“THE RESOLUTION SOLUTION”
New Year's Eve (Eve of the Name of Jesus)
December 31, 2017
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God.
1 Peter 1:23 (ESV)
There always has been and I suspect that there always will be a certain sense of excitement that characterizes New Year's Eve. I suspect that this excitement most likely has something to do with "turning over a new leaf," so to speak. We like the idea of bidding farewell to one calendar year, with all of its tragedies, failures, and disappointments, and beginning a brand-new year full of all kinds of hopes and dreams. This may be true for us here at Bethel this year in particular, when so many of us here have lost so many people who were dear to us over the past twelve months. There is certainly nothing wrong with leaving the past behind and forging ahead toward the future. In fact, that is pretty much the same thing that we are doing every time that we come together in the Lord's house, kneel before His altar, and ask His forgiveness in the name of our Savior. What we're really asking for is not only forgiveness for our past sins and failures but also a fresh start--the opportunity to do it all over again, and this time to do it right, amending our sinful lives and serving the Lord with joy and gladness.
The problem with all of this for so many is that the new year, like every other gimmick that we come up with on our own, is a big disappointment as far as that fresh start is concerned. This is the time of the year when many of us make all kinds of New Year's resolutions. With great determination we begin to enforce them at the stroke of midnight, but for most of us they are broken before we take our first sleep in the new year. This has become so commonplace that we even make jokes about it. So what is the "resolution solution"? In this morning's Epistle Saint Peter gives us the answer. Under the Spirit's inspiration he writes not about a new year, but about a New Life. He reminds us that we have been born again in Holy Baptism as children of God in Jesus Christ through the power of "the living and abiding Word of God" and that our New Life in Christ is "imperishable." As we observe the annual exercise of death and resurrection that New Year's Eve seems to symbolize, let's pursue the real newness that God's Word tells us about as we compare and contrast our feeble attempts at living a new life and the real New Life that is ours in Jesus Christ, given to us by the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.
First of all, we have to face the reality that our attempts at making a new beginning on our own are doomed from the start. And the reason is simple: We are not capable of creating a new beginning or anything else, for that matter. Even our imagination is limited to things that we have in some way already experienced. We long for newness and we futilely try to renew various aspects of our lives. In fact, it's sad when you think about it: We claim that we're always looking to the future, but in so many ways all that we're really doing is trying to re-create the past--trying to make ourselves look (and feel) younger by deliberately trying to forget our recent mistakes and failures--trying to return to a simpler (and presumably better) time. But all of these efforts are for naught because we can't get any younger, we can't forget, and we can't turn the clock back, no matter how hard we may try. We cannot erase the effects of time and experience, no matter how badly we may want to. So in all of our efforts to do that, we are really only deceiving ourselves.
What's more, even if we could somehow undo all of the unpleasant and sinful things that have happened in the course of our lifetime, it wouldn't really make any difference, because all of those negative things would just keep on happening. We can deny it or try to escape it all we want, but the fact is that our first parents and all of their descendants after them (including us) have broken God's perfect creation and, as a result, we are sinners living in a sinful world, and there is no getting around that. This phenomenon has a profound effect on our spiritual life as well. So many people die without the redeeming grace of God simply because they have never faced the fact that they can't save themselves. They spend a lifetime trying desperately to do it on their own--trying to erase the past and do better in the future--but their resolve has no strength so inevitably they fail. Their self-pride won't allow them to face the reality that they can't do it on their own, so they never turn to the Savior in repentance to receive His forgiveness and hope.
God answers this human dilemma with something far superior. With simple water empowered with His "living and abiding Word," His Holy Spirit has given us New Life in Baptism--not just a "new lease on life," that so many people talk about, but a genuine New Life in Jesus Christ. The power of the Gospel of Christ that has been applied to us in Baptism actually is able to undo the damage that has been done by our sin. We have been baptized into Jesus' death and resurrection, which make it possible for us to die to sin and live in Him every day of our lives. He doesn't allow us to ignore our sin or its seriousness, but He does take our sin away through His suffering and death. He doesn't allow us to pretend that we can do something to change, but He does change us in His resurrection from the dead by the power of His Spirit--the Spirit who we received when we were baptized in His name--the Spirit who continues to strengthen us in the faith through Word and Sacrament.
Probably the best thing about this New Life in Christ that we have received in Baptism is that it is "imperishable," as Peter describes it in the words of our text. We don't have to worry about waking up tomorrow and finding that we've lost it all. The Scriptures assure us that Satan has no power over us unless we give him that power. Satan can certainly tempt us (as he constantly does), but he cannot do us any harm without our willing consent. From time to time we hear talk about people "losing their faith." No one really loses his faith in the sense that he is victimized by Satan or circumstances against his will, but a lot of people throw away their faith by having so many other interests and priorities that they are, in fact, placing their trust and confidence in people and things other than the Savior Jesus Christ. When that happens, those people are back to square one in this whole matter of newness. They are once again trying to create something that only Christ can create.
New Year's Eve is a time for us to think about newness and changing for the better. That is certainly commendable, but we must always remember that real newness and real change are not to be found in things that we can orchestrate; they come about only through the power of the Holy Spirit, working through Word and Sacrament. That Spirit of God, through whom God has said to you: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine" (Isaiah 43:1), will keep you in your baptismal grace, each day reminding you that in Christ "you are a new creation"--that "the old has passed away [and] the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17)--all by His grace.
Amen.
May the true Light which enlightens everyone, which has come into the world, shining brightly in the darkness, be your very life. And may the Word become flesh, Jesus Christ Himself, continue to make known to you His redeeming grace and truth now and always. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.