It’s good that we are here on the first day of the new year.
There is no real reason why one day on the calendar should bear more significance than any other day of the year.
Yet, still we invest the changing of the year with a great deal of meaning, don’t we?
It is a time of hope,
It is a time of planning,
It is a time of vision-casting,
And, of course, it is a time for resolutions.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
Revelation 21:1-6a
This is the Second Sunday of Christmastide – the eighth day of Christmas.
Christmastide is the shortest season of the Church year – just 12 days from December 25 to January 6 – the day of Epiphany.
We will celebrate Epiphany next Sunday – as we remember the story of the Wise Men and their journey.
You remember the song, The Twelve Days of Christmas.
I don’t know if you saw the newspaper article, but, obviously with the mergers and all, someone over at PNC Bank doesn’t have enough to do.
Someone over there in the “wealth management department” has calculated the cost of one set of gifts – from the partridge in a pear tree to the 12 drummers drumming.
If you were thinking of purchasing a set of gifts to send to your true love, it would set you back $24,263.18 this year. (That’s up more than 3.5% from last year!)
This year, each item in the PNC Internet Christmas Price Index is substantially higher due to increased shipping and handling costs.
The results of this year's survey indicate that the Seven Swans-a-Swimming, which typically provides the biggest swings from year to year in the PNC CPI, based on supply and demand, rose by 12.5 percent, almost double last year's rise of 6.7 percent, to $6,300. That was the biggest dollar increase this year, up $700, a 12.5 percent boost.
Three French Hens, Eight Maids-a-Milking, Nine Ladies Dancing, and 10 Lords-a-Leaping were the same price as last year.
The 11 Pipers Piping ($2,427.60) and 12 Drummers Drumming ($2,629.90) saw modest increases, both up 3.0 percent.
And, if you were wondering, if you were to purchase all of the gifts mentioned in the song: 12 partridges in pear trees, etc, the true cost of Christmas comes out to a rather staggering $101,119 and 84 cents, to be precise..
Clearly, someone over at PNC has too much time on their hands, wouldn’t you say?
I have an old PEANUTS cartoon in which Lucy is in the outfield playing a baseball game.
Of course, Charlie Brown is on the mound pitching. Lucy calls out to him, "Hey, Manager! Ask your catcher if he still loves me!"
Charlie Brown interrupts his pitching and says to the catcher, "She wants to know if you still love her."
Then, in the next frame, he turns to Lucy and yells to Lucy, "He says, No!'"
Then Lucy wants to know why not.
He relays the information to Lucy again: "He says there are so many reasons he can't remember them all."
This upsets Lucy, and she responds, "Really? That's very depressing."
Finally, Charlie Brown, exasperated, cries out, "Do you mind if we get on with the game?"
Lucy's response is, "Game? What game?"
"The baseball game!" shouts Charlie Brown, to which Lucy responds, "Oh, that's right. I was wondering why I was standing out here." (1)
The beginning of a new year is a good time for reminding ourselves why we are "standing out here."
Another year gone, another year begun.
The questions are the same”
What are we to do now?
What is our purpose?
Why are we here?
Some people seem to dread a new year.
Maybe you are one of them.
I heard one guy say "The holidays aren't quite over and already I'm about 90 days ahead on my calories and 90 days behind on my bills."
Some of you can identify with him.
Now, we know that our calendar was established by human minds.
There is no real reason why one day on the calendar should bear more significance than any other day of the year.
Yet, still we invest the changing of the year with a great deal of meaning, don’t we?
It is a time of hope,
It is a time of planning,
It is a time of vision-casting,
And, of course, it is a time for resolutions.
Ready or not, it is time to set yourself on a course of self-improvement.
One pastor suggests that our life would be better if we 7-UPS FOR THE NEW YEAR.
If you and I would concentrate on 7-UPS during the days to come, things would change for us, guaranteed.
First, each day, WAKE UP – Begin the day the affirmation that this is the Lord’s Day – Rejoice in it.
Second, each day, DRESS-UP – Put on a smile. It improves your looks. It says something about your attitude.
Thirdly, SHUT-UP – Watch your tongue. Don't gossip. Say nice things. Learn to listen.
Fourthly, STAND-UP – Take a stand for what you believe. Resist evil. Do good.
Fifthly, LOOK-UP – Open your eyes to the presence of God in our lives. Emmanuel. Clues are all around us, if we only look.
Sixthly, REACH-UP – Spend time in prayer with your adorations, confessions, thanksgivings and supplications to the Lord.
And finally, LIFT-UP – Be available to help those in need – serving, supporting, and sharing.
If you're going to make new year's resolutions this year, let me suggest the 7UPS.
Why do you think we bother to make New Year's resolutions in the first place?
Why do we feel this need each January 1 to set new goals?
Maybe it is because resolutions help us to identify our priorities.
They answer the Question: how do I want to invest my time, energy, money, and talents in this new year?
The new year reminds us that time is passing.
It is up to each of us to maximize the potential of every moment.
Someone wrote some thought-provoking words on the meaning of time:
To realize the value of "one month" ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of "one week" ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of "one hour," ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of "one minute," ask the person who missed the train.
To realize the value of "one second," ask the person who just avoided an accident.
To realize the value of "one millisecond," ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.
The coming of the new year forces us to face the question: what will be my priorities this year?
It’s good that we are here on the first day of the new year.
Each year at this time as we look back on the days of the year past, we are reminded that life is made up of seasons – times for this and times for that.
Stuff happens.
Some bad. Some good.
Some that overwhelm our emotions.
Some that bring us elation and joy.
And, if we are able to analyze ourselves, who we are at the end of 2011 is shaped in large part by how we reacted to the events of the days past.
You may know that New Year’s day was not always celebrated on January 1.
In fact, much of the world still does not celebrate New Years on January 1.
The Chinese and Vietnamese celebrate the new year according to a different astronomical calendar that begins on a day between January 21 and February 21.
Several nations in Southeast Asia celebrate New Years in April.
The Jewish people celebrate the beginning of the new year in the Fall – usually in September.
Even among Christian people, the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates New Year on January 14 of our calendar.
In fact, we can thank the Roman Empire for standardizing the universal calendar so everyone no matter where you lived could agree on what day it was.
Originally, the roman calendar had only ten months, and New Year’s day was March 1.
When they added two months to the calendar they placed the two months at the beginning of the year – instead of at the end – and that’s how January 1 got to be the first day of the new year for all touched by the Roman Empire – and for us.
As soon as they did that, they named the first month of the year January after the Roman god, Janus.
Everyone already knew this Janus because her distinction was that she had two heads and two pairs of eyes.
Each head faced in the opposite direction from the other and each pair of eyes looked in the opposite direction from the other –
so, she could see what lies in the past and what is to come –
what has been and what will be.
And, so from the beginning, almost, this time of year for most folks has been a time of looking back at the old year,
taking stock of the events that led up to where we are and of our situation,
and looking ahead with certain resolve to make correct the course, if necessary, to make any changes needed to have more positive outcomes in the days ahead.
By chance, has anyone here been in Rome on New Year's Eve?
Well, sources tell me that the celebrations there are unlike anything you and I might have experienced last night.
The celebrations there begin at noon on December 31 with a booming cannon and a mounting crescendo of noisemakers.
As night comes on, bright tracer flashes cut across the sky and, finally, at midnight, the cheers go up and there is lots of hugging and kissing and dancing in the streets. But that's not all ...
The Romans think that New Year's Eve is an appropriate time to rid themselves of the old and take on the new, not just symbolically, but actually, by throwing out their windows old or worn-out things – a torn dress, a frayed suit,
a pair of socks with holes in the toes,
a cracked dish, a broken-down chair, and so on.
Visitors are warned, quite seriously, to stay in their hotel rooms to avoid being hit by one of these flying objects during "Throw Away Time."
What a great idea!
Maybe you and I should resolve this New Year's Day to adopt a "Throw Away Time" for the disposal of old, tired, depressing, fearful, gloomy thoughts and attitudes.
A good resolution might be to establish a nightly ritual of deliberate thought-emptying in order to put our minds and hearts in good working-order for the coming day.
We could summon up all the jealousies, over-anxieties, hostilities and feelings of depression of the previous twenty-four hours and visualize them being thrown out of the window of our consciousness.
For me, Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke basic truth when he wrote:
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year.
He [or she] is rich who owns the day,
and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can;
tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely,
with too high a spirit to te encumbered with your old nonsense.
The new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
What a great thought for the new year, don’t you think?
It couldn’t be more biblical.
We read in the Psalms:
This is the day the Lord has made,
rejoice and be glad in it.
That’s how we begin our services nearly every Sunday.
If you do not already do so, I suggest that you resolve to begin each day of the new year with this greeting.
As many others can attest to, this resolution can literally change your life!
Seeing each day as a clean slate, we are free for new hopes, new invitations, new chances.
Begin it well and serenely, Emerson charges.
Our yesterdays are history.
We are not well served by anxiety and fret and remorse and guilt.
Don’t waste a moment on the yesterdays! . . .
Forget them as soon as you can! . . .
Finish each day and be done with it!
Richness and wealth and the good life, ultimately are not measured in monetary units.
Accumulations of things and annuities and stocks provide for little security in God’s economy.
No, richness and wealth and the good life, are by-products of owning the day.
That is, recognizing it for what it is: a gift from God.
Paying homage for the day helps the soul focus on what is really important – and what is not.
The Psalmist reminds us that each of our days are God-given.
What we do with them is up to us.
How we spend them is up to us.
How we get through them is up to us.
And it makes a difference.
Frets and anxieties and regrets have a way of festering and infecting our lives with unhealthiness.
Misplaced allegiances and unrecognized debts foster unhappiness, unpleasantness, and,
ultimately, an unfulfilled life.
So, today, at the beginning of this new year,
write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year!
Our Scripture tells us that every day we have a chance to encounter Emmanuel.
And we are given specific instructions how – and where – and when.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, pay attention,
heed the clues,
and every day in this new year can be a holy day for you. Amen.
The Congregation of Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA, experienced this sermon during a worship service, during Christmastide, January 1, 2012.
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