Prayer for the New Year

A new year coming, and God is with us. In loving and in carrying, in hoping and expecting. God is with us and never lets us go.

God live in us, God live with us, God live through us.

God keep us faithful through the days that lie ahead. God keep us caring in the pain that fills your world. God keep us serving as we seek to do your will,

God live in us, God live with us, God live through us.

God keep us loving toward neighbors near and far. God keep us trusting through the uncertainties of life. God keep us sharing from your generous abundance.

God live in us, God live with us, God live through us.

Amen.

 

” Baptisms & Beginnings.”

Today is a day of beginnings.

At the beginning of all beginnings, at the dawn of creation the divine and eternal words sounded in the darkness: “Let there be light!”, and everything that we know and cherish and live by began.

“Let there be light…. “and there was light. There was a beautiful beginning of the story of creation, of nature, of humanity and of love. A beginning that beckons all of our beginnings, - and reminds us of the grandness of beginnings. All beginnings are connected to that first beginning.

 

In this light of that first light, we welcome a new year with all the new beginnings it might hold for you and me.

A new year stands on our doorstep.

Ready and eager to enter our lives journey.

Something in us might welcome this New Year with old songs and jubilant praise:

the hope of bountiful blessings, the joy of a new beginning, and the freshness of unclaimed surprises. What will this year hold for us – what will begin and what will end? How will it begin and how will it end?

 

Something in us might reluctantly calm this hopeful beginning and rebuff this New year:

the swiftness of the coming, the boldness of the beginning, and the challenge of a year's good-bye.

 

Something in us might even fear the New Year and all the possible and impossible beginnings:

the unnamed events of future days, the wisdom needed to walk and choose well, and the demands of giving away and growing.

 

A new year stands on our doorstep.

Something in us might be anxious and fearful, jubilant and dreaming, or hesitant and restrained.

The promise or the dread of new beginnings might have us move with fragile caution to gently open the door for the possible beginnings, promised blessings and dreaded burdens.

 

Welcome New year with grace of God, blessed greetings today, we sing with old Grundtvig’s word into this old worn world and into this new year.

We greet you; New Yer You are welcome here….

 

Beginnings are so many.

A new year to plan, and empty calendar days to fill.

A new year of birthdays, anniversaries, baptisms, weddings, and celebrations.

A new year welcoming a New King of Denmark and saying a heartfelt Thank You to our beloved Queen.

A new year with time and urgency to correct and challenge, to reform and revise, to confirm and consolidate, to close and to open, to live and love, to say goodbye and redefine tomorrow.

 

Beginnings are so many.

We began our lives with the first deep breath of life, that became a cry, that became the first words, that became a conversation.

We begin our relations with a deep breath of letting go of our insecurities and daring to share who we are and how we feel.

We begin our first day at school, at our new work, the first day of retirement, the first day in our new home, the first day as married, divorced, widowed, parents, grandparents with a deep breath of letting go and opening yet another door.

We begin and all of our beginnings make our lives full of challenges, changes, chances and choices.

 

The Danish Poet says in Morning Hymn

 

Today is for living, people.

We are already on our way

Started early this morning

Water on the face

Coffee down the throat

A brisk quarrel

A little newspaper

We still need laughter

Work

Love

And a couple of meals

So fan the fire, folks!

 

New ideas gladly accepted.

How about without explanation

Give your neighbor a kiss

or put your coat on inside-out

We have got to feel alive.

There must be music.

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 thirty 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 days is still newborn.

You can achieve plenty

Before you drop from exhaustion.

Use lots of big words.

Exaggerate for once

The court hereby find;

You are sentence to life.

Don’t throw away your fate.

Put it on

Fill it out!

Like your skin

Bite life in the thigh

Go find your future!

Squander your plans and words of wisdom!

Because today we are really going to live!

 

It is all about beginnings today – and even so about baptisms.

In the beginning there was water and words, - and when John the Baptist wandered the earth there was streaming water in Jordan and words of repentance and baptism.

Then Jesus came to Jordan. To be baptized and to begin his ministry.

Now that was a new beginning and even with a voice from heaven that might have sounded like James Earl Jones, deep and otherworldly.

A ragged sky and a rocketing dove and a baptism that was the beginning. Of the life and ministry of Jesus. Of the life and ministry of John the Baptist. Of the life of everyone under the heavens drawn by that deep deep voice. Of the life of each and every one who was baptized then and throughout history.

Baptism is a beginning. A beginning of a journey of faith, hope and love. It was for Jesus, and it was for us.

For a moment: remember your baptism. Maybe not the day and the moment as you might have been an infant just like me – but the words and eternal waters of the promise of baptism, that has been our new dawn, our new beginning, our new hope that God is with us. Then and now. Always.

 

As we celebrate a new year, as we embark into a new year of days and moments, challenges and chances, we also celebrate our baptism again. The promise of being loved, named and claimed as God’s beloved children.

We emerge from the water with a new purpose and promise.

We are destined to live and to love and as the poet said: Don’t throw away that baptismal water of hope, purpose and promise. Put it on, fill it out. Go find your future. Because today we are going to live and believe in the promise given that God will be with us.

 

Baptisms and beginnings. We begin a new year, and we remember and celebrate our baptism as the warm embrace of God that reminds us and reassure us again and again: we are beloved.

Welcome, New year, with Grace of God blessed greetings today!

Father God in the name of Your son

Let this year be blessed for everyone.

We greet you, New Year – you are welcome here.