Time Has Come Today

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

December 31, 2023

New Year’s Eve

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:

A new day has dawned, a new year begun

O Lord, call us so we may hear Your voice

The world turns to hopes and dreams of the future

O Lord, keep us in Your ways and on Your path

We enter this new year with hope and excitement

O Lord, remind us that You lead us

O Lord, guide us as look to You, and worship You.

Amen.

*Hymn It Came Upon the Midnight Clear #218

Prayer of Confession:

O God, you are slow to anger and swift to have mercy;

Forgive us when we treat time as a commodity or an enemy,

when we abuse your gift of time.

In our fastness and our slowness,

help us to keep pace with you.

Free us to live in your time, a new time,

in which there is a time for everything under heaven,

and slow is not too slow, and fast is not too fast.

Transform us into people who see time as a gift and a friend,

who live as if we have time,

because we know that your time will never cease.

Through Jesus we pray, Amen.

Assurance:

There is a new heaven, a new earth, and a new city, where the river of life flows, where the tree of life bears fruit in every season. This heaven, this city, this river, this tree are a vision of your life reborn, restored, and renewed. Thanks be to God!

Scripture Reading Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

Everything Has Its Time

3 For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill and a time to heal;
a time to break down and a time to build up;

a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance;

a time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek and a time to lose;
a time to keep and a time to throw away;

a time to tear and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;

a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.

Sermon Time Has Come Today

Friends, this year we’re in the rare position of New Year’s Eve falling on a Sunday! That means a few things to me as a pastor: likely a dip in attendance in worship (so accolades are in order for those of you who showed up today), some of you are headed to some kind of party tonight, so Pastor Natalie asks that you please enjoy yourselves responsibly and use a designated driver, and most of us, on some level, are thinking about what 2023 has been for us, our families, our work, our country, our church, and our world, and a lot of us have goals and wishes for 2024.

On that note, every year that I’ve been in the ministry I have done a Google search this time of year for “most popular new year’s resolutions”. At this point, because I’m blessed to be in my 4th year at this fine church, a lot of you already know that. Certainly, there’s a lot of repeated information that comes about in googling the same thing every year. But watching the most popular new year’s resolutions change over time has been fascinating to me. This exercise reveals a lot about our culture, and what people want and need right now.

Here’s the most popular new year’s resolutions for 2024 among American adults aged 18 to 64 polled in the last three months, according to Statista.

Coming in at #1: 60% of poll respondents want to save more money in 2024. That resolution comes up every single year, so it’s not surprising at all that it made the list. What is surprising is that it’s #1. “Save money” usually comes much lower down on the list, and #1 is usually something about weight loss. What was even more eye opening were the comments people gave about why saving money is their #1. It’s been a terrible year for inflation. In years past, the “saving money” resolution had to do with saving up for a big vacation, or retirement. This year, it was about our wallets not getting hit so hard at the grocery store and at the gas station. Also, this last fall the US Department of Education ended the three-year-long freeze on student loan payments that started during the pandemic, and those of us young enough to have that obligation had to start working it into our budgets again.

#2 was exercising more, with 50% of respondents saying that was a goal for them.

#3 was eating healthier, with 47% of respondents chiming in with that. Of note, a big share of the people who named that resolution specifically said they wanted to eat more home cooked meals and reduce trips to fast food places and sit down restaurants, largely because of financial constraints. Is it possible there’s a slight silver lining to food becoming so expensive?

#4 was to spend more time with friends and family, with 40% of respondents answering with that one. This resolution used to hover around the bottom of the list, but then the pandemic happened, and between travel restrictions and quarantines and zoom church and everything being canceled for safety, we all started to really miss each other, so from 2021 on we’ve really prioritized reconnecting, and I think that’s a beautiful thing.

#5 was losing weight, with 35% of people giving that answer. Like I said, that used to be #1. Then we all gained the “covid 19”, and we realized with so much going on in the world, there’s more important priorities than what pants size you wear.

Coming in at #6 was “spend less money”. People were really, really worried about money this year.

#7 was to spend less time on social media, with 19% of respondents giving that answer. When I first started researching these I never saw that resolution come up. But it inched higher and higher up and now in a world where even my mom is on Facebook and we hear about breaking news on TikTok, people are super aware of how unhealthy it is to stare at a screen all day and compare your life to others’, and we want to cut back.

And #8, the last one that made this list, with 19% of respondents saying something about it, was to reduce job stress. That’s another one that never used to make the list. Then the “Great Resignation” happened, and younger people in particular realized it’s not worth it to pull your hair out at work, and attitudes shifted.

So, were you surprised? Which resolutions jumped out at you? Were any of yours on there? Are you making any new years resolutions this year? And if so, do you think you’ll keep any of them past about Valentines Day? What do you want to prioritize in 2024? What do you want to keep from this last year, and what do you want to let go of?

In a bigger sense, as we say goodbye to 2023, how did this year go for you? What did your high and low points look like? On a global stage, it was a roller coaster. We’re watching unfolding news from two international wars: the conflict still ongoing between Russia and Ukraine, and the devastating war between Israel and Hamas. There was just no way to look at Christmas the same way with news breaking of bombing in Bethlehem. We’ve spent the last three months questioning how we should feel, and what we should do. In my pastoral opinion, it’s way past time for a ceasefire.

The scripture passage I used for today is one the revised common lectionary always suggests for the new year, and one I’ve used many times, most often at funerals and memorial services. But when David’s son, Solomon, wrote those words, he wasn’t thinking about death. He was reflecting on his life, and feeling depressed about it. He was the most notoriously wealthy man in the world, the Jeff Bezos of his day, with considerable political power and influence. He had hundreds of wives and concubines, a huge mansion, servants for every need, and the biggest mansion money could build, and his life was a nonstop party. But it all felt meaningless to him. He wanted his life to be about more than money and partying. He wanted balance, and that’s what those famous words are about.

In 2023, we saw huge amounts of death, destruction, and war. In 2024, the way to restore order to the world and make things right is with peace building efforts, reconstruction, and a renewed reverence for life.

It shocks some people that Solomon thought there was an appropriate time even for terrible things like hatred, warfare, and killing, but I think he was a realist. Nothing in the world can grow and blossom and thrive forever, in order to have sustainable growth you need to also have dormancy, hibernation, pruning, and even pulling out entire crops.

So how balanced are our gardens coming out of 2023 and looking forward to 2024? What have we experienced far too much of in 2023 that we need to reduce next year? What were we starving for this year that we need to feast on next year?

Put differently: are we proud of the stones we gathered in 2023? Are there stones we need to throw away next year? Where did we create life in 2023? What might we allow to go dormant in 2024 so that something else can have life? What did we love in 2023? What will we love in 2024? And what will we turn our hatred and negative energy toward? What will we deconstruct?

No matter what goals or resolutions you set for yourselves next year, and whether 2023 was a banner year for you or one with a lot of disappointment, please absorb these words of wisdom from the Rev. Nadia Bolz Weber:

“There is no resolution that, if kept, will make you more worthy of love. You, as your actual self and not as some made up ideal, are already worthy.”

Amen.

*Hymn Away in a Manger #217

Offering

Offertory

*Doxology #94

*Prayer of dedication

Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

We begin our new year with you,

Hoping that this year will be different and be better than last year.

Hoping we will be better persons ourselves.

Hoping our work will be improved.

Hoping our marriages will be better.

Hoping our families will be stronger.

Lord, we place our hope in you for you are the author of our lives.

We pray for our churches

that your spirit will be alive for all to experience you.

We pray for our country’s leaders

that they will use wisdom in their decision making.

We pray for country that as we continue to come out of this recession

jobs will continue to become available,

foreclosures will continue to decline,

and that debt will be paid down.

We pray for our world

that relations among all your people will be better,

that strife will cease,

that those who hunger will be filled.

Holy Author,

We have no idea what this year holds for us,

but we know who holds us.

And because it is you that holds us,

we place our faith and trust in you.

Lord help us to have our eyes open to your light, your ways,

and your presence as we go throughout this year.

Amen.

— written by Rev Abi, and posted on RevGalBlogPals. http://revgalblogpals.blogspot.ca/

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, the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.

*Hymn Good Christian Friends, Rejoice #224

Benediction

Postlude

Staff

Natalie Bowerman Pastor

Betsy Lehmann Music Director

Joe White Custodian

Cassandra Brown Nursery Attendant

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