By Rev. Beverly Braine

January 1st, New Year’s Day, falls on a Sunday this year. I will be doing the services at All Saints in Franklin on that day. I have requested parishioners to bring their 2023 calendars to church that morning, as I want to incorporate a Blessing of the Calendars in each service.

The ancient Hebrew faith, and the Hebrew faith at the time of Jesus, saw all of life as life under God. There was no concept of a division between sacred life and secular life. God was just as much in charge of the selling of chickens in the marketplace as God was in charge of accepting sacrificial offerings brought to the Temple. All time was God’s time. I think we have lost that perspective, and I think our culture is oriented toward a division between Church and the Marketplace, between sacred and secular activity. In asking God’s blessing upon our new calendars for the new year, I believe we are asking God’s blessing on the activities that will occupy every one of the days of 2023.

In my preparation for the doing of these January 1st services, I took some time to look through my 2022 calendar and my 2023 calendar. I found myself musing over the difference between one’s having almost every square with something written on it (2022) and the other’s squares being mostly blank (2023). Then I noticed that every written-on square had an indication of some involvement with another person or group of people. Whether it was an appointment, medical or business, or a repair service call that was to happen; whether it was a class to attend or a church service, or a social event, other people were involved.

So the squares on my new calendar, mostly empty, some filled in, began to speak to me as both invitation and opportunity: each day ripe with the possibility of entering into a relationship with another person or people, whether the relationship be casual or serious, long or short, lasting or fleeting. I would like to approach each new day as an invitation to travel through that day intentionally in the presence of the Holy Spirit. And then I want, also, to view each day as an opportunity to invite the love of Christ to be present with me in such a way that the presence can be felt with the person or people with whom I will be in contact that day.

In a sense, I think I am trying to reclaim a unity of all of life as life under God. And in that sense, my calendar will be a spiritual aid in that endeavor.

I invite you to spend some time with your not-yet-filled-in 2023 calendar. Hold it. Ask God’s blessing upon it and upon all the days of invitation and opportunity it represents. Treasure the possibilities of the many ways that lie ahead for the sharing of God’s love. May each of our 2023s be filled with blessing and hope.

With gratitude,
Bev+