Letter from the Pastor – January 2025

Dear Church,

When I was in seminary I wrote a sermon about New Year’s resolutions, based on the story of Jesus calling his first disciples in Matthew 4: 12-23. The sermon was framed by the idea that Jesus has reached the end of one part of his life and is venturing out to begin a new ministry. It also notes that he is doing this in the aftermath of the execution of John the Baptist. He is starting his new life in the shadow of dark days. In that sermon I drew comparisons to the difficult circumstances we were facing at that time; the wildfires in Australia and the threat of war with Iran after the assassination of a prominent general. Little did I know, in January of 2020, that the deep thick of the darkness was not even upon us! Less than two months later we found ourselves in a pandemic.

Will you be setting any resolutions this year? When I asked this question in my sermon, I found that not as many people as I thought make New Year’s resolutions. However, if you are one of those people that does, or if you would like to start, let me offer three resolutions from that sermon that I think have proved to be applicable in any year.

Resolution one is, withdraw. In the story from Matthew Jesus responds to the death of John the Baptist by withdrawing, leaving to start his ministry. He does not confront Herod or pick a fight, he leaves. It seems these days that world always demands a response, demands or attention, and our outrage. However, sometimes we must allow ourselves to withdraw, to focus on prayer and scripture and other forms of spiritual self-care. In this way we can focus on our relationship with God, rather than our differences with other people.

However, there is a lot suffering and injustice in the world, and we should not ignore it. The second resolution I offer, then, is to “find your Galilee.” When Jesus withdrew, he went to Galilee. He found a place where he could focus on his relationship with God, but also a place that needed some help. This resolution is about paying attention to the people and places in the world around you that may need help.

Relatedly, resolution three is, stay open to the call. This one is inspired by the first disciples Jesus called to follow him. They were fishermen, living stable lives, but they dropped everything when Jesus called them to follow. In the coming year we may also be called, perhaps not in as dramatic a way as the disciples were, but Christ may have things for us to do. Let us resolve to be open to the call, even if at first, we don’t understand.

I believe that by resolving to follow these examples from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry we can effectively find our way forward in a year that may have its fair share of surprises and struggles. Let us resolve to continue to find hope in our relationship with God.

Happy New Year,

Pastor Zach