Are you a New Years’ Day or New Years’ Eve?

For me, I have always enjoyed New Years’ Day a little more than New Years’ Eve. The older I get, it seems that the chasm is widening. When I was younger, the pressure was on to find what party to attend or what grand plans were to be in place to ring in the New Year. For the last several years now, I admittedly enjoy the Day more, and fall asleep to early to enjoy the Eve.

 

I think we all may put too much pressure on ourselves for New Years’ Eve. But think a moment about what you do on New Years’ Day – ahhh, nothing. No plans, no great parties, no pressure to put on yourself about who to see and where to be seen. As Christians who celebrate (and as a proud Episcopalian, I celebrate any occasion I can) holidays and events amid a secular culture, where do we find meaning? Where might we find the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ in our celebrations and commemorations? Did you know that the church names New Years’ Day “The Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ”?

What does New Years’ Day represent for you? For most of us, we certainly do not see the Day as a religious day. Indeed it isn’t; at least not as the days of Christmas, Easter or Pentecost are. But New Years’ Day is a special day. It begins a new year, a new start, a new beginning. Resolutions abound and promises made. Black-eyed peas consumed to ensure good fortune for the coming year. Failures put behind as a hope-filled future is sought after. What are your hopes and dreams for 2014?

 

The gospel reading for January 1, “The Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ”, is the last portion of the Luke reading for Christmas Eve plus one more verse:

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb (Luke 2:1-15).

 

According to the New Interpreter’s Bible, “Bethlehem is a place where God came to us through the birth of a child. It is a place of mystery and wonder, far removed from the ordinary world in which we live.” Funny how secular celebrations and religious celebrations seem to comingle, isn’t it? New Years’ resolutions and placing our hopes for health and happiness for the coming year are so closely related. But what are we truly yearning for? Where and what is our Bethlehem?

 

The problematic difference between the ever-establishing New Years’ resolutions and seeking the Good News of God in Christ afresh for the coming year is that one has nothing to do with anything but our own selfish needs and desires, while the other has everything to do about others and our need to be selfless servants. My friend and colleague, the Very Rev. Barkley Thompson blogged about servant ministry, selflessness and preparation for God’s presence in our lives to be a more natural occurrence, in his blog “Second Nature” at WordPress.com, with a wonderful reflection on the Captain of the U.S. Airways flight that landed in the Hudson River in 2009. He wrote, “We are challenged—as Jesus challenges the apostles—to see ourselves as God’s servants before all other things, including our ambition, our desires, and even our needs. That’s an uncomfortable exercise for 21st Century Americans! The first step in this new understanding is to take on practices and exercises that begin to form our second nature.”

 

 

 

I hope that in the midst of your New Years’ celebrations and resolutions, that you try and include your faith journey in your plans. When we include others in our plans, when we extend grace, mercy, compassion, and love to the other in our lives – whoever the other may be – our lives will begin to look like the lives that God intended for us to live. Bethlehem will come closer. This holy place may come closer to being a reality for you, but only if you consider others, that they may rejoice with you.

 

A happy and blessed New Year for you and yours and the forgotten ones, and may we all be raised to a greater reality. May we all have a glimpse of Bethlehem, where the Holy Child comes to us. And rest. You have the whole year ahead of you!