According to the Measure of Christ’s Gift (New Year Thanksgiving Service)
As the first service of 2025 draws near, a new year has been given once again, whether the past year was spent well or not. This church, too, has come to be what it is today through twenty-two years of events great and small, and none of them simply happened by chance.
The same stretch of time does not bring the same growth to every member of the congregation. Those who received their troubles as a calling entrusted to them by God, and went down on their knees, grew in faith; those who poured out their feelings unchecked and complained did not mature as far. Facing death in prison, the apostle Paul wrote to several churches, urging them to live a life worthy of the calling they had received. Such a life means laying down one’s own will and bearing with one another in humility, gentleness and patience. Moses, who went on interceding for the people of Israel to the end, even as God’s anger burned against their sin, was held up as an example of that gentleness.
When each person grows according to the measure of Christ’s gift granted to them, and all work together, the church is built up as the complete body of Christ. It begins with learning to hold back just once, even in moments of anger and of feeling wronged; and those single moments, one upon another, form a firmness that no attack from the world can shake.