I trust you've made your New Years resolutions one of which is to be
in worship each week. Well done for this first Sunday. I won't ask you if
you’ve resolved to lose the weight you gained between Thanksgiving and Christmas,
or if you’re planning on joining a health club, or if you’re going to run
five miles a day. Five miles, by the way, is my total aggregate for the
year.
The late Erma Bombeck made some memorable resolutions over the years:
1. I will go to no doctor whose office plants have died.
2. I’m going to follow my husband’s suggestion to put a little excitement
into my life by living within our budget.
3. I’m going to apply for a hardship scholarship to Weight Watchers.
4. I will never loan my car to anyone I have given birth to.1.
Resolutions are good, especially if there are changes we need to make in
our lives. I heard about one poor guy who dialed his girlfriend and got
the following recording: “I am not available right now, but thank you for
caring enough to call. I am making some changes in my life. Please leave
a message after the beep. If I do not return your call, you are one of the
changes.” 2
Dr. Les Parrott tells about a guy in Fredericksburg, Virginia named Cliff
Satterthwaite who helps people get rid of their regrets. Each New Year’s
Eve Mr. Satterthwaite sets up a booth there in Fredericksburg where those
celebrating New Year’s Eve can come for a moment of sober reflection. Put
the emphasis on “sober” reflection. Those who come write their regrets on
a scrap of paper, then they set a match to them and turn them to ashes in
an adjacent canister. Literally, their regrets go up in smoke. At least,
that’s the general idea. 3.
Looking forward and making promises to take a new direction is or
can be a very good idea. I participate in that many times a year. Often over
the same issues.
That's the problem with resolutions. The problem is not usually that what
we want to change is unimportant or even unnecessary. Its that in many cases
its impossible, to hold to the change, especially if the issues are deep
down issues of personality, or a lifetime of habit or emotional defense.
Those can be altered in the sunshine, but when the dark clouds roll in, we
often revert to our tried and true coping mechanisms.
The secret to changing the future lies in looking backward in this case.
If the life you are living at times seems too heavy, too difficult or too
scary, then you need to look back at the design and the designer.
But the truth of the matter is that we all prefer to try every other avenue
to find peace, happiness, personal relevance and even joy.
The hardest resolution of all to keep is often the resolution we make saying,
"from here on in, I am going to look to what God wants first."
Sure we make those resolutions and maybe do fine for a while.
But the default setting is to pull back our decisions about so many issues
in our life to do what we really would prefer, regardless of what we think
our Creator's advice would be. So we play mental games and pretend that
this doesn't matter, or that course of behavior is really fine. But we find
it incredibly difficult to bring our family, our work, our friendships,
our pastimes, our financial priorities and a host of other issues to God
and say, "show me where I should be going in this."
Why?
Because the default condition for us is that while on one level we may
say we have faith, the truth of the matter is that it is incredibly hard
to put our trust in God.
We have so many notions about who God is. God is a harsh judge; God is
unjust; God is not interested in little details of our life...and on and
on.
And this is why Advent, the birth of Jesus is so absolutely important.
Because as John says in the passage we read "If you want to know
who God is, look at Jesus."
Ok, that is not a direct quote from John.
But it captures what John is saying.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have
seen his glory,
the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace
and truth.
You don't have to be in any doubt as to what God's intentions are toward
you, or whether or not God is capable of delivering on His promises.
Look at the life of Jesus and you will see all you will ever possibly need
to know about what God thinks about you, about the Creator's intentions
toward you and about what to expect if you sign on for the journey and then
let God's plans dictate your own.
That's the rub isn't it?
Letting God's plans dictate yours--because we are not sure that God's plans
are anywhere we really want to go, except in general.
But in specifics, we prefer to keep the decision making control strictly
under our control.
Thats a hard one. I know. I find it no easier than you.
But what I do know is that it is the only way to go.
Here what Eugene Peterson, a Presbyterian professor at Regent College in
Vancouver has to say about the issue.
Though there were auspicious signs that preceded and accompanied
his birth, preparing the world for the majestic and kingly, the birth of
Jesus itself was of the humblest peasant parentage, in an unimportant town,
and in the roughest of buildings. He made a career of rejecting marks of
status or privilege: He loved lepers, washed the feet of his disciples, befriended
little children, encouraged women to join his entourage, and, finally, submitted
to crucifixion by a foreign power.4
You want to know what your creator is like? That is what He is like.
Check out how it looks in human form.
Check into the life of Jesus. You will find it in Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John.
This church year I am going to be preaching a lot from John, so here is
a thought.
This New Year, make hearing from John's gospel a priority.
Check it out.
Thats a resolution that you can keep.
I will keep mine to presenting from the pages of John and occasionally
elsewhere, the most faithful picture I can.
And lets pray that in spite of our foibles, that God speaks clearly to
us all.
Preached January 4, 2009
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian
Church
Victoria, British Columbia
Notes
1. From a sermon "New Beginnings" , sermons.com, for Jan. 4, 2009
2.ibid
3.ibid
4. Eugene Peterson, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work
(Eerdmans, 1992), p. 231
Resources Consulted
Preachingtoday.com
Sermons.com
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