“What’s new?” We sometimes greet someone we haven’t seen in awhile with this greeting, an open invitation to catch up on life’s details that have marked the passing of recent time. “What’s new?” is also a statement of hope—hope that life is filled with fresh starts and new possibilities, and that even when the headlines of one’s story are filled with struggle or loss, there will be new news, hopefully better news, soon.
As 2023 begins, I can’t help but wonder, “What’s new?”
What’s new with you? What’s new with your family? What’s new in your community? What’s something new for which you hope? What’s something new you are working towards? What’s something new you’ve learned?
And I can’t help but wonder as we begin a new year, what’s new with God.
I know it sounds funny. Rest assured, I don’t envision God opening a new 2023 bullet journal and establishing priorities for divine intervention across the world. I don’t envision God resolving to exercise more or listen better or ending more wars (though if more wars ended, I would certainly rejoice).
But I do believe that God IS a God of new life—who engages each new moment with holy creativity, redemptive possibility and transformational love. And I wonder what new thing God is up to in our world, our church, and our lives.
We are in the midst of a liturgical season that celebrates the new life God offers in Christ. The Biblical arc of God putting on flesh and dwelling among us sets us up with story after story of human role models who notice God’s new initiative among humanity because of their own enacted curiosity. They did not fix their gaze on what has always been, but were open minded and open hearted enough to see that God was up to something new and to trust that they would be blessed by God’s new thing.
My prayer as we approach the start of a new year, we will approach God in a posture of Sacred Curiosity, where we—as individuals and as a community—might dare to wonder what God is up to in our lives, our church and our world. I wonder what we might learn in this season of transition. I wonder how we might grow together. I wonder what work God is equipping us to do together—what need God is calling us to address. I wonder how we might love others and love God in new expressions.
May 2023 be filled with Sacred Curiosity and a keen awareness that God is with US too. May we be filled with hope and wonder and love as we ask God, “What’s new?” together.
—Pastor Heather