Homily for New Year’s Eve
Augustana, 2011
Note: This sermon came out a little different, especially at the end. With so much going on, I don’t have time to go back and edit the manuscript. But I think there was more Gospel in the preached version.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
We gather tonight not really because of anything in the church year so much as a new calendar year approaches. Some people make a big deal of the new year coming. In reality it’s really quite arbitrary. The Jewish New Year has already begun back at the end of September. The Chinese will start there’s on January 23rd. And of course, the church already began her new year at the end of November with the first Sunday in Advent. Calendars are arbitrary. But like birthdays, they give us a sense of time passing by and maybe more than a little sadness for time wasted and missed opportunities, auld lang syne, and all that. And of course an expectancy that the coming year might be a source of joy and blessing. The readings for tonight are kind of an interesting mix and they should give us plenty to ponder this New Year’s Eve.
The reading from Isaiah is a prophecy against a rebellious Israel who refuses to be nothing more than a rebellious people to the Lord. They refuse His protection and care and prefer instead the protection and care of the Assyrians against the Babylonians. Their wickedness is so terrible the Lord commands Isaiah not just to speak against them but to record this prophecy against them. Because they despise the Word of the Lord, their world will come to an end. They will be left, smashed to pieces like a clay pot. They will be left like an army gone into battle, but routed by the enemy with just their standard bearer standing high and alone on the hilltop. They will be left ruined because they despised the Word of the Lord.
Like the ancient Israelites, there are a good number of people who come to church to hear prophecies from the Lord about how bad other people are. The preachers who preach to them are those who talk about how bad society is and how it all the fault of the gays or the rising tide of the Muslim menace. It’s the fault of the social liberals and their laissez-faire attitudes toward promiscuity and their lack of family values. Just go back in time, and it was the fault of the communists, and before them, the Nazis, and before them, well, you get the picture. At Least I hope so. Instead of focusing on the failures to hear and obey God of the people in their pews, they scapegoat others as if the only thing holding back the good people of God from properly living before Him were the Nazis or the gays or the democrats. It doesn’t work like that. As much as we might like to believe it, it doesn’t. Now please hear also what I did not say. We have significant disagreements in worldview with every group I just mentioned. What I am saying is it’s not their fault I’m a sinner before God and therefore it’s not just their fault that our society, our world is sick and needs healing. It’s partially my fault and yours. What we need is a Savior, someone who will come and heal this world and set it right.
Many of you know I just got back with the family from Orlando. The hotel we stayed at was advertising the Disney holiday special. And the video was of Main Street in the Magic Kingdom all lit up with “Peace on Earth” spelled out on in huge lights. After all, this is the season for peace on earth, right? But nowhere in the Disney universe is there the proper naming of peace on earth, nowhere is it acknowledged where this peace on earth come from. Where does that line, “Peace on earth,” even come from? It comes from the message of the angels on that Christ mas night. Because Jesus is now born there is peace on earth. Not peace between men, that will never come until the end of time. No there is now peace on earth between God and men. Jesus comes to end the rebellion of man against God by being the perfectly obedient one under the Law. God’s Law is fulfilled. That’s why there’s peace on earth, not because we’ve all decided to visualize world peace, but because God Himself has sent His Son to end the state of antagonism between God and man. Need further proof that man is now right with God? Look at how Jesus talks to His disciples tonight.
Stay dressed for action. Be ready. Keep your lamps burning. Be ready, because you don’t know when the Lord will return. There is not here a sense that, all of you who are ready can slack off a bit and those other folks who aren’t ready need to get ready. Jesus speaks to us all. Stand at the ready. Jesus will return and at a moment you will least expect him. He will come like a thief. The difference, of course between the coming o Jesus and a thief coming is that the thief comes to break in an steal whereas Jesus comes to bring blessing. “He will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” Be ready, then, not because Jesus comes to punish but rather because He comes to bring blessing.
I don’t know how much of the year in review stuff you watch but I’m thoroughly overwhelmed at the devastation that occurred not just here with the tornados in the US in Missouri and in Alabama and Georgia and even around here this Spring but with all the earthquakes, and volcano eruptions and the terrible tsunami in Japan as well as all the floods and the blizzards and that’s just the natural catastrophes. Add to that all the violence poured out by man against other men and it was a heartbreaking year. A message like peace on earth is sure to sound like something that can come only from the Disney universe. Paul assures us to not be afraid. “If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Don’t you know that the one who came to end the state of rebellion against God is now ascended to the throne of God and stands there interceding on our behalf? What could possibly separate you from the love of Jesus Christ? There is nothing in all of creation that will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is true. A very blessed and prosperous New Year to you all. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.
