Greetings and prayer for the New Year.

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father,

you who are the source of our lives and have put us in a world of so much beauty and wealth: Create faith and trust in us so that at this turn of the year from 2020 to 2021 we can enter the new year of faith and hope.

Almighty God, We need faith and trust at a time marked by anxiety and mistrust.

We need dignity, honesty, faithfulness, humanity and humility. Forgive us when we abuse many of the opportunities and tasks that life has given us over the past year or those we are being handed in the new year. Strengthen us, teach us humanity and righteousness - remind us to always take care of all living things, of our beautiful earth, of the joy of the heart, the light in our eyes.

Bless the church in the year that lies before us. We hope that we can meet face to face soon, hand in hand, embrace by embrace in the church room to share faith, hope, and love.  Until then, we are together separately, connected and united in faith and hope. Keep and bless the church and us. Renew the church and us to call on faith, on courage, on the urge for truth and sense of humanity.

We ask you, God, for the people affected by grief, illness or depression due to Covid19 or other diseases. We pray for anyone who is grieving, sick and lonely. Give us strength and courage.
We pray for peace and reconciliation in the world. We pray for justice and decency among people. We pray for our democracy and civil order.

Give us and all with responsibility trusted insights to lead, recognition of responsibility and humility. Almighty God, a new year has come, and you are with us, as the creator, as the Son, and as the Holy Spirit.

We leap into the new year and the new days of hope and faith. Bless us when we take the first steps together. Amen

Gospel Mark 1.4-11

Sermon. "Gratitude and decisiveness. "

Happy New Year to all of you. Happy New Year!

Many of you probably know the custom of climbing on to a chair and at midnight on the last day of the year, to jump into the new year. With power, with strength, with hope and with faith.

At this first Danish church service in 2021, we are jumping or leaping straight into the new year with high hopes of what it might bring us.

We need to hear words like faith, hope and love, as we want and hope and believe that this year, 2021, will be a Happy New Year. A better year than the one we just left.

2020 sounded like a fantastically lucky year, when we jumped into it a year ago. But the year turned out to be quite different than we could have imagined or prepared for. The world is different now. 2020 became a landmark year, when a small airborne virus hit the entire world. Not just our corner of the world, but the whole world.  The world was shut down. Our everyday lives became more restricted, and more isolated. The Virus created fear and loneliness. Its companions were illness, pain, grief and death. Like the Black Death in the Middle Ages or the Spanish Flu 100 years ago, our normal free life was altered.

We had to adjust to deprivation and distance. On hand sanitizers, face masks, social distance, cancellations, shutdowns, working at home, virtual learning, economic and hard times and emotional challenges.

And as if that were not enough to bear in just one year: we also had to    live through an incredibly polarized and hostile political time of Divisive Election Campaigns and demonstration against undignified racism in our past and present.

And this week’s sad events in Washington was a horrible and grim reminder of just how fragile our democracy and civil order is.

So, we are still in the aftermath of everything that 2020 gave us of challenges and tasks in our society; but we have also leaped into a new year with high hopes of a new beginning, high hopes and a better tomorrow.  

That is why the first reading of today from Genesis is so hopeful for us:

In the beginning, God created the heaven and earth. Let there be light, and God saw that the light was good. Life was good. Life had begun.

The light was and is good. We need light to find our way. The light can reveal the consequences of what we have experienced and seen, and the light we need to understand and embrace the truth and the path we must follow.

Every New Year I remember a fantastic New Year’s Eve in Ringive. I was a pastor in Ringive in Jutland, and   we were living in the old beautiful red parsonage by Omme å. Close and in walking distance to our lovely neighbors and friends, with whom we always celebrated New Year's Eve. It gets incredibly dark at night in Ringive! And since there were no streetlights on the small road from the parsonage to the neighbors, well you had to either go to the moonlight or bring a lamp. Yes, that is before we all had an iPhone with lights!!!

This New Year's Eve was a foggy and dark night, as I walked alone from the neighbors after late night food and hygge to get home for a good night's sleep before the morning New years Day Service in Church.

So, I walked alone on the very very dark yet short road to the parsonage and tried to keep my eyes firmly on the road right in front of me. That is why the fright was great when I suddenly walked into a COW!

I think the cow and I just got equally startled. I cannot believe, it could be so dark, I could walk into a cow. After much laughter and no one believing me, it was finally revealed at the Church Service New Year’s Day that some of our other neighbors’ cows had escaped during the night. Thus, the cow on the road!

What to look for in the dark?

What might hide in the darkness of weird obstacles or scary collisions?

 

Light is good. And we all need light on the way forward and light backwards to understand, where we came from.

 

 New Year is the celebration of us leaving something behind us and starting something new. But New Year is also the realization of what the past possible could teach us, and possible could make us bring with us into the new days.

"Life is lived forwards but understood backwards," as Soren Kierkegaard said.

I do not need to tell anyone that 2020 was a special year. For many a terrible year, and for all a challenging year. We have all experienced limitations, health challenges, political polarization and a halted and altered economy. So, what have we learned and what expectations can we afford to have for 2021?

We are always looking for meaning. Meaning in the midst madness. And when we seek meaning, we must look back as Kierkegaard. To understand what happened and what we may have lost or found or which valuable live lessons we have been taught.

We all want the same back again:

that we can meet again, that we can be together again, in the family, in the circle of friends, in the church, in the restaurants, in the concert halls, in the cinemas, on the planes on new adventures, and that we can be safe together again.

What last year taught us, and what we hopefully do not forget, is that we need human interaction, coziness, hugs and embraces, handshakes and open smiles. But we also value the simpler life with time for contemplation, family, cooking, reading and values of dignity, respect and decency.

The Danish author Carsten Jensen, who has written a painful book about the loss of his stepson and the concern for the state of the world and climate, ends his book "Exercises in Saying Goodbye" with this call:

"The fact that we are still here should fill us with gratitude. That we may soon not be here anymore should fill us with decisiveness."

That we are still here in 2021 should fill us with gratitude in the aftermath of all of 2020 ills and adversities.

That we may soon not be here anymore, realizing that our time is short, that our life is short, should fill us with courage and decisiveness.

Gratitude, courage and decisiveness that makes us live with light and joy, with dignity and honesty, with faith and trust, with humanity and humility.

Let all this light up the way we must go – together. After all, it has just made us realize how much we live by togetherness, presence, friendship, family connection, contact and how important our society, democracy and peace can be. The sad events this week only showed us how fragile our democracy and civility are.

We must be grateful and decisive, when we have been reminded and taught that hatred, violence, and fear are not the only emotions that can change the world. Compassion, conversation, dignity, community, humanity, and friendship can change and create new ways

We hope and believe that with the new beginning and the new year, we will feel that the beacon of truth and light will once again shine for usus so we might find our way. There can be so many obstacles, blind alleys, and cows not only on the ice but hidden in the darkness that can prevent us moving forward.

But today begins with the first step.

The year has just begun with the first step. Unfortunately, we were sadly and violently reminded that we always need to believe in truth, conversation, light, democracy, and dignity.

We will sing our prayer for this land of ours and the world, in the beautiful hymn "This is my song." and we will listen to the fun poem by Benny Andersen about seizing the day and the moment:

"morning hymn "

Today is for living, People!

We are already on our way

Started early this morning

Water in the face

Coffee down the throat

A brisk quarrel

And a little newspaper.

We still need laughter

work

Love

And a couple of meals

So, fan the fire, folks!

 

New ideas are gladly accepted

How about without any explanation?

Giving your grocer a kiss

Or put your coat on inside-out

We have got to feel alive

There must be music

and flowers for everyone

who knows, maybe a banana too.

 

Pour out your soul and inventiveness

Work your body until it is steaming

Better steam than dust.

Write 30 letters and plant a tree

Imitate a couple of birdsongs

Unload on your wife

And forgive her on the spot

These are all signs of life.

 

The day is still new-born

You can achieve plenty

Before you drop from exhaustion

Use lots of big words

Exaggerate for once

The court hereby finds:

You are sentenced to life!

Do not throw away your fate

Better take it on you.

Put it on it

Fill it out

Like your skin!

Bit life in the thigh.

Go find your future.

Squander your plans and words of wisdom

Because today we are really going to live!

 Amen.