ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
December 31, 2021
It is time to begin again all over again. Life is an unending cycle of new beginnings, yet with everyone of those new beginnings comes an ending. As of midnight tonight, 2021 comes to an end. There were plenty of jokes a year ago about staying up until midnight just to make sure 2020 really ended. We were optimistic of the possibility and promise of 2021. In some ways, it does not feel as if it lived up to our hope. For most of us, we really believed we would see the end of the pandemic and a renewal of civility in our society. In other ways, there were plenty of new beginnings. Part of the faith inspired by Jesus, at least from my vantage point, is a belief in new possibilities beyond what could be imagined in the moment. Those possibilities exist within us. Maybe not within one or just two of us, but within the collective (the church) believes something can emerge from our effort… our common effort. It is time to begin again all over again. What might God be trying to do through us in this new year?
As we come to another threshold moment, O God of New Beginnings, we pray for guidance and assurance as we prepare to take our first few steps into the new year. We hope to represent faithfulness to your Gospel of love and kindness. Amen.
