Lectionary: Year A - First Sunday After Christmas, Holy Name of Jesus, New Year's Day
Texts –
Happy(?) New Year
· After all the anticipations and celebrations of the past few weeks, New Year’s Day is almost anticlimactic. Sure, in the Christian calendar, at least for those that follow it, it is the eighth day of Christmas: it is also celebrated as the day when Jesus was presented at the temple and circumcised and was formally named “Jesus.”
For most of
the world, and perhaps for many of us here, New Year’s Day is a day to get our
minds and bodies finally away from the holidays and back into our regular
routines of daily work and living.
The New Year
is also a time when many people around the world use as a starting point for
self-improvement, life changes, and new projects. Some of it may stick, while
many others eventually revert to old habits. But there is always another New
Year to try again and start over.
Time
That’s the thing about time. Although time is linear, it also has circular properties. We live life according to the 24-hour day, the 7-day week, 30-or so days per month, and 12-months each cycle around the sun. We mark decades of our own lives, and we place special emphasis on changing of decades. If we are lucky enough to live at the turn of the century, that is an even more seemingly significant marker. We group history by decades, centuries, and millennia.
Examples
include long-term view of human civilization from nomadic to agrarian to urban,
and then as one civilization falls another rises, often following a similar
pattern. On a shorter scale, nations may undergo cycles of prosperity and
decline. Between nations there are cycles of conflict, war, and peace. History
shows the development of democracies, followed by corruption, a fall into
authoritarianism, and then a collapse or a revolution that begins the cycle
again. We see cycles in business. We see cycles in religion. We have cycles in
our personal lives.
Today’s reading
from Ecclesiastes chapter 3 can be interpreted as the author looking at life
and seeing the same patterns repeat. These words even made their way into a
rock song by The Byrds in the 1960’s, “Turn, Turn, Turn,” bemoaning the
repetitive nature of war and violence and calling for peace to break in and
remain.[1],[i]
The author
of Ecclesiastes, too, sees no end to the repetitive nature of life, at least as
far as he can see. Yet he has a sense that maybe that’s not all there is to all
of history. He writes, “[God] has put a sense of past and future into their
minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the
end.”[2]
(3:11b) The author holds out hope that there could have been a beginning and that
there will be an end; but he can’t see it, because of his limited perspective.
In the meantime,
the author’s conclusion and advice is “12 I know that
there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long
as they live; 13 moreover, it is God’s gift that
all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.” (3:12-13)
This has often
been interpreted as hedonism and merely a response to resignation at life’s
futility. But perhaps it is also something that should be considered as wisdom.
After all, no one is guaranteed tomorrow, however healthy you might be and how
safe you think your environment is.
Too many in the modern, industrialized world spend too much time working hard for a future retirement when they will finally be able to enjoy the fruit of their labors. In the process many wreck their health and relationships, and when retirement comes, they find little to enjoy. Instead of placing so much into a future nest that may never materialize, why not learn to be content and enjoy the present, as much as possible with the friends and family that are around you now?
Cycles or Linear?
Is there a beginning and an end? Modern physical cosmology suggests that there might be, at least as far as this universe is concerned. It began (most probably) with the Big Bang.[3] The ultimate end of the universe is unknown; however, various hypotheses exist from a universe that becomes cold and dead (or hot and dead), to a singularity, or to a cycling into a new universe.[4]
Ancient
cosmologies presupposed that there was no beginning; that something always
existed. This is true even of Hebrew cosmology.[5]
Although we read “In the beginning,” in the opening of Genesis, this applies
strictly to the visible world. It does not communicate that something was
created out of nothing. Genesis 1:2 reads, “The earth was complete chaos, and
darkness covered the face of the deep [i.e., ‘sea’], while a wind from
God swept over the face of the waters.” When the Flood comes in Genesis 7,
the world is destroyed by its reversion to the pre-creation state of chaotic
and deep sea, and then it is re-created in chapter 8.
New Creation
It is not
until well into the writings of the Christian New Testament that the idea that
history has a distinct beginning and an end finds form. An articulation is
found in the text from Revelation 21 that was read today. From this text the
author makes clear that the cycles of physical cosmology, religious cosmology,
and history will finally come to an end, and that an ideal world and history
will be created, never to end. God is declared to be the Beginning and End
itself.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them and be their God;
4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”
5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am
making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are
trustworthy and true.” 6 Then he said to me, “It is
done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. (Rev. 21:3-6a)
For
Christians, although what we observe and experience may appear and feel
cyclical, we believe that there is a beginning and end found in God, and that
the flow of time is moving purposefully toward God’s ultimate conclusion.
God Enters Time and History
The
shepherds, Mary, and Joseph, however, probably did not comprehend the full
significance of Jesus’ birth. When they were told that Jesus was to be Savior
and Messiah, their understanding was probably limited to what they already
hoped those terms meant. And so,
21 When the eighth day came, it was time to circumcise the
child, and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was
conceived in the womb. (Luke 2:21)
Even naming
a child “Jesus” was not that significant. It was a common name. “Jesus” is the
English form of Yeshua/Joshua.[6]
It can mean “God saves,” “God is my help,” and other similar meanings.
It is only
in hindsight, taking all of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection into account,
that we realize and understand the significance of this one human’s entry into
history. When we accept the name “Christian” as part of our identity, we are
agreeing to adopt the ways of Jesus and how he lived and related to people,
God, and to structures and institutions.
Three Resolutions
On this New Year’s Day, I propose three resolutions.
2. While not dismissing the realities of the difficulties and setbacks in life, let us resolve to maintain a hopeful outlook as much as we can, because we trust that God will bring present history to a just close, and that all will be recreated anew to an ideal, eternal world.
3. Let us resolve to not just identify as “Christian” but to live the full depth and being of what that name means, as exemplified by Jesus.
[2]
Unless otherwise noted, texts are from the New Revised Standard Version,
Updated Edition.
[3]
Chronology
of the universe - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_universe)
[i]
I ended up referring to Wikipedia quite a bit for this sermon. Not that I
consider it authoritative, but it is a decent check on my assumptions. And it
is a good place to find a list of more authoritative references, if that is
needed.
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