Happy New Year
This is the time of year where we seem to be bombarded with “The Year in Review” and New Year’s Resolutions. It is also one of those times in the calendar where we naturally pause to transition from the past to the future. The passage of time leaves its mark on every sphere of our activities. We, ourselves, get older; our families change either as Death removes a member here and there, or some leave to earn their living in another part of the county; nor is our congregation without visible signs of the inescapable fact that we are indeed entering a third year of the Pandemic. The world around us presents changes which would not have even been in our mindset just 5 years ago. The question I think for so many, as they ponder this transition to the new year is:
“Where shall we find a constant that could sustain the ebb and flow of events that seem to be cascading over us, day after day, removing any sense of control that we seem to think we have…?”
To this question there can only be one answer,
“The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!”
— Psalm. 18:46
The constant of Jehovah-God is the Saviour of His people. Through his prophet Malachi, God encourages us:
“I the Lord do not change. So, you the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.”
Malachi. 3:6
The wonder of the Christmas story and the “Rock” to which we must cling is the work which Christ completed as “Emmanuel, God with us.” Through that completion, Jesus on our behalf made a complete restitution to the claims of Law and Justice on behalf of all those who shall eventually be in their Father’s House – That’s you and I!! In Jesus, there is to be found Peace, Hope, Joy and Love that we celebrated over advent. In Him is also found the sustaining promise of justification, adoption, sanctification, and everlasting glory. Each of these sustaining promises seem to be lacking in our culture obsessed world today. For us as Jesus followers, these promises allow us to enjoy fellowship with Him in spite of the circumstances around us, to truly grasp a measure, of the peace that passes all understanding. Try asking yourself this:
Is there anything in this world to be compared to entering a New Year securely resting in the unchanging love of Christ for you!
In a sense we might consider that we live in times similar to Jeremiah, when “the Hope of Israel” was “a stranger in the land, like a traveler who stays only a night” (Jeremiah. 14:8). Most of the world around us now sees Jesus Christ as a stranger in most of our homes. The reason for this is not that there is any change with Jesus, but that the solution we so often seek out is the ability to control the situations of life on our own, apart from Jesus. The truth as we are being made aware of in this season of life is that we really have very litter control. Over these past few years we have taken greater understanding from the words of Koheleth in the Book of Ecclesiastes:
“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”— Ecclesiastes 1:2
Our reliance on self as a nation, as a congregation, as families, and as individuals, have separated us from the Spirit of promise that God has always made available to us by means of salvation. The simple truth today is that world needs salvation and needs a Saviour, but on our own we do not possess salvation and we are not its saviours. There are not enough guns, pharmaceuticals, technological innovations, ecological practices, petitions, demonstrations, elections, policies, offices, ideologies, philosophies, interpretations, implementations, organizations, businesses, heroes, or heroines to save the world. The more we think that we can save the world, the more we damage it. The more we see ourselves as saviours, the more we are lost and far from salvation. The more we follow the course of the world, the more we become alienated from it and harm it.
This is the paradox — to really love the world is to love not the world (John 3, 1 John 2).
In loving Jesus first, we love the world as it ought to be loved, in an honest and salvific love that heals us and those we are called to love. In other words, the problems out there are not merely the fault of a virus or a government agency we despise because they can’t make it go away — the problems out there are because of you and me trying to do this on our own. Admittedly, this may not be a very popular diagnosis, to offer you for the new year ahead, but it is the one that leads to hope. One of the great benefits of following Jesus is that it liberates us to the degree that we can take responsibility for our failings and then make the changes we need to make, that’s repentance. To truly repent is to embrace freedom because God’s salvation is ever present for those who turn to Him. To be a Disciple is to say no to scapegoating, to admit that we are no different from those we oppose (in some ways), to take stock of what we are doing, and to turn back to the will of God. In doing so, what we will each encounter is the grace of God.
This is what we want you to carry into the new year ahead, instead of remaining in lament and confusion, let us open ourselves to the Holy Spirit and to the work of the Spirit in our individual lives and then in the world. It must begin in our individual lives. Remember, each of us have been called to be priests. (1 Peter 2:8-10) If you truly consider this then we may see if, by the light of grace, we are indeed following the footsteps of our Lord. If we are not truly certain of this stance in our own life, if we do not truly know where we are going, how will we address what takes place around us? Jesus warned of the danger inherent in this state of living: “If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14). Don’t be blind!
All these areas of introspection can be summarized simply in the following questions:
Am I really following Jesus?
Is Jesus Lord and Saviour of my life?
Does my life truly reflect my answer to the two questions above?
Don’t misunderstand here, this is not your Pastors calling you to self-recrimination, self-condemnation, or doubting the grace of God. This is your Pastors cheering you on to a powerful 2022!
Blessings to you and yours for the year ahead.
Pastors Marlee and Dave.