Why the fuss over a turn of the calendar? Isn’t it the same revolution in the same orbit around the same sun that we traverse every day and night and day again? Time doesn’t march; it rolls us ever into a new place in the same old space, over and over.
Ah, but who doesn’t yearn for a new beginning?
Church time rolls in circles too. This week we return to that Jordan River where we saw John baptizing people – only now we are further along in the story, and see Jesus himself come out to be baptized. We will explore this week what baptism is and means, but above all it offers new life, the birth of the new creation we are in Christ.
On this New Years Day, take some time to ask yourself:
What in your life do you wish was new?
What feels old or stale or over?
Where do you see new life emerging, inside of you, outside of you?
What life do you yearn for?
Invite God into the answers and the questions, the joys and the yearning.
One promise of baptism is that we were made new once, and somehow are being made new all the time. Pray to be connected with your baptismal self. That person exists, right here and now. She or he may be sharing space with a whole lot of other selves, but that baptismal self of ours is a holy, eternal creation.
What if we spent some time each morning inviting our baptismal self into the foreground? How might it change the way we interact with the day and the people we encounter in it? How might it change the way we treat ourselves?
Faith and even ministry may not always begin with baptism, but each Christian traces membership in the eternal Body of Christ back to that river Jordan, back to that water of life. Let’s go down to the river again.
Blessed New Year!
One promise of baptism is that we were made new once, and somehow are being made new all the time. Pray to be connected with your baptismal self. That person exists, right here and now. She or he may be sharing space with a whole lot of other selves, but that baptismal self of ours is a holy, eternal creation.
What if we spent some time each morning inviting our baptismal self into the foreground? How might it change the way we interact with the day and the people we encounter in it? How might it change the way we treat ourselves?
Faith and even ministry may not always begin with baptism, but each Christian traces membership in the eternal Body of Christ back to that river Jordan, back to that water of life. Let’s go down to the river again.
Blessed New Year!
