Pastor's Monthly Message
Pastor’s Page January 2023
Happy New Year!
As the dawn breaks on 2023, let us give thanks for all we hold dear: our health, our family and our friends. Let us release the binding chains of our grudges, our anger and our pains. Let us live each day this year in the most loving, God-conscious ways. Amen
What’s in a Name?
Our texts for the first Sunday of this New Calendar Year affirm the power of the name we’re given at baptism: child of God. The name of God is described in active terms: being blessed and claimed in the name of God does something to us. It ennobles and empowers us in ways we do not deserve and did nothing to earn (Ps. 8, Num. 6:27).
The name of Jesus itself is described as being a powerful actor in our world and in our lives: “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11).
The gospel reading from Luke shows us that when the shepherds leave the manger and the angels return to heaven, there is a shift toward the ordinary. We read how Mary and Joseph made sure that Jesus went through the usual rites of passage for a Jewish boy; years pass between these milestones, unrecorded. But in his ordinary, everyday life, Jesus carried an extraordinary name. We carry the name of Jesus and the mark of his cross not only in extraordinary times, but in our ordinary, everyday lives. It’s a name that is active and powerful in us and through us each day.
We use names as a concise way to convey complex meanings: being able to call someone by name means you know something important about that person, and being called by name means you are known. On this First Sunday of 2023, we celebrate the privilege and the power of calling God by name, as well as how deeply we know God and are known by God, through Jesus.
20 + C + M + B + 23
On Sunday, January 8, we will begin our worship by blessing the church for God’s use in 2023,
using the inscription above.
The letters C, M, B come from the traditional names for the wise men: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, whose arrival at Mary and Joseph’s home is celebrated on The Epiphany. The letters are also an abbreviation for the simple Latin prayer “Christus Mansionem Benedicat,” “May Christ bless this dwelling.”
You will be given a copy of this inscription and the following prayer to use in blessing your home:
Sovereign God, we pray that you will bless this home and all who live here with your gracious presence, that your love may be our inspiration, your wisdom our guide, your truth our light, and your peace our benediction. Visit this home with the gladness of your presence. Bless (+) all who live or visit here with the gift of your love; and grant that we may manifest your love to each other and to all whose lives we touch. May we grow in grace and in the knowledge and love of you; guide, comfort, and strengthen us in peace, O Jesus Christ, now and forever. May the Lord watch (+) over our going out and our coming in, from this time forth and forevermore. Amen.
Blessings and Peace!
Pastor Andy