December 31,
2017
Frist Sunday
of Christmas (After printing my sermon, I noticed the typo. It seemed fitting with the busyness that happened between Christmas Eve worship and the weekend after Christmas and made me laugh out loud when I read it.)
Isaiah
61:10-62:3
Psalm 148
Galatians4:4-7
Luke 2:22-40
Please pray
with me,
O God, you
have been our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. As we welcome this new year, bless us with
peace. Fill our days with the light of
Christ and lead us on the path of life until we see you in our heavenly
home. You live and reign forever and
ever. Amen.
It is good
for us to gather together this week in this space, in the season of Christmas
and on the cusp of a new year.
It is good
for us to be together as one year ends and another begins.
It is often
a time to reflect upon the last 12 months…both highs and lows and to think
about the year to come.
This time of
year is when many people are coming up with New Year’s Resolutions. Sestimates say more than 40% of
Americans—make New Year's resolutions. (For comparison, about one-third of
Americans watch the Super Bowl.)
But for all
the good intentions, only a tiny fraction of us keep our resolutions;
University of Scranton research suggests that just 8% of people achieve their
New Year's goals.
Last year I
read the book, One Word that will Change your Life.
The authors talk about how
it is often the case that New Year’s resolutions are broken or left unmet,
often by the first week in February.
Yet, if you focus on one word for the year, you are more apt to see
positive changes as the year progresses.
As I have shared in the newsletter and on my blog, my word for last year
was focus. I took time throughout the
course of the year to focus on different things in my life, which helped me
take more time for reading, exercising, family and friends.
Guided and
shaped by one word, instead of focusing on one or more specific resolutions, I
could follow a different path. If I
missed an opportunity to focus one day, I just shifted my focus for the next
day. I found that this word was part of
my day to day life throughout the whole year….which I cannot say was true for
past resolutions.
My friend,
Mindy chose the word strength. Here is a jar that she kept on her dining room table throughout the year.
Every time she did something that showed
strength, she jotted it down and put it in the jar. Some of her strength moments included,
Marched in my first protest. Ran on
treadmill. Brain MRI. Brave text. Hiked Mt. Washington.
Just as
focus took on its own meaning for me, strength was defined by Mindy.
As you look
towards the beginning of a new year, what ideas or dreams or plans do you have
in mind? What goals do you hope
accomplish?
What do you
plan on happening in 2018? In addition
to the tradition of a new years resolution…and preparations for a new year, are
there other traditions or rituals that will happen in the next few days? Pork and sauerkraut, perhaps?
We see an
example of a different tradition or ritual in our gospel lesson today.
We are 8
days after the birth of Jesus which was the customary time for the presentation
of a child. So, Joseph and Mary brought
Jesus to the temple. This is just one
example of Mary and Joseph observing the law.
Just prior to our reading today, the Luke shares that Jesus has been
circumcised, another example of the parents of the Son of God following the
law. They are holding to these rituals
and as they do, we see that Jesus’ life begins with fulfilling the law and
coming into the temple in Jerusalem
Essential to
Judaism is the praise of God in all of life.
The Jewish law taught that God was to be honored in one’s rising up and
lying down, in going out and coming in, in how one dressed and what one ate…
(Culpepper)
If we think
about our daily rituals, not just the ones that come up at the beginning of a
new year, but even just day to day, how do we or how are we seeing God in the
ordinariness of all that we do? Where do
we practice praise and honor of God each day?
We have the
opportunity to give thanks to God from the moment we awake each morning.
We have the
opportunity to pray alone or together before meals to give thanks to God for
family, food and the time and space to share a meal.
Sadly, it is
too true that with the busyness, the pressures of secularism and modern life
have reduced the significance of ritual observances in the lives of most
Christians.
A handful of
activities and jobs mean that families are eating fewer meals together. Prayer before meals and family Bible study
are observed in fewer homes today than just a generation ago. For many, religious rituals are reduced to
church attendance at Christmas and Easter and to weddings and funerals. (Culpepper)
Alan
Culpepper talks about how ‘marking both daily and special events with rituals
that recognize the sacredness of life and the presence of God in the everyday
is practically extinct…The result has been that god has receded from the
awareness and experience of everyday life.
Many assume that God is found only in certain places, in sacred
buildings, in holy books, or in observances led by holy peoples.’
As we as a
society shift away from these rituals and practices,…what have we lost from our
daily experience? How can we make that
shift back?
I had a
conversation with someone this week who wondered if this was a generational
shift. She and her friends talked about
how they saw Jesus in the presence of others, where her daughter just saw a
friendly or helpful person.
While it may
be a generational shift, how can we as active members of the body of Christ
bring back how we see and name Jesus in our midst?
As we begin
a new calendar year together, how will our lives and world be shaped by
Christ? How will we seek out God in the
ordinary everydayness of our lives? How
will we name Christ when we see him?
Not only are
we given a fresh start each year to do this, but we are given a fresh start
each day, because we have been washed in the waters of baptism. We have been made new in Christ. We are a new creation. Washed in the (ritual) waters of baptism, we
are freed from sin and death to proclaim Christ in our midst this day and all
days.
I encourage
you as the year begins, to remember your baptism. Just as we welcome Cole into the body of
Christ, remember that you are part of this family of God, washed in these
waters.
Remember
that you are gifted and able to see Christ in your midst and point him
out.
You are
equipped to bring Christ into the ordinary and honor and praise him each
day.
May we learn
(or re-learn) to greet the morning with gratitude, to celebrate the goodness of
food, family, and friendship at meals, to recognize mystery in beauty and to
mark the rites of passage – like a 16th birthday or a school
graduation or a retirement . . .you name it.
May we see
these daily rituals not as restrictive…as something we have to do, but in ways
that celebrate the goodness and mystery of life.
Go forth,
celebrate, give thanks and honor God each day.
And now my
the peace, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus and let all God’s people say, amen.
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