Happy New Year!

The Readings for the Eclessial New Year (1 Sept)

• Isaiah 61:1-9 (Vespers)
• Composite 24 – Leviticus 26 (Vespers)
• Wisdom of Solomon 4:7-15 (Vespers)
• 1 Timothy 2:1-7 (Liturgy)
• Luke 4:16-22 (Liturgy)

IC XC
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NI KA

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2:3-4

USING THE FIRST OF September as the New Year was a Byzantine practice from the mid-7th Century. This was based on the calculation of the assumed date of Creation as calculated by a monk named Georgios. In more recent years it was also linked with the Jewish Celebration of Rosh Hashana. A cultural coincidence links the autumn with the “Back to School” period of the year. Fall feels like a good time to start things – which is strange because it’s a time of harvest, not beginnings – like spring is. The Western Church uses late November or early December for the beginning of Advent, but this is a very late tradition. Advent in the West was once a longer fasting period, beginning on 11 November. It was not, however, the “new year”. In fact, it’s not so now except by tradition. Missals and breviaries have to begin somewhere. 1 Advent is as easy as 1 Lent, for example.

In the East, however, 1 September is a real New Year because it was also the civil New Year of the Byzantine part of the Empire. It’s one of several overlaps between what we would call, today, “church and state”. In those days they just called it “life”. And so, we get this reading from 1 Timothy.

Paul invites Timothy to have his flock offer “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” In the Orthodox and Byzantine traditions these words for the backbone of a daily intercession for the salvation of civil authorities:

Save, O Lord, and have mercy on… all in authority throughout the world, commanders-in-chief of armies and navies and airfleets, governors of provinces and cities, and all the Christ-loving navies, armies and police; protect their power with peace, and subdue under their feet every enemy and foe, and speak peace and blessing in their hearts for Thy Holy Church, and for all Thy people, and grant that in their calm we too may lead a quiet and peaceful life in true belief, in all piety and honesty.

Old Jordanville Prayerbook (Russian Orthodox)

Speak peace in their hearts so that we may live in faith and piety.

Remember that Paul was speaking of Nero and the Russians were speaking of Uncle Joe Stalin. We pray for the civil authorities no matter who they are. This is why the English Martyrs swore they were faithful to Queen Elizabeth I even as she slew them: they faithfully prayed for her daily. A Christian may object to his rulers, but he must pray for them – that in their peace, the Church can be left alone to do the work of the Kingdom on earth. That is, to bring all men to the knowledge of the truth. If we can get the kings off our back we can get on with the business of evangelization.

But there’s more.

The first of the year is time to celebrate the harvest and death of the old crop. In the ancient world, we feast for a while and then we coast… and we pray that we will have enough to coast through to the fresh foods of springtime. The hymnody reflects this:

O Creator of the universe, / Thou didst appoint times by Thy power; / bless the crown of this year with Thy goodness, O Lord. / Preserve in safety Thy rulers and cities: / and through the intercessions of the Theotokos, save us!

O Creator and Master of time and the ages, / Triune and Merciful God of all: / grant blessings for the course of this year, / and in Thy boundless mercy save those who worship Thee and cry out in fear: / “O Savior, grant blessings to all mankind!”

The hymnody also mentions that “today” is the day Jesus entered the Synagogue in Nazareth and said, “Today the scriptures are fulfilled in your hearing.” The passage from Isaiah 61 is read at Vespers for today:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

And so the New Year is made, also, to be a year of Justice for the Poor and of healing for the brokenhearted, of liberty to captives and of consolation for all of us. So we need the civil authorities to keep off our backs in order to let us do the work God calls us to do. Notice that the “acceptable day” of all this good news is also the “day of vengeance”.

We enter the new year, and we have work to do. Vengeance doesn’t mean what you think it does.