Brad Sullivan
First Sunday after Christmas, Year A
Sunday, December 30th, 2007
Emmanuel, Houston
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Psalm 147
Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7
John 1:1-18
Happy New Year, almost! Does everyone have their new year’s resolutions set, maybe a new gym membership which you’ll use till March, or maybe you’ll give up some bad habit, or start doing something you’ve always wanted to try. It’s a new year so maybe it’s time to make a change; find something that isn’t working and fix it. These changes could happen any time. There’s nothing magical about the New Year, it’s just a change of date, but the New Year feels like a fresh start, a chance to find something in our lives which is draining life and replace it with something that gives life.
This idea of a new start was something of what Isaiah was feeling when he wrote the words we heard today. “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness…” (Isaiah 61:10a)
Do you get the feeling Isaiah was maybe a little bit excited? The people of Israel had suffered so much hardship, and finally the time of their captivity was coming to an end. They were going to be restored. They were returning to God. God was returning to them. There truly was a new beginning for the people of Israel, and Isaiah was ecstatic with hope and joyful expectation for the future. I wish we could just bottle up Isaiah’s words and drink them into us, that we could have that joy he felt inside of us, that joy of Christmas, of God coming and living among us as a human being. Like the New Year, the end of one time and the beginning of something new, the birth of Jesus was the end of one age and the beginning of a new relationship between God and people.
So, Isaiah’s words are very fitting at Christmas. Isaiah wasn’t writing about the coming of Jesus into the world when he wrote the words we heard today; he wasn’t writing about Jesus, but Isaiah’s words were none the less true with the coming of Jesus. With the coming of Jesus into the world, we will greatly rejoice in the LORD, our whole being shall exult in God; for he has clothed us with the garments of salvation, he has covered us with the robe of righteousness. Something new has dawned. Jesus was born 2,000 years ago, and his birth is still new. The Word of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us is still new, still full of hope and joyful expectation. The birth of Jesus is still able to transform our lives.
Having said that, I realize looking over this last week, the ability of Christ to transform lives, to transform our world, may seem diminished. There’s been a lot of bad things going on this week. The local news reported murders here in Houston even on Christmas Eve. Then, on Thursday, Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan was assassinated, and the riots that followed killed dozens more people and left the country torn even more apart.
There is darkness in the world. There is darkness in our lives. Christmas reminds us that in Jesus’ birth, light has come into the world as well, as we heard today from John. “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5) That may seem little comfort to people whose loved ones were killed this Christmas or to the people of Pakistan. The light of Christ may be a great comfort. Either way, tragedy always seems even more poignant when it strikes so close to a time of joy like Christmas.
The light shines in the darkness and yet there is still darkness. How can that be? Shouldn’t the birth of Jesus make everything alright? One would hope, but we still have choices to make in our lives. God still lets us make choices, and sometimes people still make very bad choices which hurt those around them.
No matter how dark the world may seem, however, the light of Christ, the light of the Word of God, is still here. We may feel overcome, at times, by the darkness, but remember, the light is still here in the world with us. Jesus is that light which darkness cannot overcome. Even with darkness such as we have seen this last week, we can hope and even be joyful in the Lord. We can have joy amidst sorrow. As this year comes to a close and the New Year begins, we can sing out our joy just as Isaiah did. We can share the light of the Gospel to help others know the joy of Christmas. Jesus is our joy and our hope for a transformed world and for transformed lives.
A new you in the New Year: that’s been the slogan for the Fellowship of the Woodlands, a church whose commercials I’ve seen on TV several times since Christmas. This church has been capitalizing on the idea of New Year’s resolutions with these commercials, and they’ve been featuring their gym. They’ve been trying to share the joy of Christmas, and yet they seemed to be trying to draw people into their church through physical fitness, the message seeming to be you can transform your life with our church via our gym.
Now, at first, I was puzzled, not upset, but maybe concerned, that a church would seek physical fitness as its primary method of transformation and sharing the Gospel. I thought, but what about the light of Christ, don’t y’all have something more to offer than a gym? I realized, however, the Fellowship of the Woodland’s gym is probably not their primary method of transformation. The gym was a way of attracting people to the church. Using people’s New Year’s resolution for physical fitness was a way to attract them to the church. Then, being a part of that Christian community, hearing the Gospel, encountering the light of Christ is the way people’s lives will be transformed. I don’t know if that is the case, but it sounds reasonable.
Come for a workout, and we’ll offer you something more. Maybe this sounds like a bait and switch, but why not? There’s enough darkness out there. If someone can share the light of Christ by way of a gym, the why not? Take people’s new years resolutions and use them to attract people to the Gospel. Why not? Take the excitement we feel and the hope we feel at the coming of the New Year and then tie that hope and excitement to the Gospel. Why not? The Gospel is from where our hope and excitement truly comes.
The Gospel is what’s really going to transform our lives in the New Year. Our New Year’s resolutions will hopefully improve our lives, they should, that’s kinda the point, but the Gospel can transform our lives as we start this New Year. Jesus is the light which will shine in the darkness in the coming year. So, if you’ve got a new year’s resolution, tie it to the Gospel. Realize as we start this New Year, God is with us. As we seek to make changes in our lives, God is with us.
Try making that joy your New Year’s resolution, or try attaching joy to your New Year’s resolution. Whatever you’ve decided to do in this New Year, whatever changes you’ve decided to make, tie the Gospel to those changes. Whatever hope or expectation you have for the coming year, tie that hope and expectation to the Gospel. Remember the light of Christ along with your New Year’s resolutions, and remember the joy of Isaiah: “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.” (Isaiah 61:10a) Amen.
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