmann. The Danish professor said that there were so many horrible words in the 2010’s that he wished for improvement:
1. Less disruption, more restoration
2. Less networking, more friendships
3. Less innovation, more ingenuity
4. Less opportunism, more formation
5. Less stress, more jazz
6. Less Facebook, more real books
7. Less love yourself, more love your neighbor
8. Less need for mindfulness, more time to zone out
9. Less competition, more solidarity
10. Less surveillance of the citizens, more surveillance of the politician
11. Less salt, more pepper
12. Less lists, more poems.
Last year same Mr. Brinkman encouraged all Danes - and I included his encouragement in my New year’s Sermon, - Mr. Brinkmann encouraged us to walk backwards into the new year in order to remind us of the importance of knowing our history & respecting our earned knowledge. If we just blindly jump into the new year, only looking ahead, then we only see our own tip of our noses. Then we will make sad and dangerous choices only based on our current view and time and completely forget our history, earned knowledge, conventions and rights. which has been built and earned through time and generations, not only decades but through centuries, through reformations, enlightments, World Wars and a “Never again” promise.
If we walk backwards into the future, we hold dear and clear the times that has passed, what made us, and what shaped us. If we do not know our history and where we came from, how do we know where we are going? Respecting and know our past will instill courage to embrace the unknown future and to follow a path of wisdom, knowledge, ingenuity and restoration.
It is a new day, a new year, a new decade and a new beginning.
“In the beginning was the world and the word was with God, and the words was God. All things came into being through him and without him not one thing came into being. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.”
There is no better way to enter a new day, a new year, a new decade than with these beautiful words from the Gospel according to John. In the beginning was God and God still is in all our new beginnings.
The light broke the darkness and that light of creation, wisdom and grace still shines on us, on our lives, on our time and on our years. Grace upon Grace we have received through God as a Creator, through God as a Savior and through God as a Spirit of hope.
Let us celebrate this new year and new decade with a roaring faith – that we do believe that life is good, our beginnings can be beginnings of change and compassion, commitment and care, - and as we walk backwards into the new unknown year we pray:
Lord, let my heart be good soil,
open to the seed of your Word.
Lord, let my heart be good soil,
where love can grow, and peace is understood.
When my heart is hard, break the stone away.
When my heart is cold, warm it with the day.
When my heart is lost, lead me on your way.
Lord, let my heart be good soil.
Happy New Year, Happy 2020 and Happy New beginnings. AMEN
Pastoral Prayer for the New Year
Praise and eternal glory be to you our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who was, is and shall be one true God, praised from the beginning now and forever more.
Lord God, as we look ahead to the year ahead, we do so with wonder and praise, knowing that whatever the year brings You will be with us, knowing that however lost we get you will find us, knowing that you will be by our side.
We bring before you our prayers for the World. Knowing that all are in your arms and you love the greatest and the weakest; the oldest and the youngest; the wisest and the most foolish.
We pray for the World: that this year may find the News not dominated by greed and fear and war and violence
but be full of hope and expectation and that it may mark the end of the numerous conflicts around the world.
We pray for our own country that she may lead the world in diplomacy and peace.
We pray for all politicians this year, that they may be filled with a duty to the poorest and weakest among us.
Lord, we pray for this church this coming year We pray for congregation and pastor, for council and committee. We pray for the presiding Bishop Eaton of ELCA and bishop Taylor of Pacifica Synod. And we pray that all who come here may find a warm welcome.
Lord you are always with us and in all places.
Bless each one of us, in Jesus Name, Amen
Please rise: The grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of us. Let us greet one another.