At the Dawn of a New Year. Call to Worship.
P: At the dawn of a new year, we come to welcome hope for a new day, a new year and the world. ALL: Let the darkness lift,
P: to welcome a dawn of plenty and light, with enough for everyone & people ready to share. ALL: Let the day begin,
P: with new energy and compassion to protect our children and to care for the vulnerable. All: Let the light shine,
P: to open a path to safety for all who are seeking a home and longing for a better life. All: Let the sun rise,
P: on new talks and new resolve to end the war, violence and the terror in our world: to find solutions that will last.
All: At the dawn of a new year, let the year begin with light, hope, trust and peace. Amen
Gospel John 1.1-18
Sermon “A portal of Hope .”
Today is the first Sunday of the New Year: 2026. Every time we celebrate a New Year and impatiently and expectantly jump or reluctantly slide into a new year, I feel older and older. Of course, as time flew, I am getting older. But I also feel in a weird way disconnected with the numbers. 2026. It truly sounds like a Science Fiction Movie… and yet the marvelous Stanley Kubrick Epic Space Odyssey 2001 has long been surpassed by reality.
2026. 4 days old. 4 days in. How did we greet it?
With hope or with dread? With dreams or nightmares? With faith or with despair? Or maybe just reluctantly cautiously waiting to see what will unfold.
The old prophet Jeremiah rang in this new year with a hopeful prophecy of a new beginning.
Sing aloud with gladness…
and be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine and the old…
their life shall be come like a watered garden, the young women rejoice in dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into joy.
I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow.
Jeremiah was called the Sorrowful or weeping prophet as his own life as a prophet was lonely and hard. And his prophecies were about repentance, change and restoration.
But chapter 31 is filled with hope. New year’s hope as we hope: gladness, goodness, dancing and merry instead of mourning. Comfort and joy.
A new beginning…. The prophet proclaimed.
The concept of beginnings is the profound idea of life and life’s journey. Every new start is a chance for a new beginning: to begin anew, to choose differently, to create new possibilities.
The poetic beginning of the gospel according to John is also a profound poetic prophetic ode to beginning. The beginning of beginnings. The word, the light and the beginning of everything that is and has ever been. The beginning of the light that shines in the darkness and never can be overtaken by the darkness.
Like the old Prophet Jeremiah, the modern prophet of our aga Amanda Gorman, wrote a beautiful hopeful poem called New Days Lyric.
May this be the day
We come together.
Mourning, we come to mend,
Withered, we come to weather,
Torn, we come to tend,
Battered, we come to better.
Tethered by this year of yearning,
We are learning
That though we weren't ready for this,
We have been readied by it.
We steadily vow that no matter
How we are weighed down,
We must always pave a way forward.
This hope is our door, our portal.
Even if we never get back to normal,
Someday we can venture beyond it,
To leave the known and take the first steps.
So let us not return to what was normal,
But reach toward what is next.
What was cursed, we will cure.
What was plagued, we will prove pure.
Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,
Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,
Where we weren't aware, we're now awake;
Those moments we missed
Are now these moments we make,
The moments we meet,
And our hearts, once altogether beaten,
Now all together beat.
Come, look up with kindness yet,
For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.
We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,
But to take on tomorrow.
We heed this old spirit,
In a new day's lyric,
In our hearts, we hear it:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
Be bold, sang Time this year,
Be bold, sang Time,
For when you honor yesterday,
Tomorrow ye will find.
Know what we've fought
Need not be forgot nor for none.
It defines us, binds us as one,
Come over, join this day just begun.
For wherever we come together,
We will forever overcome.
In the beginning of the poem the poet asks everyone to set aside their differences and walk through the door of hope together. Hoping that through unity there will be change. An honest remembrance and acknowledgement of the mistakes of the past may help us make the decisions for tomorrow.
May this be the day
We come together.
(…)
We must always pave a way forward.
May this day be the day. May this day be the day of new beginnings, the poet prays. Despite all the differences, all the darkness and mourning, we should come to mend. By mending, coming together we may facilitate a needed new beginning.
This hope is our door, our portal.
This is a short sentence, but the center of the poem and our new year’s prophecies, dreams, wishes and resolutions. Hope. Let us clothe ourselves in a posture of hope. Everything is not fine, not close, but we can envision a better tomorrow. We can choose to walk through the gate or the portal of hope. We can choose to live with a posture of hope instead of a disposition of dread. That is indeed one of the greatest gifts God handed each one of us is our ability to choose.
HOPE – it is such a beautiful word.
HOPE – it is such a powerful word of future, beginning, change, better days, blessings, renewal and life.
Hope is not only a portal to walk through but it is a way of living, a way of believing, a way of trusting.
What was cursed, we will cure.
Many things in our time may seem cursed. The political toxic climate. The overheated climate change of floodings water temperature. The fentanyl crisis. The mental illness struggles. The gun related deaths. The ongoing wars and terror in the world. But what was and is cursed we may try to cure, to change, to make better…. What else should we do? “What was plagued, we will prove pure…” the poet says. The future will be brighter because everyone will be aware of the mistakes of the past.
Come, look up with kindness yet,
Kindness. Random acts of kindness. Planned and specific acts of kindness. With kindness and compassion, we take on tomorrow.
We heed this old spirit,
(…)
For wherever we come together,
We will forever overcome.
In this final part of the poem, the poet uses a refrain from an old, beloved song “For auld lang syne.” It is a beautiful beloved old song the be sung at new Years, to say farewell to the old year and welcome to a new. Maybe you have sung it in your families with your arms intertwined or maybe you remember it from the beloved Christmas Classis “It is a beautiful life.”
The poem ends with a perfect poetic rhyme. Gorman suggests that whenever “we come together / We will forever overcome.” It is in togetherness and unity of purpose that the world is going to change for the better.
The old prophet Jereimah and the modern
Amanda ring in hope as the way forward. Hope as the portal to be stepping through into the new day, the new dawn and new year. Hope as this strong power and passion that can move, change and manifest.
For wherever we come together, we will forever overcome. Happy New Year!