Beginning
Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church
A warm welcome to each worshiper today. We celebrate you and offer you our friendship and love. We are a congregation of people who seek to grow spiritually, to become more like Christ in His compassion and acceptance of everyone while growing more aware of what it really means to be Christians today.
As a Reconciling Congregation, EPUMC affirms the sacred worth of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities and welcomes them into full participation in the fellowship, membership, ministries, and leadership of the congregation.
943 Palmer Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12309 / 518-374-4306 epumc943@gmail.com / www.easternparkway.org
Order of Worship
January 1, 2023
10:00 a.m.
*You are invited to rise in body or spirit.
Prelude
Greeting and Announcements
Mission Statement:
We are a faith community striving to be, to nurture, and to send forth disciples of Jesus Christ.
Call to Worship:
How magnificent is all creation!
God’s love is poured throughout all God has created.
God’s love is poured out upon us each day.
Praise be to God!
Let your souls and spirits rejoice at the goodness of God.
Let all the people praise God! AMEN. Nancy C. Townley
*Hymn Away in a Manger #217
Prayer of Confession:
We come to you this day, gracious Lord, exhausted from all the activities of the season. It seems that we spend so much energy, time, and resources in preparation, and then when it is over, we collapse. We wonder what happened to all the enthusiasm we had. Lord, forgive us for placing our energies in getting and gathering. Give us peace and strength to renew our commitment to you. Remind us again to look around at the many ways in which we can be of service to you by serving others. Help us move forward in our compassion and not collapse in our witness. Heal us, merciful Lord, for we ask this in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.
Assurance:
Though the world swirls around you and exhaustion threatens to overtake you, rest your spirits in the great God of all creation who is with you now and forever! God will give you strength and restore your spirits. AMEN.
Scripture Reading Matthew 2: 13-23
The Escape to Egypt
13 Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 Then Joseph[a] got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
The Massacre of the Infants
16 When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men,[b] he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.[c] 17 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
The Return from Egypt
19 When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 20 “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” 21 Then Joseph[d] got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. 23 There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”
Sermon Beginning
Happy new year!
Every year that I’ve been in the ministry, I research “most popular New Year’s resolutions” on this first Sunday in January. It’s never felt redundant to me. Sure, there’s information I see there that’s the same every year. But it fascinates me how this list changes over time. Every year, one new resolution pops up on that list, and trends that I’d seen before fade away.
Here’s the top New Year’s resolutions of 2023, according to data journalist Katharina Buchholz:
Exercise more (52%)
Eat healthier (50%)
Lose weight (40%)
Save money (39%)
Spend more time with family (37%)
Spend less time on social media (20%)
Don’t get so stressed out at work (19%)
Stop spending so much on basic necessities (19%)
The first four weren’t surprising to me at all; every year that I’ve looked these up fitness, weight loss, and financial goals have been near the very top of the list. If there’s two areas people feel very self conscious about, especially here in America, it’s that number on the scale and the number in our bank account. Skinny and rich remains the American dream, and even though I always know those resolutions are coming, they make me sad when I see them. Not that there’s anything wrong with setting financial goals and getting in shape, but our society teaches us that our worth is tethered to those two metrics, and that message goes way against the love of a Creator who the Psalmist said knit us together in our mother’s womb.
Since the pandemic hit, there’s been a big shift in the second half of this list. Going into lockdown in 2020 and then either spending allll our time with our families, or, the opposite extreme, having to go huge amounts of time without seeing loved ones because of visitor restrictions, travel bans, and fear of spreading germs, has permanently changed how we view family. This resolution to spend more time with the people closest to us used to either not be on the list, or be way at the bottom, but now our priorities are altered for the better.
In the same vein, I’ve seen more resolutions about social media since the pandemic than before. Prior to 2020, Facebook was this annoying but ever present social reality. Then we had to cancel events all over the place, and we all started using Facebook Live to stream stuff. Crazy times. Now, it appears, the pendulum is swinging back the other way, with people vowing to put their phones down, quit scrolling through Tik Tok, and see live people again. Here’s hoping.
With the last year or so being dubbed “The Great Recession”, with record numbers of people, especially in younger generations, quitting jobs that don’t feel worth it, I was struck by this new resolution about not getting stressed at work. I haven’t seen that one pop up in previous years. It’s a smart one.
And after a year with record high levels of inflation, when we walked places because we couldn’t afford the gas, when our grocery expenses doubled, and when paying your rent on time became more unrealistic than ever, that last resolution about reducing your living expenses makes my heart hurt. Perhaps the most because we have so little control over that, but we’re trying to take control anyway. Clearly what we need more of than anything in 2023 is compassion.
You know what else was interesting in this list? Nothing about quitting smoking or cutting back on alcohol. Did we all finally quit those things, or did we get so stressed out that we gave up?
And do you know which resolution I saw popping up in a lot of lists that just didn’t make the top of the top? “Get a house plant.” How interesting, in a time when we’re increasingly worried about climate change, we’re lonely, and we need to take care of something. Maybe 2023 is quietly becoming the year where we buy out the garden department at Lowe’s.
But whatever decisions you make about New Year’s resolutions—whether you make one that really means a lot to you and you stick it out no matter what, whether you passively decided at midnight last night “what the heck, I’ll take advantage of those January sales and get a gym membership, can’t hurt”, or whether you forget all about your New Year’s resolutions be Valentine’s Day—this day remains socially and culturally special because it signifies this opportunity for a new beginning. And beginnings are a vulnerable time.
My hope for y’all this year will be that this season of a new beginning will call you to remember what’s really important. Breaking away, for a moment, from these statistics of how many people want to shed those stubborn ten pounds this year, we take a look at where the Holy Family is now, picking right up from where we left them, after the chaotic barn birth of their firstborn. At the homestead, the stream of new baby visitors likely took a predictable course until these three astronomy nerds from the Far East decided the presence of one extra star in the sky meant they needed to go look for a baby king. How’s that for priorities? Despite a sweet moment with the Magi, this story takes a very dark turn when the Magi make the mistake of telling King Herod about the star and the new king. After this, peace ends, and the fight begins. The Magi evade Herod on their way back home, disobeying his orders, the Holy Family flees to find safety, and Herod goes on a killing spree.
Despite the shimmery, pretty images we associate with the birth of Jesus, and the Epiphany story, the reality of that world was even grittier than ours, and this is a story of the civil disobedience of the wisemen, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus becoming refugees, a tyrannical ruler, and political asylum.
This New Year is an opportunity for us to grow as people, as disciples, and as global citizens. Should this be the year that you pad your savings account, join Weight Watchers, and delete your Twitter? Sure, if those things help you. But they do little for your neighbor, the one who may be gearing up for a big fight for survival this year, like Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. So here’s my faith-based resolutions for 2023:
Support local missions, like SiCM and TOMVO, that help our neighbors who need it the most
Stay politically aware and vote, that no one may have too much unchecked power
Stay curious about what God is trying to tell me, because there’s so much in this big world that I don’t know
Amen.
*Hymn In the Bleak Midwinter #221
Offering
Offertory
*Doxology See projection Tune at #229
*Prayer of dedication
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Blessed Lord, into our darkness you have brought the Light of your love. You have given to us a reminder of the many ways in which you care for us and guide us. This has been a hectic time for so many of us. We have invested ourselves, our energies, and our resources in a flurry of activities; and now we are coming to the end of this calendar year, with a new year in view, and we wonder how we are going to have the energy that the new year will demand. Help us place our trust and our lives in your care. As Joseph listened to the angel telling him to follow, help us follow you in all our ways. Give us strength and courage for the times ahead. Let love be the foundation from which all our actions spring. Bless and keep us in your care, for we ask this in Jesus’ Name, AMEN.
Our Father, Mother, Creator God, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.
The Lord’s Supper
*Hymn There’s a Song in the Air #249
Benediction
Postlude
Staff
Natalie Bowerman Pastor
Betsy Lehmann Music Director
Joe White Custodian
Cassandra Brown Nursery Attendant
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