New Years Day is the Festival of the Name of Jesus. Although it became  a feast day because Jesus was circumcised when he was eight days old, I suspect some spoil-sport church calendar maker decided that making January 1 a day when you had to go to church might assure some degree of sobriety. So why didn’t they just make December 31 a fast day? I don’t know, but they did make it a saints day in honor of Sylvester, bishop of Rome from 314-335.

If you’re in a German speaking country, today is still called Sylvester. From what I can tell, there are a lot of fireworks, but no religious elements in the observation of Sylvester. My family observed it by eating pickled herring.

Unlike our Moravian and Methodists brothers and sisters, Lutherans have never been big on watchnight services for New Years Eve. I did find an appropriate prayer that first appeared in a German Lutheran church order in 1695 and was translated into English:

“Almighty and everlasting God, from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift: We give thee thanks for all thy benefits, temporal and spiritual, bestowed upon us in the year past, and we beseech thee of thy goodness, grants us a favorable and joyful year, defend us from all dangers and adversities, and send upon us the fullness of thy blessing; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, now and forever. Amen” (Service Book and Hymnal, p. 79).

A blessed New Year to you.

Read Psalm 98:1-3 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne