Happy New Year! (First Sunday in Advent)

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Happy New Year!  Today is the first Sunday in Advent – the beginning of a new liturgical year in the church.  In this new liturgical year, most of our Gospel readings will come from Luke’s Gospel.  We’ll spend some time focusing on a few of the particular themes that Luke raises as he tells the story of Jesus.  And, we begin in this season of Advent to tell the story of Jesus once again, as we begin with the stories which heralded Jesus’ first coming, and which also prepare us for his coming at the end of time.

And as with any “new year”, I usually like to focus on all the things I’m looking forward to in the new year.  We’ll all probably be doing this in about a month as we get ready for the calendar new year.  And if you’re at all like me, you’ll probably be looking forward to:

• Milestone moments – perhaps this is a year when you or somebody in your family is graduating; perhaps you’re anticipating the birth of a child or grandchild; or perhaps this is a special anniversary year … (this coming year, for example, will be Prince of Peace’s 40^th anniversary year!)

• Projects that you’re planning – I almost always have a shop project or two in mind, and perhaps a home improvement project.  I know a lot of folks who have projects of one sort or another that they’re looking forward to, or at least looking forward to completing!  And, at church we’ve got some exciting projects now in the works, including (if the contractors cooperate) finally being able to move on our patio/courtyard project!

• Exciting trips – I also almost always have a trip plan in the works, and I remember reading some time ago that part of the joy of a trip is the planning and anticipation, as you get ready and excited for the experience.  It’s true.  And perhaps that’s especially true now as travel is again becoming a bit easier for all of us…

Those are the kinds of things I always want to focus on as I begin a new year.  Probably, the same is true for you.  And yet, I know that no new year is going to just be sweetness and light.  There will be problems, pain and disappointment.

Yet even though I know that, I don’t like to think about or dwell on the fact that in the next year:

• People I know and love will die – sometimes, of course, I can anticipate that if somebody is very elderly or sick, that might happen.  But in many years past, I simply couldn’t have anticipated the sudden and unexpected deaths of people I thought would be around for a while longer.  Years later, I can still feel a little shell shocked.  And while I know that this will likely happen again in the coming year, I don’t usually think about it, or like to be reminded of it…

• Friends and colleagues will move away, and I won’t see them much any more – sometimes, folks get new jobs, or they retire, or they just decide they need a change of scenery.  Yet it happens almost every year that somebody I used to hang out with just isn’t around anymore.  And again, sometimes I knew the move was coming, and sometimes I didn’t.  I know this will happen some more in this coming year, but I don’t usually think about it, or like to be reminded of it…

• Some bizarre, unexpected problem will happen – it just comes out of the blue like a bolt of lightening.  Actually, for me, as some of you know from my Facebook page, one of those things was an actual bolt of lightening – which hit a tree in my back yard and lit my snowblower on fire …!  Now, the good news is that after nearly 3 months of waiting for $400 worth of parts, the snowblower works again, so Snowmaggedon is much less likely this winter!  Still, I know crazy, unexpected stuff like that will happen in the coming year, but I don’t like to think about it, or like to be reminded of it…

And yet, every year as we begin Advent, we hear words from Jesus, and later from John the Baptist, that remind us of the crazy, scary and ominous things that the future has in store for us.  The very first words of Jesus to us in this new year were these:

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” 

Happy New Year to you all!

Now of course, the lectionary writers planned it this way.  But they did that because the beginning of the story of Jesus’ ministry begins with words like these from John the Baptist.  And the beginning of the story of the Resurrection begins with Jesus’ crucifixion and death – and these words from Luke’s Gospel to his disciples right before that happens.  These words – the ones we don’t like to dwell on or be reminded of – are indeed the beginning of each new chapter in Jesus’ life.

And yet, these “downer” words and reminders, as much as we may not like to hear them, remind us of some really important and encouraging facts about the new year we’re about to enter.  These words we read today – and the ones we’ll read in the next couple of weeks – remind us also that the new year God is leading us into is a year of:

• Real life, not the fantasy of our imagination – one of the problems of focusing only on my hopes and dreams for the new year is that the year I envision is never the year that happens!  But Jesus is promising to lead us and walk with us into the real year we’re about to experience – a year filled with promise and hope, but also filled with pain and problems.  Yet Jesus walks with us and strengthens us no matter what.  And that also means that the new year God is leading us into is a year of…

• Growth and adaptation – one of the reasons I don’t like to think about the problems and the pain of the new year is because those things always mess with my schedule and my plans.  They force me to adapt and change.  And I don’t like some of the changes.  But Jesus is always calling us into a new year of change and renewal – of seeing God at work in us and around us, often in ways that change us and call us to change (which is why the word “repent” – which literally means “change” – comes up so often).  And yet, that also means that the new year into which God is leading us is a year of…

• Experiencing Jesus’ presence in new, and even unexpected ways – it’s often been the case for me, and maybe for you, too, that I’ve experienced God’s presence and strength in the times and events I didn’t want to think about.  And it’s instructive that in today’s Gospel reading, the end result of all this fainting and foreboding is that people get to see the Son of Man coming on the clouds – perhaps the last thing they would have expected.  And while I don’t usually like being reminded that bad stuff will happen, sometimes hope comes from being reminded that God got me through the bad stuff before, and he will again.

So happy new year!  May this year be one of excitement and happiness for you.  But even when it isn’t, remember that Jesus is walking with you, whether the times are good or bad.  Be assured of God’s guidance and help when you have to adapt to situations that you’d just as soon not deal with.  And be confident, even in days of fear and foreboding, that Jesus has a future in store for you beyond the bad days.

Amen.