January 5, 2024

Hope for our New Year

I write this near the end of my time at a conference I have attended almost every year for three decades. It is a gathering of scholars, artists, pastors, hymn-writers, architects, and church leaders. Most come from North America, though some are here from places around the globe: various places in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, to name a few. What we all have in common is a love for, and commitment to, the faith life and worship of our Christian and Jewish communities.

My experiences this week involved people from many of those places, and from many different denominations and traditions. And most of these conversations expressed caution and concern about the year ahead. For example, a Russian Orthodox nun addressed our gathering about her ministry of educating people about the orthodox faith and its expressions in prayer and worship through her very popular podcasts and other media. She also mentioned how the Russian church hierarchy “was upset” by her fairly straightforward condemnation of her church’s support of the war in Ukraine. Conversations with people closer to home described how denominations and traditions are being divided by diverging opinions in political and theological beliefs that threaten their unity—from Jewish and Christian to Protestant and Catholic. Those in the global south expressed fears about how global warming and its effects are making life so difficult for so many, expressing how the northern hemisphere is lagging behind in either experiencing the effects of global warming or paying attention to them.

At the same time, we reminded each other that we are stewards of traditions that are not unfamiliar with tragedy and crisis, either natural or human made. And that our scriptures and traditions speak directly to having faith in such circumstances. It seems that every generation has their opportunity to claim that their generation has it worse than ever. And we have the opportunity to remind them that previous generations have remained faithful and hopeful in their dire circumstances, giving us an example and hope for our own.

That is, after all, what we do each time we worship. We read, pray—even sing—the wisdom of the scriptures and traditions of our faith, and claim the light of hope that has yet to be extinguished by the dark forces that seek to vanquish the irrepressible love of the God who created us all.

As we begin the new year, might we keep that hope alive in our prayers and worship in the year ahead. And might the light and warmth of the love of God we reflect and radiate, bring many people out of the dark and cold of our days and into the promise of God’s love and redemption.

With audacious hope,

~ Pastor Todd