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“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and he entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And he opened the book, and found the place where it was written, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor: He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.' And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down: and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, To-day hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears.” Luke 4:16-21
NEW YEAR... Dear Parishioners,
There is a sense in which entering this new year matters. We are looking for things – mostly that things will “improve.” The economic sense of “improve” is perhaps dominant in our thoughts. Our concern is not to be taken lightly. Real and persistent suffering has been broadly experienced. We are not out of the woods. Indeed, we hardly know for sure the woods we are in. But we can be sure that “Have a happy and prosperous new year” will not be rolling casually off our tongues. We know it will be anything but for a great many of us.
So it seems that we are being invited to “re-frame” our New Year's celebration and all that it implies in the coming year. “Happy New Year!” might best give way to a different set of expressions:
Faithful New Year Compassionate New Year Charitable New Year “Love thy neighbor as thyself” New Year “Where there is darkness, light” New Year “Judge not, that ye be not judged” New Year “Do not neglect to do good and share what you have” New Year Read the Bible New Year Forgiving others New Year Unselfish New Year Comfort the broken hearted New Year... to name but a few.
On the radio prior to New Year's Eve, it was reported that there is a difference between the young and old in making “New Year's resolutions.” In brief, the older one gets the less likely one becomes to make New Year's resolutions. We might speculate endlessly on the reasons, but surely one thing is obvious. As we age, we have experienced enough failure to abandon hope.
But there is Good News! When Jesus stands up in the synagogue, he begins exactly there. Jesus proclaims that this is “the acceptable year of the Lord,” which is also translated “the year of the Lord's favor.” He is “the release of the captives” sent by the Father. It is a good thing that Jesus finds us out of resolutions -- out of our own gas. He comes to replace human resolutions with the Kingdom's power to transform.
What we really want is “A Jesus New Year.” Thanks be to God that we can have one. For whatever woods we are in, and no matter how bruised, He is there with good tidings for the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, release for the captives, and the year of the Lord's favor. Fr. Hartt+
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The Cornerstone January 2012
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Newsletter of St. Peter’s Protestant Episcopal Church 107 State Street, Albany, New York
107 State Street, Albany, New York |
