From the Pastor: Happy New Year

Dear friends,

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are a big deal in our American culture. Reveling, partying, football games, sales, maybe resolutions–all are part of the celebration.

Officially, of course, this celebration is not part of the church’s tradition. For us, the "new year" actually began a month ago, with the onset of Advent. The church’s calendar takes its own direction, which only occasionally intersects with the secular one. Indeed, most of the months in the secular calendar have pagan names–named for Roman emperors or gods.

And yet Christians have often injected some spiritual meanings to the changing year. When I was a boy, our church had a "Watchnight Service"–the idea being that the best way to spend New Year’s Eve was not in carousing and drinking, but in gathering for prayer. (That’s a hard sell today, at least among Lutherans, but there might be some benefit to the idea!)

In the liturgical churches, though, January 1 is a significant day. It is the festival we call "The Name of Jesus." How that came about is a pretty complicated historical lesson. Originally it was a remembrance of the Circumcision of Jesus (on the eighth day after his birth), and thus was a time to reflect on what it meant that Christ was born as one "under the law." But in Luke’s brief mention of this event, he mentions not only that Jesus was circumcised but that "they called his name Jesus," and it is that reference that ultimately won out on the church’s calendar.

I like to think about what it means to begin the calendar year "in the name of Jesus." Might it mean that we strive to say and do only things that might be pleasing to Jesus in this new year? None of us, of course, will get to January 2 without making a mess of this, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have this in our minds.

Or might it mean recognizing that this year, too, this 2007, will be another year of grace for us? That whatever twists and turns life may take for us this year, Jesus will be beside us, guiding us, directing us, quietly and often imperceptively walking with us?

Or might it mean that this is a year when we will seek the light of Christ in a new way? Perhaps that might mean for you becoming more disciplined in your own life of prayer and attending to God’s word. Perhaps it might mean coming back to church, if your attendance has become irregular. Perhaps it might mean finding a way to serve others in the Name of Jesus, through one of the ministries we support here at Peace (Interfaith Food Ministry, Habitat for Humanity, Hospitality House, or others).

But however you might like to think about it, I urge you to do this: As the new year begins, spend a few minutes thinking about what it means to you that we will call this "the year of our Lord 2007." New Year’s resolutions are great, and actually parties can be kind of fun, too; but remembering that this year, like every year, belongs to Christ–that’s the best way to celebrate.

Peace and goodwill to you in this new year of our Lord,

Pastor Richard O. Johnson

P. S. Lois and I would like to thank you for all your kindnesses over the past weeks–for your continued concern about our family, for your Christmas cards and gifts, and most of all for being part of this wonderful community we call Peace Lutheran Church. You are indeed each a gift to us.

Classic Prayers

Father in heaven! Go Thou with us as Thou hast walked with the Jews in the days of old. Oh, let us not believe that we have outgrown Thine education, but let us grow in it, grow under it, as the good seed groweth in patience. Let us not forget what Thou hast done for us, and when Thy helping hand hath wondrously been there, then let us not seek it again as ungrateful beings who only ate and were satisfied. Grant us to feel that without Thee we can do nothing–a feeling not of cowardly dependence but a feeling of hopeful strength, in the happy assurance that Thou art powerful among the weak. Amen.

--Soren Kierkegaard

(Danish philosopher/theologian)

Liturgy Notes: Evangelical Lutheran Worship

You have probably read something about Evangelical Lutheran Worship, the new worship book and hymnal published by Augsburg Fortress, designed as the successor book to Lutheran Book of Worship. A few people have wondered whether Peace intends to purchase the book.

The short answer is, "not yet." But of course there is a longer story behind that. Your Worship Committee has looked at some of the sample material from the book over the past few months, and has ordered enough copies to take a more serious look (we hope to receive them not too long into the new year). In addition, we have been "sampling" some of the new liturgical music and hymns in our worship services–though perhaps you weren’t aware we were doing so. During Advent, for instance, we used a Kyrie, a Gospel Acclamation, and a Lamb of God setting that are from the new book.

As the committee (and as your pastor) have looked at the material, there are some things that have caused us to be cautious about making a decision to invest in the new book. Here are some of the factors:

(1) Most significantly, as you know, we have (for quite some time now) been printing out the entire liturgy and hymns in the bulletin. The new liturgies, and many of the hymns, are available to us electronically, and we can use them freely with the various copyright licenses we hold. This raises the question of whether it is good stewardship to buy hard copies for the pew.

(2) The new book, we have heard from some who have seen it, is very attractive, but not well constructed and may not hold together well with frequent use. This, of course, is something we can evaluate when we receive the books we’ve ordered.

(3) There are many good things about the book, but there are other things that raise some questions. Some of these questions are theological–and of course it is a pastor’s job to be concerned about theological issues! To take just one small example, in the Lutheran Book of Worship you may have noticed that in the Apostles’ Creed there is a footnote to the phrase "He descended into hell" which says "Or, ‘He descended to the dead.’" But in the new hymnal, the latter reading is the "preferred one," while "descended into hell" is in the footnote. In your pastor’s mind, this is an unfortunate change, one which actually alters the meaning of the phrase. By itself, this may not be that big a deal; but there are several other examples, and when taken together they make one wonder whether using these liturgies "out of the book" is a good idea. But again, that’s a judgment

that can better be made when we have the book in our hands.

On the other hand, if this is "the book" of the ELCA and we are an ELCA congregation, shouldn’t this be the book in our pews? A denominational hymnal, after all, is part of the identity of a congregation. Currently when one walks into an ELCA congregation, there is a kind of comfortable familiarity about seeing those green books in the pew; if most ELCA congregations buy the new book, will that become a similar part of our ELCA identity? So we’re trying to weigh the significance of that factor as well.

We will surely be using a good bit of the material from Evangelical Lutheran Worship; whether that means we should buy 200+ copies of the book is another question, and one we will continue to discuss over the coming months. When we have our cache of sample copies, we’ll plan to have some opportunities for interested congregational members to come together and have a look, to sing some of the liturgies and hymns, and talk about the pros and cons. Be on the lookout for an announcement about that!