New Year's Eve 2009, Offering Light

New Year's Eve

Genesis 1: 1-8

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.

And God called the light day and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”

And God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.

And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning. A second day. 

And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

Blake

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

Blake

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

New Year’s Eve

December 31, 2009

Genesis 1:1-8

  

God’s very first act of creation was to generate light. At first diffuse, He separated the darkness out and gave the light form in sun, moon and stars. And finally He created the Light-Form of the Human Being. We are created as an image of God. Like God, the human being is a creator.

Iris Sullivan

Tonight, at the midnight hour, at this generation of a new year, our noblest thoughts and highest hopes are given a particular power. Normally what we think and strive toward is received by the angels and the archangels, the angels closest to us. They work as best they can with what we offer them, to help bring the future into being. But on New Year’s, the portals to the heavenly staircase are, for a moment, thrown open. Our noblest thoughts rise all the way up to the highest hierarchies. They in turn, give our offerings a particularly strong power to become reality. At New Year’s, the light of the future begins to take form.

Strange to think that perhaps God needs what we have to offer, in order to create the future; that He invites our creativity. In the words of Nelly Sachs,

  

…Perhaps God needs the longing, wherever else shall it dwell,

….And perhaps is invisible soil from which roots of stars grow and swell -

….Perhaps in the sky of longing worlds have been born of our love -

….Around us already perhaps future moons, suns, and stars blaze in a fiery wreath.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Nelly Sachs, (Translated by Ruth and Matthew Mead, in A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now, ed. by Aliki and Willis Barnstone)