Making a Fresh Start

‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” 

--Revelation 21: 4-5a

Time is a kind of arbitrary thing. I mean, in Genesis, God gave us evening and morning—a new day—but months and years, holidays and holy days, overall, are human choices and creations. It seems easier, somehow, to handle Life in smaller pieces. So we divide our days into hours and minutes, and our lives into years. Three hundred sixty-five days seems to be a manageable chunk, and once a year is a good time to stop and check up on how our lives are coming along. And it has been this way for a long, long time.

In the nineteenth century in this country, for slaveholders the New Year meant a time for assessing one’s debts and taking appropriate actions to collect or to pay. If a slaveholder had a debt to settle, he might choose to sell off a slave or two. And because slaves had no rights, and were considered just property, it was not unusual for families to be separated. Teenage children might go to one plantation, their parents, to another.

Each year on New Year’s Eve, slave families would gather in their churches, hold hands and pray, anxiously awaiting word of whether their family would remain intact or be divided, with no guarantee they would ever see one another again.

So you can understand why New Year’s Eve in 1862 was such a big deal. After decades of approaching the New Year in fear and dread, the Emancipation Proclamation offered hope. A fresh start. A chance to be together again with family long-departed.

It sounds a little like heaven on earth, doesn’t it? Freedom from the past, reunited with loved ones—a fresh start all around. And this is just the promise we find in this passage from Revelation. No more tears. No more pain. The old order of things has passed away. All things have been made new.

And Revelation also offers this promise. Now the dwelling of God is with all people, and God will live with them. In other words, heaven isn’t simply some place “out there,” where the saints hang out after we die. Heaven is not a noun. Heaven is an adjective, a quality, a way of living life here and now.

Over and over in Scripture, God has promised to make all things new. Every time the world seems to be nearing the end—at the tomb, for instance—every time, something new, greater and more holy emerges.

The old has passed away. The new has come.

So here we are again, on the brink of another new year. Our calendar year is arbitrary, to be sure; nevertheless, now is a great time to pause and reflect on the last twelve months. And it’s a perfect time to decide what, from 2013, we will choose to let go of and leave behind. Here are a few suggestions:

 --Give yourself permission to be happy.

 --Give yourself permission—to be you.

 --Practice forgiveness. (Start with yourself.) You can forgive another person without telling a soul, and when you do, you set your soul free.

 --Let go of feeling guilty about things you cannot change.

-- Let go of your fear of the unknown. Take one step at a time and watch the path unfold.

 --Let go of worrying about the future. It only robs you of fully enjoying today.

-- Let go of negative self-talk. Listen instead to the voice of the Almighty, deep in your soul. You are my beloved child, and that is enough.

That old beer commercial got it right, you know? We only go around once in this life. What we do with our days and our years is up to us.

 We can cast our eyes backward, live our days in regrets and “if only’s.”

 We can take the very long, eternal view and focus on Someday, when we will be reunited with our Creator and our loved ones in the sweet by-and-by.

 Or we can choose, every day, to live into the promise of the Gospel, the promise that God comes and dwells among us. And then—we can set about making that promise a reality, bringing heaven on earth as we love one another, shoulder one another’s burdens, and allow ourselves to accept the gift of God’s generous grace.

It’s a new year, 2014. What will you let go of? What will you embrace? Where will you allow the Holy Spirit to make things new in your life?

Holy, gracious Lord, help us to see ourselves through your all-loving eyes, to offer that same love to ourselves and to others, and to begin this New Year dependent on and believing in your perfect promises. Amen.

What to give, what to give. . . .

On coming to the house, [the Magi] saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 

--Matthew 2:11

This time of year, we take everything we know from Matthew and Luke and we tend to conflate it into one single story. (What that means is, we take the shepherds from Luke, the Magi from Matthew and anything else we have picked up along the way and tell it as a single story. There is nothing terribly wrong with that, as long as we are aware we are doing it. Were you aware?)

Anyway, I want to write about the Magi this time, because the gift-giving we do today really started with them. 

These Magi, foreigners from another land to the East, somehow learned that this King had been born, and they somehow, at some level, knew that they, too, were to worship this baby born of mean estate.

And so, armed with valuable gifts, they set off following a wonderful star, a star with a tail, that their "religion" had told them would lead them to where this child lay. 

Scripture tells us these Magi brought three gifts to the Child: gold, frankincense and myrrh. And they laid these gifts at the foot of the manger and worshiped the babe.

* * * * *

American writer O Henry tells a story called, "The Gift of the Magi," in which a poor young couple, with barely two nickels to rub together, love each other so deeply, they sacrifice so they can give one another a truly special gift for Christmas. He sells his watch to buy her a beautiful set of hair brushes; she cuts her beautiful hair to purchase him a stunning watch fob.

These gifts, chosen with such care, turn out to be useless to the one receiving them.

The Magi's gifts seem similar to me. After all, of what use are gold or incense to the One from whom all things come? Even these men of great wisdom and means struggle to appropriately gift the Christ Child at his birth.

It hasn't changed that much, has it? Not really.

We still give gifts at Christmas, to one another in remembrance of the Christ. Yet we frequently end up giving things that either make no sense-- or have no meaning. 

At the last minute, we zip through the local department store, cannot find anything we like, and grab a gift card. After all, everyone can use a few extra dollars, right? And that way, they can pick what they want.

Right?

Now, I am not here to try and guilt you into a giftless Christmas. There is nothing wrong with giving gifts. In fact, giving a gift is a perfect way to remind someone you love them.

Just try hard(er) to be sure the gift itself actually says as much.

Maybe your friend could use that gift card. But maybe what they would rather have is a personal letter from you, or a phone call.

That elderly neighbor you bake cookies for. Does she need those cookies-- or would she rather have you stop over and read to her for a bit? Bring a pair of warm socks. Or-- brew some tea, stick around and eat some of those cookies with her.

The greatest gift, the only thing the Christ Child desires of us at all this season-- is ourselves. No thing of this world is as pleasing to God as our selves.

And sometimes-- that gift of self is given to another, in the name of the One whom we profess to follow, Jesus.

What will you give this year, to a child, a loved one or a stranger, that comes from your heart? How will you reach out in a new way, and reach beyond with an offering of self?

What Shall I Give Him?

You are still the greatest gift you can give. You needn't have a lot, to give a lot. Thanks be to God.