Happy New Year!
That’s what today is, you know.
The first weekend of another liturgical church year cycle during which
we recite and relive the cycle of our faith and the mission and ministry of
Jesus among us and with us. The
expectation of his birth, his birth, his maturing ministry, his life, death,
resurrection and ascension and then the long season of what it means to be His
people in mission and ministry now ending with our Lord’s promised return.
But what a way to begin. With a Happy New Year that, according to the
Bible, sounds like the world’s attic is going to collapse into the world’s
basement. It sounds like the coming of a
time when everything that has always been counted on as stable and enduring will
begin to crack.
What a way to begin, with the sense that humanity
is doomed and we cannot save ourselves, as much as we’d love to think we can.
What a way to begin, with Jeremiah who, from the
middle of his own “doomsday”, the Babylonian Exile, looks forward to a new day,
a day that took almost 600 years to happen, and still 2,700 years later still
isn’t complete.
What a way to begin, with our Lord’s own words
that point to “doomsday”, the end of times.
A funny way to begin when the news is rife with
the message of “the end” by those who sincerely believe that the Mayan calendar
has something to say about it.
In fact, when I took a glanced at the Omaha paper before I left home this morning, it looked like there was a whole section devoted to “doomsday”, to the
end of the world, to what it looks like when things are falling apart. Oh, no, that was the sports section.
Seriously, though, the “Living Section” has
an article about a survival group that trains up around Tekamah. They are serious. This group is serious about how to survive a “doomsday”
scenario. The end of times.
What you notice, I hope, is that this doomsday
message isn’t new. It has been around
(and gained popularity) every time when what seemed enduring was beginning to
crack. For the early Christians, where
they were helpless in the face of persecutions and the political realities of
the day, the doomsday message was rife.
In succeeding generations (right up to our own),
there have been unknown futures.
There have been nations
perplexed, dismayed, and bewildered.
There have been personal and public disasters, worries that weight us
down and paralyze us to
inaction. There have been the end of
seasons in life. There has been
sufficient things to agonize us.
Finances. Politics. The fiscal cliff. What our children are doing. Global warming and an earth polluted.
Personal and national security. Disease, paralysis and death. Losses and failures. Food safety.
There is no end to things that might agonize us, cause us worry.
Jesus suggests something more pro-active. Jeremiah suggests hope.
What Jesus gets, that few of us seem to
understand, is that worry diminishes our ability to deal with the future. Worry is the opposite of Advent. Advent is about hope and anticipation. Worry agonizes about the future. So Jesus says, “Lift up your heads!” Look with joy and anticipation.
Jeremiah tells us that God has a new vision. Not just to recreate the past (or rather what
we remember about the past) (which wasn’t all that great to start with and
certainly wasn’t want we remember it was).
A new day is surely coming, says Jeremiah. Salvation is at hand.
If you look a little deeper into Jesus’ words,
you’ll see that they are the end of the story.
They are from the days before Jesus’ passion, death and
resurrection. The truth here is
this: We begin at the end of the.
I love reading stories to little kids, Owen, now
especially. It is so fun when they know
the end of the story because they have heard the story so many times. It is so fun when they can deal with the
scary parts because they know the end of the story. Oh, yes, some adults are like that too,
needing to read the last chapter before starting the book. Knowing the ending seems to make the middle
parts more bearable.
So “Happy New Year” (Advent) begins at the end of
the story. When things seem to be
falling apart around us, when we are tempted to be paralyzed with worry, when
we want to give up, we need to know future is open to us in a new way because
of the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. The end of the story gives hope for today.
In Advent we see the coming of our God in every
moment. We see what has already come
that makes us new.
You see, when we understand that the battle has
been won, that we have received everything and that the Holy Spirit of God is
continually at work, then we can face the treats, the doomsdays, with the
simple trust that God is acting for us.
When we see that Advent isn’t a one time or once
a year piece, a time expected for Jesus to return again, we can look for God
entering human history, every day, today.
Every day is New Year.
I wonder if the walk of faith isn’t something
like living in the shadows of doomsday, everyday. Engaging in the struggles of the day,
enjoying the moments, joy full or sorrowful, knowing That God has already taken
care of it. I wonder if it isn’t seeing
God at work in the unexpected, around a corner, in the middle of the street, or
in a back alley.
What a way to
begin – at the end. What a great way to
begin, knowing that every day holds within itself the possibility of being a
“doomsday.” In faith, with full
confidence in a God who is continually coming, in a God who asks us to look up,
we face this day, this new year, this Advent, clinging to the One who loves us,
who gives our lives meaning and promises us boldness and confidence because we
are baptized. And, as a wise old pastor
once said, the death of baptism is the only death you need ever fear.”
So, what a way to
begin!
Happy New Year!!
Amen.
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