January 3, 2009 - Christmas 2

Jesus is Our New Beginning
John 1:1-18
Christmas 2 – January 3, 2010

Andy & I spent most of New Year's Eve Day cleaning our house.
We were having some friends over to watch the college bowl games.
And, well, there's nothing like having company coming to get you in the cleaning spirit,
because you look with fresh eyes at all the things you just kind of put up with or overlook or plain ignore day-to-day, because you're too busy or tired or otherwise occupied to deal with them.

It struck me that it's a great metaphor for this time of year.
It's not necessarily that company is coming,
but the coming of a New Year invites us to clean house, so to speak.
The New Year seems to open our eyes.
Everyone seems to stop for a little while and take stock of their lives,
it's in the air at this time of year.

We reflect on where we are, how things are going,
how we would like them to be.
And most years, when we do this,
when we stop and look around,
we notice all of those things
that aren't quite what they are supposed to be,
the things that aren't how we want them to be.

And so we get to work, cleaning up the clutter,
sweeping out the corners,
dusting off the end tables and bookcases of our lives.
Because the New Year is coming,
like a welcome guest for many of us,
& we know the time is ripe for making resolutions.

The spirit of change is upon us,
and so we try to put into words the things we know need to change.
And those things run the gamut...

We promise ourselves
that we will eat better,
that we will exercise more,
that this year, we will lose that weight we've been carrying around.
We vow that we will get our finances under control once and for all.
We start of the year with high hopes of getting
the file cabinet, or the checkbook, or our houses organized & keeping it that way.
We declare our desire
to be a better spouse or parent or friend or sibling,
we resolve to be
more patient,
more loving,
more kind.

We make all sorts of resolutions, don't we? -
in this season of hope and promise and possibility
as we stand with one foot in the year just ending,
and one foot in the future,
glad for the chance to start over,
to try again,
reminded as we are every year,
that New Year's is the time when everybody gets a second chance.

But sooner or later,
and it doesn't take too long really,
we move past this optimistic New Year's fervor
and back into the daily grind.
And eventually,
most of us find that we have fallen off the resolution wagon.
Sometimes we succeed at making our resolutions a reality,
but as often as not,
those promises we make to ourselves get broken.
Or best laid plans fall to pieces,
that shiny new cleaned-up beginning starts to get dusty.

But before we get too far into this new year,
we hear this gospel –
this beautiful, poetic, hymnic opening to the Gospel of John
reminding us of another beginning,

“In the beginning was the Word...”

Way back when, in the very beginning,
the 1st beginning,
when God created the heavens and the earth,
God said...

God spoke the Word, and there was light.
God spoke the Word, and there was water and dry land.
God spoke the Word, and there were plants and trees
and fish and birds and every kind of creature you can imagine.
God spoke the Word, and humanity was created.

God spoke the Word, and all that is,
everything in the universe,
leapt into being.

In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God –
and that word was Jesus
who became flesh and lived among us.
Jesus, who came to be one of us,
to walk with us,
to laugh with us,
to cry with us.
Jesus, who came to show us the Father's heart –
A heart that is filled to overflowing with grace and truth
a heart that gives us grace upon grace,
a heart that gives life and light to all people.
God spoke this Word of never-ending love
at the beginning,
and speaks it still.
Inviting us here at the beginning of the year,
and every new day,
with every new breath,
to remember
that this Word is the source of all new beginnings.
This Word is the source of all second chances.
This Word is the source of all new life.

This Word became flesh and lived among us,
coming as a welcome guest,
not the kind you have to clean up for in advance,
but the kind who comes and pitches in right alongside you,
shining the light of truth in our dark corners,
and speaking grace and forgiveness and love,
empowering us
to be our true selves,
our child-of-God selves, (The Message)
the ones we were chosen and created to be
before the foundation of the world.

Thanks be to God.
Amen.