NEW YEAR, NEW PERSPECTIVE?

Sunday, we celebrated the beginning of the new year in the most appropriate way possible - the celebration of Holy Baptism and sharing in the sacrament of Holy Communion.

Additionally, Sunday was a new experience for me as well, for I had a whole new perspective on our Sunday Morning worship experience. Many of you may have noticed over the past few weeks that we have had an area in front of our platform (it's NOT a stage, it's a PLATFORM) marked off with blue painter's tape. The blue tape was in place because we wanted to 'live with' the area before we committed to extending our platform. Thanks to the hard work of Geoff Philippus, our platform extension was completed over Thanksgiving week. I've always wanted to be 6'3" - thanks to Geoff I was able to realize a lifelong dream!

Reflecting upon Sunday, I came to realize that the practice of standing on the platform helped me see the impact of Holy Communion and Baptism on our lives, especially in the light of the beginning of the new year on the First Sunday of Advent.

For, you see, Advent is all about new beginnings. Advent - indeed, the entire Christian year - is about the gift of refocusing and reorienting our lives around the life of Christ.

Lord knows it is very easy for all of us to lose perspective as the days, weeks, and months of any particular year come and go. Through orienting our congregation's and our individual lives around the cycle of Advent-Christmas-Epiphany-Lent-Easter-Pentecost we are give the chance to start anew.

Likewise, as Paul said, whenever we partake of Holy Communion we 'proclaim the death of our Lord until he comes.' In other words, we proclaim the good news that no matter what has happened or is happening, we are, at any given moment, through Christ, offered reconciliation and redemption, hope, peace, joy, and love.

When we participate in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism as we did this past Sunday, through our prayers and our participation in the liturgy, we reaffirmed our faith using the most personal and historic of the creeds, the Apostle's Creed. Through the creed, we were given the chance to speak anew the words of faith that must ground every day and every moment of our lives.

So, as you journey through this Tuesday and the rest of the week, may you (and all of us) take advantage of the God-given season of Advent, the gift of worship, the gift of Holy Baptism, and the gift of Holy Communion to capture or re-capture the proper perspective of life.

May God's Richest Blessings be with You Today and Always, Lamar