Katie Derksen
Tomorrow we'll celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another. Like Christmas, it's a time to be with friends and loved ones, with the added bonus of staying up late while having fun. People choose to celebrate in different ways, but I think that the main idea behind the celebration is to celebrate what has happened during the last year, and to bring in the new year with fun and friends, in the hope that the new year will contain much of both of those things.
A lot of times, New Year's Eve is built up to be the "funnest," most exciting evening of the entire year, and a lot of times, New Year's Eve lands up not living up to the expectations. I've heard many people talk about how they kept doing status check ins - "are we having the most fun ever yet?" "How much more fun could we be having we were doing that instead of this?" I've heard that these check ins can take over the night, and people land up not having fun because they're so worried about having fun. Ridiculous, isn't it? All that anticipation lands up spoiling the actual event.
Anticipation's a funny thing: it can lead us to imagining what it is that we're anticipating, whether we're anticipating it for good reasons or for bad reasons. And whatever the reasons, the imagination associated with the anticipation can lead us to be disappointed, or prepared. It's a double edged sword: if we anticipate something, chances are we'll imagine at least part of it. If we imagine something occurring that doesn't happen, we'll either be disappointed, as in not having "the best night ever" on New Year's Eve, or we'll be prepared for things, as in remembering to bring band-aids along on a hiking trip.
If our anticipation leads to disappointment, then it would seem that anticipation is a bad thing. But, if our anticipation leads to preparation, that's a pretty good thing. All people anticipate things, and certain groups of people anticipate certain things collectively. From the beginning, God's people have anticipated one thing or the other, with a couple of constants. The first constant was the coming of the Messiah, and after that event happened, Christians started to anticipate the second constant, the second coming of the Messiah. Both events have much anticipation invested in them, and yet when the first event happened, that anticipation led to disappointment for some people, and others, some of whom hadn't anticipated anything, landed up being pleasantly surprised.
There are many prophecies surrounding both events, and those prophecies lead to anticipation and expectation. Prophecies for both involve salvation for believers and damnation/punishment for non-believers. And yet, when the first set of prophecies was fulfilled, many people didn't see things happening as they had anticipated, and so they didn't believe that what they were seeing was actually the fulfilment of the prophecies. In fact, what they got was so contrary to what they had thought was going to happen that they killed the one who claimed to be the one they were waiting for.
We're not here today to look at the end of Jesus' life, though that's hard to ignore. What we're here today to look at is the beginning of Jesus' life, and the anticipation that accompanied it. Five days ago, we got together with friends and family to celebrate the beginning of Jesus' life, in essence, to have a great big birthday party. We spent the four weeks before it anticipating it, and at times imagining what it would have been like to be there. We heard John the Baptist talking of the coming Messiah, we heard of the angel Gabriel visiting Mary, of John the Baptist's messengers going to Jesus to get confirmation of what John prophesied. All these texts are rich in imagery, from the garden Mary sat in to the camel hair clothes that John wore. Two weeks ago we got together to watch the Sunday School classes give their interpretation of what might have happened, from 5 inn keepers to Santa at the stable. It, too, was an evening rich in imaginings, all rising out of what we were waiting for.
And yet, if we had been there, too, what would we have expected? They say that hindsight is 20/20, and in this case, I'm sure that's true. If we had been there, had been a shepherd in the field, or a wealthy person staying in the inn, what would we have thought? Would what we saw in the stable have matched our imaginings of how God would enter our world to save us all?
In Matthew, we hear a reminder of how what happened was truly in fulfilment of prophecy, and we hear it in the letter to the Hebrews as well. Our reading from Hebrews is a strong reminder that what happened in Jesus' life was necessary, and had to happen as it did. It was to fulfill prophecy that God became human in Jesus, in "every respect" (Hebrews 2:17) sharing the human experience. In Isaiah, we heard how God would come and help God's people, not an intermediary such as an angel. God would take action God'self, and would redeem Her people out of pity and love, carrying them. The author of Hebrews writes at length on the suitability and the reason for God to become human "in every respect," explaining that God came for the humans, so God had to share what the humans experienced, and that the fact that God became human makes God better able to destroy the power that death holds over humanity.
The Messiah we hear about in Hebrews 2:10-18 is not one who had life easy. This Messiah suffered what all humans have to suffer, went through many of the trials of flesh and blood. Because of that, because our saviour suffered, we feel more connected to him, more able to trust someone who has gone through what we have gone through. Jesus didn't hold himself apart, but dove into humanity with both feet, hanging out with people of all social levels, all levels of health and cleanliness. He combatted evil and death, but did it in a way few people thought he would.
The people of 2000 years ago had been anticipating the Messiah, the one who would save them and bring down their enemies, and they got Jesus, the son of a carpenter who hung around with sinners and tax collectors. What a beginning the anticipated Messiah had! How can someone who got a start in life like that be the one Israel had been anticipating for all those centuries? The anticipation of the Messiah coming to earth had led to an almost complete lack of recognition of the actual event.
The saviour of all had one of the lowest beginnings. This king that had been anticipated for so long refused a conventional crown, and instead chose to mingle with the commoners. I know that at least some of the people in Jesus' time were disappointed, and didn't believe that Jesus was actually the Messiah. Anticipation had led them astray.
Anticipation had led these people to create something in their minds that didn't match what reality gave them. We all do it. We know that something's coming, and so we start to create what it will be in our minds, probably using more fiction than fact. We're just so excited about what's coming, or we are dreading it so much, that we can't just let it happen as it will. We need to anticipate it, and create what we think will happen.
I'm sure Joseph and Mary went through some pretty wild imaginings surrounding the birth of their son, and I'm not sure how much of what they thought matched what actually happened. How could they have anticipated the need to travel by night to a distant city, with Mary being very pregnant and travelling on a donkey? The lack of accommodations once they reached Bethlehem, the fact that some of the visitors to the new born Son of God were shepherds of all people, how could they have anticipated that, or imagined that? Who would have conceived of Herod's actions when he found out about the baby? And yet, Matthew states for us more than once in just these 10 verses that these things had to happen, to fulfil prophecy. But I'm sure that no one would have anticipated these things as the events that would lead to the fulfilling of the prophecies from God concerning the Messiah.
They were, though. Two thousand years later, we have the season of advent to help us connect all these things together, and to view them under the correct light of prophecy fulfilment. We spent four weeks preparing ourselves for the coming of Christ, anticipating Jesus' birth in a stable.
Because we can see what happened as having the importance that it does, we begin our praise early, and are loud in it. We join in with the stars and the angels in praising God, singing of his mercy and his love for humanity and for the earth. We can echo the thoughts of the person who wrote psalm 148, crying out for the entire universe to praise God. God has come down to the earth, has clothed Himself in human form, and has begun Her redeeming work in the world. It's as though a new world has been created! Or, like a new year has been heralded.
There is a clean slate just ahead of us, both in terms of the new year that we will be celebrating tomorrow night, and in terms of what we have been given by Jesus. What will you write on that slate? Similarly, there is a full slate directly in front of us, waiting only for the last few lines to be etched on it. What will be the last thing on that slate?
There are churches that have a service on New Year's Eve. Never having been to one, I'm not sure if the services go until midnight, or start near midnight, or end early enough for everyone to head off to other gatherings. Whenever the services end, though, I think that it's a great thing to spend some of the last minutes of the year praising God. After all, God's been involved in every moment of the last year, whether that moment's been a disappointment or a joy. God has also given us all a whole other year, just ahead of us, and God will be involved in each of those moments, as well.
I like the idea of ending a year of thinking about God, of the last few lines written on the slate of the year being praises to God. And, if God is being thought of that closely to the last part of the year, then it just might happen that God will be thought of at the very beginning of the next year. I read on a web page about New Year's that one of the traditions surrounding New Years was that what was done on New Years day was "a portent for the rest of the year." The work that we did was to be done for at least a few minutes on New Year's Day, to ensure that it would continue through the rest of the year. Borrowed items were to be returned, tasks finished, and people and household items were to remain in the home for the day - otherwise, there could be a loss in the family, whether of a person or of money. (Christine O'Keefe's New Year's Customs) According to that line of thinking, beginning the new year by thinking about and praising God would ensure that God would be thought of during the rest of the year, and that God would be praised by our actions and our thoughts.
Traditionally, I think that it is normal for the sermon on the last Sunday of the year to be a "looking back, looking forward" time, a time to reflect on what's happened, and on what we want to happen. I think that it's important for us to look at what we expect out of the coming year, and at what we learned from the last year. However, there can be too much of that. There's definitely wisdom in reflecting on what has happened, and on anticipating what may happen in the future, but I think that it's important for us to listen to reminders like the one we're given in psalm 148, that God created everything, and that God controls everything. Looking back, how often do you see that thought in the last year? And, looking forward, how do you see that effecting this coming year?
Some time ago, Reinhold Neibuhr came up with a prayer that I think should become a staple on New Year's Eve, like that song Auld Lang Syne. It's a "looking back, looking forward" type of prayer, that manages to put it all in God's lap. There's no tune to go along with it that I'm aware of, but I'm sure that you all know it, or at least will recognize it. It's called the Serenity prayer, and it goes like this: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can't change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." As you contemplate the year that is passing and the year that is coming, may God grant you serenity, courage and wisdom.