New Year's Eve Sermon: No time for that
Sermon for Sunday, 31 December 2017
New Year’s Eve
The Rev. Carrie Ballenger Smith
Lutheran Church of the Redeemer,
Jerusalem
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13; Revelation 21
Grace and peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
On Christmas
morning, my brother Carl sent a photo of the chalkboard that hangs in his
kitchen. My sister-in-law Aimee is an art teacher, and she often uses her
artistic skills to decorate this blank chalkboard for seasons of the year. Sometimes
she draws something in chalk, but often she illustrates a Bible verse to
inspire them for the week.
But Carl posted this photo on Christmas morning, just
minutes after the opening of the presents and the eating of the cinnamon rolls,
and mere hours after singing “Joy to the World” at church on Christmas Eve, because
that day Aimee had drawn on the board, in lovely sweeping letters, “Only 365
days until Christmas!”
And my
brother’s comment under the photo was, “Too soon?!”
“Yes!” I
thought. “Yes, it is definitely too soon!”
There is a
time for counting down, and there is a time for not counting! There is a time
for waiting and expectation, and there is a time for eating cinnamon rolls in
your fat pants! Contrary to the popular belief perpetuated by many retailers
(who have already stocked their shelves with Valentine’s and Easter goods), the
Christmas season is not one day only. It lasts AT LEAST twelve days—and here in
Jerusalem, where we get to celebrate three Christmases, it lasts an entire
month!
Therefore, now
is not the time for counting down the days to the next holiday. Now is the time
for joy! Now is the time for singing! Now is the time for celebrating the
miracle that Jesus, our Savior, has been born Bethlehem. Love has come, a light
in the darkness, and we are so very grateful. Amen!
Of course, today
also happens to be New Year’s Eve. And for this reason, our thoughts do naturally
turn to the counting of time and marking of the seasons. Today is a time of
reflecting on beginnings and endings. Perhaps this is why the lectionary gives
us the 3rd chapter of Ecclesiastes to read at the close of the year:
“For
everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time
to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is
planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time
to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time
to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a
time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a
time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a
time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a
time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.”
These verses
are well-known even to those who have not read the Bible, thanks to a group of American
folk-rock singers called “The Byrds”. (Raise your hand if you started humming
it as I read it…)
But it’s not
just the words or the melody that are familiar. This idea expressed by the
author of Ecclesiastes (known as Qoholeth) is also very familiar: “For
everything, there is a season.” This phrase has become so familiar, in fact,
that it often finds itself hanging out with other bits of popular theology like
“God will never give you more than you can handle."
People often
accept such mottos as biblical (even when they’re not) and also as truth, even without
giving them much thought. And this can be hurtful, even dangerous. Many have
been hurt by hearing this bit of pop theology at a funeral: “Don’t cry that
he’s gone…just be happy that he’s with Jesus”. This is not only non-biblical,
it’s also unhealthy! It is good and right and appropriate to feel sadness over
the loss of a loved one! Even Jesus wept, and felt sadness when he heard his
friend Lazarus had died. Ironically, it seems “popular theology” is often anything
but popular.
Of course,
in the case of “For everything, there is a season”, although it has crept into
the realm of pop culture and cultural religion, it is in fact biblical. And it does reflect exactly the
way things are: People and creatures and plants do grow and then die. Life
makes us laugh and it makes us cry. Things begin and they end. In many places
there is war, and (occasionally) there is peace. People love and care for one
another, and people hate and kill one another.
This is reality.
This is the
world we live in, and the world Qoholeth lived in.
This is most
certainly true, as our brother Martin Luther would say.
This is just the
way things are.
And yet,
comfort with the way things are has nothing to do with being a disciple of
Jesus. We are not called to accept the status quo. We are called to follow in
the footsteps of the one who challenged authorities, spoke truth to power, ate
with sinners, cast out demons, and raised the dead. We worship the Prince of
Peace, who shattered all expectations by being born in Bethlehem and sleeping in
a feeding trough for animals. We worship the One who defied logic by choosing
suffering and death for the sake of his friends, and who defied the laws of
nature when he was raised from the dead on the third day.
Nothing about Jesus
is “business as usual.”
“For
everything there is a season” says Qoholeth, but the truth is, Christians do not believe there is a time
for everything. Our faith tells us that Jesus is the turning point of time.
That silent and holy night in Bethlehem, that dark Friday afternoon, and that
brilliant Easter morning have changed everything. Through Jesus Christ, God has
changed the world and “the way things are”, forever. As it is written: “Behold,
I am doing a new thing—do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19)
Jesus is
Emmanuel. God has made God’s home with us, and dwells with us. (Revelation
21:3) In coming among us, God didn’t make war easier to bear—God birthed peace
into the world. God didn’t establish a kinder, gentler occupation—God established
justice for all people. And God did not make death beautiful through the
cross—rather, God in Christ has defeated death through the power of love and
resurrection.
Dear
friends, do you know what time it is? It is Christmas! Jesus, the Savior, the
one the world has been waiting for, is born today in Bethlehem. We’re no longer counting down the days. We’re
no longer waiting. Now is the dawn of our salvation. Now is the fulfillment of
prophecy. Now is a new day, a new year, a new beginning for all people! Amen!
And here’s the
thing: Because Christ is born today, we know God makes no time for certain things,
and neither should the church.
We have no time
for injustice,
No time for
occupation,
No time for racism,
No time for sexual
abuse,
No time for
terrorism,
No time for preventable
illnesses,
No time for
violence,
No time for
worry,
And
absolutely no time for death.
It’s
important to be clear about these things Christians have absolutely no time
for, because all too often the church has gotten comfortable with the way
things are. All often, the church has said to those who suffer, “You know,
there’s a time for homelessness, and a time for having a home. There’s a time
for freedom, and a time for slavery. There’s a time for being welcomed, and a
time to be excluded.”
But there is
no season for injustice within the Gospel. There’s no season for poverty, or
racism, or violence. We don’t make time for such things in the church, or in
the world, because these things have no place in the New Jerusalem. As it is written
in Revelation 21, our second reading for this New Year’s Eve:
“See, the
home of God is among mortals.
He will
dwell with them; they will be his peoples,
and God
himself will be with them;
he will
wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will
be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the
first things have passed away.”
In Christ, the
first things have passed away, and now every day is the day of peace, the day of
justice, the day of life everlasting! Amen!
Of course, all
this has already happened…and it has not yet happened.
We are waiting,
and not waiting. Christ is born, and we are still waiting for the New Jerusalem,
the Jerusalem which can truly be the City of Peace for all peoples. This
already-not yet time that we live in as Christians may feel like a theological
trick. How can we possibly comprehend it?
It’s beyond
my human understanding to know how Jesus has defeated death, and at the same
time my friends and loved ones are dying.
It’s beyond
my human understanding to know how the Prince of Peace was born in Bethlehem,
and today that same Bethlehem is surrounded by a wall and its inhabitants live
under occupation.
This "already/not yet" world we live in as Christians is very hard to comprehend, much less explain.
And yet, we do get it. We live it! We even sing it!
There it is,
right there in our Christmas carols! It’s right there, at the
center of our Christmas celebrations. Listen!
“O little town of Bethlehem,
 |
| The town of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve 2017 Photo by Carrie Smith |
How still we
see thee lie
Above thy
deep and dreamless sleep,
The silent
stars go by
Yet in thy
dark streets shineth
The
everlasting Light
The hopes
and fears of all the years
Are met in
thee tonight”
The hopes
and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight…
One night in
Bethlehem has changed everything. The hopes and fears of the world have been fulfilled,
through one baby.
NOW God is
with us. NOW peace is born. NOW justice is ours.
For the
church, there is no more counting down. There is no more waiting. God has made time
for us! God has come to live with us, until the end of days! And for this reason,
from this day forward, we the church have no time for anything but the love of
God, whom we have seen face to face, a baby lying in a manger.
May the peace
of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
***NOTE: I was really moved by an online reflection I read which used the phrase "Christians do not believe there is a time for everything". This author's reflections heavily influenced this sermon...but I can't find it now! So whoever you are: THANK YOU and I would love to attribute you here if you see this!
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