New - Revelation 21:1-6a (New Year's Day)
How many of you have
gotten something new in the last week? A
new outfit, a new toy, a new book, a new
computer, a new phone, a new gadget, or maybe even a new car? Hopefully with all the holiday food no one
has ended up with a new waistline measurement.
We often wait until spring to talk about things becoming new, with
spring and Easter and all. However, today
we have the convergence of dates that only happens every five or six years, New
Year’s Day has fallen on a Sunday…what better time to talk about things
becoming new.
Today marks the beginning
of a new year. It is a time to leave the
past behind and grasp hold of a fresh start.
How many of you were as ready as I was last night to say goodbye to 2016? On a personal level, there was the battle
with bronchitis/pneumonia, two rounds of the flu, a stomach bug that has severely
curtailed my coffee drinking, even to this day, the emergency tooth extraction
and the gall bladder surgery. I have
watched as friends and family have faced sickness, news of terminal illnesses,
loss of employment, and the loss of loved ones. Some have dealt with family
strife, struggles against addictions, or mental health issues. Then there were the events of 2016 that
rocked our nation and our world: racial conflicts across the country, ambushed
police killings, questionable suspect killings, terrorist attacks from Orlando
to Turkey to Germany to France among other places. Hurricanes, tornados, droughts, floods, and
fires invaded homes, communities, states, and nations. Civil wars and ISIS attacks caused us to
wonder if it could happen here. A
contentions electoral year from beginning to end on national and statewide levels
along with controversial legislation made many tire of political turmoil. Again,
to say goodbye to 2016 has been a fond farewell for many of us and others. We look forward to a new year thinking and
hoping that our lives and our world will change…we hope for something new
rather than the same old troubles and struggles.
Thanks be to God that we
serve a God that is all about doing new things.
From the new song that God will place in our mouths (Psalm 40:3),
placing a new and right spirit within us (Psalm 51:10 and Ezekiel 11:19), to
the new things, the new heavens and new earth promised in both Isaiah, Peter,
and Revelation (Isaiah 48:6, 65:17; 2nd Peter 3:13 Revelation 21:),
to the new covenant established through Christ that welcomes in the Gentile as
well as the Jew (Luke 22:20, 2nd Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 8:8, 9:15,
12:24) to the new commandment to love one another (John 13:34), to new life in
the Spirit (Romans 6:4), to the new humanity created as Christ through the
Spirit erases the divisions the world places upon us (Ephesians 2:15), to the
new creatures we become in Jesus (2nd Corinthians 5:17; Galatians
6:15; Ephesians 4:24). Is there any
question, my brothers and sisters, that God has been, is, and always will be
about doing something new…God is not archaic, out-of-date, or dead? God is about doing things new and fresh and
alive. God is not about being stuck in a
rut, but about blazing new trails. God
is not about reruns, but about new seasons and new episodes.
So, what does this mean
for us, here, now, today? It means
everything…it means we are no longer bound by what has happened and what seems
to have always been…but are free to experience the newness of life that God,
through Christ, offers each of us.
Was last year a rough
year? God has put aside 2016 and
starting today, given us 2017. Was
yesterday a rough today? God has brought
us through the night and given us a new dawn.
We are not enslaved to the past, God is always making things new.
What from the past have
we been allowing to control our lives?
Have we been letting sins
of the past control our lives day to day or even dictate our future? Maybe they are our own sins. We think that we have done things so bad that
they define who we are forever. Yet
God’s Word tells us over and over again that who folks were is not who they
always are once He touches their lives.
Jacob was a trickster who became the father of the twelve boys that
would become the twelve tribes of Israel.
Rahab was a prostitute who would help Israel’s spies escape Jericho. Matthew and Zacchaeus were tax collectors,
traitors to their own people before Jesus transformed their lives. Paul oversaw, and most likely participated
in, the execution of followers of Christ before Jesus met him on the road and
through blindness helped him see the Light.
Every one of these folks were marked by sin, but it was not who they
were and it did not prevent God from doing something new in their lives…new
things that would transform their lives, the lives of those around them, and
transform history. Our sins of the past
do not define us…God can and will do something new in and through us if we
surrender our past to His redeeming grace.
This also means that the
sins of other’s past do not govern their future or define who they are. God can and will do something new in their
lives, and often we are called to be part of that newness. We cannot look at someone and what they have
done and determine for ourselves that it is who they are forever…just because
they committed adultery in the past does not mean they will cheat in every
relationship the rest of their lives; just because they stole from family years
ago, does not mean they are forever a thief.
We are called to look at them through the eyes of Christ, which means
that we see them as someone Christ died for, and as they surrender their lives
to Jesus, no long as who they were and what they have done, but as new
creations. It also means that we must
let go of whatever sins they may have committed against us. Did they insult us, did they lie to us, did
they slight us in some way? We cannot
let the wrongs of the past continue as grudges of the present and future as we worship
a God who is constantly doing something new and constantly recreating not only
us, but also those around us. Believing
that God does new things means practicing forgiveness and allow God to make our
relationships new again.
The reality that God does
new things means that we cannot let past failures dictate our present and
future.
Maybe we have started to
let God recreate us as we battle temptations and addictions, and have slipped
and fallen back into the world we have been trying to escape, we’ve opened the
bottle again, we’ve popped another pill, we’ve visited one of those websites
again, we’ve overeaten again. That past
failure is not who we are…God gives us a new day to try again…God bring new
folks and new opportunities into our lives to help see us through the battle.
Maybe we have goals that
we have worked toward or projects we have tried to complete only to be met by
one setback after another. We can’t let
those past failures discourage us from trying again. Each moment we have is an opportunity to try
once more…a new chance given by God.
Because we worship a God
that is all about newness, we can’t always be satisfied with doing the same old
thing, doing things the way we have always done them, or trying things the same
way over and over again. Aren’t we glad that in 1885 Carl Benz did something
new and decided to try a motorized vehicle rather than sticking with the same
ol’ horse and buggy? Aren’t we glad that
in the 1890’s someone decided to try something new instead of continuing the
long walks to the outhouse and tried an indoor toilet?
God’s doing something new
also applies to the way we worship. I
know that many of y’all are thrilled that one day someone decided to try
something new and have the congregation sit down while the “teacher” stood to
preach. Many of us are glad that in 1779
John Newton decided to sing a new song known as Amazing Grace, and in 1971 Gloria and William Gaither decided to
sing a new song known as Because He Lives,
and I know our Conference is glad that Jay Locklear and Adam Seate decided to
sing a new song known as Covenant Prayer. From the Psalms from before Jesus to Gregorian
chants of the early church to 1953’s How
Great Thou Art to Chris Tomlin’s 2016 offering, Good, Good Father, God has always been about offering a new song with
which His people can worship and new ways for His people to worship.
God’s newness in the
church is not only about music and about how we worship, but it is about all
the ways we live out our lives as His people.
Next Sunday we will install our church officers, some of which will be
new. Over the years, God has led this
congregation through multiple pastors, each bringing something new to further
the kingdom. The same old way of doing
church is not always a given—we have tried new ways of reaching into our
community…new ways of learning through Sunday School and Bible Studies…new ways
of fellowshipping together. Have all of
them worked? No. Did that mean that God
stopped doing new things? No. For other
new things have touched the lives of many…among the most recent the Community Playground
and PrayerWalk.
God is always about doing
something new…not only in our past…but with promises of new things all the way
until the new earth and new heaven come together to form New Jerusalem…that day
when God’s new thing will be God’s greatest thing…the restoration of Creation
as God makes all things new.
To paraphrase Paul’s
words to the Philippians, as we enter 2017, may we forget what lies behind,
never letting it limit us, and strain forward to what lies ahead…” and
experience what new things God has in store for us in the coming year.
In the Name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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