New Years Day, January 1, 2023

Light the Christ Candle

Announcements

We at St. Andrew’s wish you all a very Happy New Year. May the hope, love, joy, and peace of Christ guide your every step through-out the year ahead.
Thank you Rev. Ena for leading us in worship today.
January’s Loonie Offering is going to the Shuswap Volunteer Search and Rescue Society. To find out more check the “Recent Posts” to the right of your screen.

Call to Worship
This is the day that the Lord has made
We will be glad and rejoice in it
This is the year that the Lord has begun
We will rejoice and be glad in it
Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not dismayed, because his compassion never fails.
Great is your faithfulness, O Holy God
We embark on this New Year with the Lord as our guide.
Glory to you O God.

Hymn:  324 Great is thy faithfulness

Prayer of Approach and Adoration

We are glad and rejoice forever in you, O God.  With joy we draw deeply from your well of salvation and pray that you may fulfill our story—the story of your love.

Though the world has been gripped by trouble since early days, and life has often been short and tormented, you have given us a vision of a new day:  a day when the heavens and earth will be new again, a day when the sound of weeping will give way to delight, a time when all creation will live in peace and people will long enjoy the fruits of their labours.

Help us to hold to that vision when the temples about us are falling, and our world is shaken.   Strengthen us for the telling of your truth and for keeping to your path, that we might not weary in doing what is right, but through endurance may gain our souls, even as you desire for us to do.   Amen

 

Reading:  A New Name
Isaiah 62: 1-5, 11-12
1 Peter 2: 9-10

Prayer of Confession (responsive)
Almighty God, another year has passed. These previous 365 days were filled with good and bad experiences.
For the times we experienced your mercy, we give you thanks.
For the times we felt took advantage of your grace, we ask your forgiveness.
For the times we took bold steps of faith, we give you thanks.
For the times we ignored your calling in our lives, we ask your forgiveness.
For the times we learned more about you, we give you thanks.
For the times we were too proud to see you at work around us, we ask your forgiveness.

Father in Heaven, we come before You to confess our sins. We confess that we have turned the page in our calendar, but still haven’t fully turned our hearts to You. We confess that we too often seek fulfillment in human potential rather than in the peace, instruction, and New Life You offer us. We confess that we would rather chart our own course than submit to Your loving design. Gracious God, help us to remember that true life is found only in You. Give us courage to follow the radical path of Jesus in this New Year. Let us be lights that reflect Your love and truth to our friends and neighbors so that they may know that the power of sin has been broken. Let this be the year we seek Your glory more than our own. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.

Litany of Affirmation

Through the work of Jesus Christ, we belong to him
Through Jesus’ work on the cross, God gave us a new name
Let us discover anew and accept with new assurance that we are who God says we are—holy and redeemed people who belong to him.
Thank you Our Father, for changing our name.
We shall no longer be called Wounded, Outcast, Lonely, Anxious or Afraid
Our new name shall be the Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord, Sought After, the City no longer Deserted
People of God let us take up our new name with new confidence to live this year as the people of God we are called to be, so that we may indeed be Sought After.  May others seek God’s face because of us in this coming year.

Hymn:  608 Oh what their joy and their glory must be

Reading:  A New Song

Psalm 98  (Responsive)
Ephesians 5: 18-20

Hymn:  485 Saviour like a shepherd lead us

Reading: A New Way
Hebrews 10: 19-25  reading from the Message

19-21 So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The “curtain” into God’s presence is his body.

22-25 So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.

 

 

Reflection:  A New Way

There is a meme popping up on Facebook this week, which says, “I am not entering 2023 until I see the trailer.”

Usually. we say that we hope the New Year will be better than the year before, but we don’t seem to say that so much anymore.   In many ways I get that hesitancy.  If the last 3 years have taught us anything it is that yes, things can get worse.

So we tend to believe that this New Year gives us no real hope that life will be better.  We are in a time of inflation and a housing crisis and there are predictions of a recession coming.  There are wars between nations and within nations, with no real signs that peace can happen.  It is as if we don’t dare to hope that things will get better.

 

How can we express the hope that 2023 will be a better year than 2022 or any of the two years that preceded it?

How?  Because we know God.

 

The Commentator Amy Peeler writes:   “It takes a certain amount of gumption to enter an unfamiliar space.”  She goes on to point out that every new experience demands that we be willing to enter the unknown.

The passage from Hebrews invites us to boldly enter the holy of holies and greet God.  Peeler writes that this is an invitation to make  “A grand entrance, Christologically and anthropologically, and provides the theme for this passage.”

She reminds us that the focus is not the sunset of the old covenant, but the bright dawn of the new covenant. 

 

A New Year provides us with that same opportunity to see the dawn of the new day that is before us.

How can we do that?  Because we know God.

All of the Scripture passages that we read today, direct our hearts to the understanding that God is always preparing a new thing for us.  Today we come to God trusting him for a new day, a new year, a new name, a new song and a new hope.

 

From Isaiah we learn that God gives us a new name, a name that takes us from the previous names that lead to despair.  Where previously God’s people have been known as those who have been deserted and desolate, they will now be known as those in whom God delights and they will live in a land that God calls Beulah, “married”.

This prophecy reminds the people that although their sin often has caused them to turn away from God, God has always been faithful.  God, even when angry with the sin of the people, seeks a way to bring them back, bless them and give them new life and new purpose.  We are reminded that no matter what, God seeks for us.

That theme continues in the reading from I Peter where we are reminded that in the new covenant with Jesus we have taken on the identity of the chosen people, the royal priesthood and a holy nation.  In everything name we are given we are reminded that we are the people of God.

 

The Psalm reminds us that new people sing a new song.  We no longer come humbly before the throne saying, woe is me, I have sinned and am no longer worthy to be called your child.

We come instead singing a song of joy.  That joy is born from our gratitude because God has remembered his love for us.

 

One thing that stands out in the Psalm is that even the earth makes music to the Lord and praises his name.  I am reminded of the news article I watched in which geologists said that the stones in the eastern hemisphere hummed in a different key than the stones in the western hemisphere.

It makes us recall the words of Jesus at the Temple, when the religious authorities demand he silence the crowd singing “hosanna”.  His response is simply to say that if the people did not sing out the stones would begin to sing.

 

The song of creation is always a restorative reminder of the goodness that God pours out on this planet.  The whisper of the wind in the trees, the sounds of lapping water and crashing waves.  The songs of the whales, and the roaring of the lions—all of them reminders that all of creation has been called to praise our creator.

 

That New Song is always full of hope and confidence and praise.  The Song creation sings is born of the confidence of knowing that our God calls us good, and, is always blessing us as we travel through life.

 

That is what Paul reminds us about in the letter to the Hebrews.  WE have confidence because God is providing a new way for us.  Our future has been opened for us by God.

Therefore, says Paul, we draw near to God with sincere hearts, confident because we have been cleansed by Christ.

 

We hold onto hope because God is faithful to us.  God has always been faithful to us.  More importantly God is continually proving himself to be faithful to us.

 

 

Most importantly of all, God keeps his followers in that place of faithfulness by giving us the gifts of grace, and love and purpose. 

We praise God,

we encourage one another,

and we provide a way for the whole world to see that God fills our lives with love and hope; and, that God will fill their lives with love and hope.

 

The commentator Craig Koester says that the letter to the Hebrews points out that God has “no patience for grace that remains an abstract concept or forgiveness that only floats in the realm of ideas.”

We are a people who have been given a new name, a new song, a new hope.  This calls us to live transformed lives.

 

This new gift from God is complete, will not change, and will never be removed from us.   It is the gift through which God claims people wholly for renewed relationship with him and with one another.

Koester continues to say:  “The images of Christ opening God’s sanctuary to human beings keeps finding new expression as the worshiping community itself is opened to new forms of service that extend the message of grace beyond the walls in public witness to what Christ has done.”

We notice he writes that we are witnesses to what Christ has done.

 

As we stand at the brink of a new year, we recall all that God has done for us in the previous years.  God’s grace was evident in 2020, 2021, and 2022.  It was evident in the bad years of the 80’s.  It was evident in every breath we took during times of personal crisis or health struggles.

Every day God renews his covenant with us.

Every year God renews his covenant with us.

That covenant reminds us that God is with us, even unto the end of the world.

Our new hope is simply a re-affirmation of the hope that God has already given us.   That God will walk with us in this New Year as he has walked with us in every year of our existence.  Praise be to the God who always remains constant and faithful; and who works continually for our good and who renews our hope.

Let us be willing to enter the unknown.

Amen

 

Hymn: 744 Will your anchor hold

The Offering is Presented
Doxology

Prayer

 

 

 

Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession

We thank you O Lord, that you have called us by name, you know us inside and out.  We thank you that you have blessed us with the names that reflect your love.  We praise you that you work to make us your new people.

As we pray for a new heaven and a new earth this day, we especially are aware of those among us and those beyond these doors who are in deep need of your peace, of your healing touch, of your just and bounteous kingdom.

Joy and Praise:

 WE pray for our friends and family:

We pray those who dwell in places of strife, need, and want:

The Ukraine
China
Ethiopia
Peru
Brazil
Nigeria

Syria
Iran

Afghanistan
South Sudan

We pray for our own government, that they will continue to rule with justice.  Remind them that they are first of all your servants.  May they lead with the well being of all at the forefront of all that they do.  May they be a reflection of your generosity in the relationships they have with the other countries of the world.  And may we, your beloved, also be that reflection.

WE give thanks to you, the one who brings both the snow and the sun; the one  who heals this troubled world and  the sick; the one who grants new life not only to us, but to the creation itself….

Gracious God, we pray to you in the name of the one who came to show us the way, he who is our Lord and our Redeemer, our brother and our friend. We pray to you as one family, even as he taught us, saying…Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts and we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever. Amen

 

Reading:  A New Heaven and a New Earth
Revelation 21: 1-5  reading from the Message

I saw Heaven and earth new-created. Gone the first Heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea.

2 I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband.

3-5 I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” The Enthroned continued, “Look! I’m making everything new.”

 

 

Parting Words
Behold, God is making everything new.
In this New Year we commit to move forward with the confidence our new name gives us.  We will have a new song on in hearts and on our lips.  We step boldly onto the new way before us, and fix our eyes on the horizon, from whence Christ will return.
This is the promise of Jesus, “ I am with your always, even unto the ends of the earth.”

Hymn:  274 Crown him with many crowns

Three Fold Amen

Adapted from a Liturgy by E. Naningna, Reformed Worship, September 2001