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"New Years in September"
Revelation 21:1-7
A sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley
September 9, 2001
University Baptist Church
Minneapolis, MN
We got up early Tuesday morning. The whole house was buzzing with excitement. Amanda wore her special "Dorothy dress", sans the ruby slippers. She combed her hair. She posed with her little sister for pictures. Rebecca will have to wait another three years for this ritual to come around to her. She packed her backpack with her lunch inside and her laminated bus pass on the outside. Kim and I thought we would get all emotional, but there was no time. Everything was rush rush. "Be nice to your sister. Do you remember your teacher’s name, how to get to your classroom like we practiced? Listen to the bus driver." We stood at the corner of the street waiting for the bus, looking at our kindergarten daughter, so tall and lanky next to her sister, so full of exuberant excitement, so willing to leave us behind. The bus pulled up and she dashed to get on and go to her first day of school. As it sped away, our first-born daughter in tow the first of many lumps caught in my throat. Friends tell me this is the first of many good-byes.
From my perspective, and hers, everything is new now that the year has started. And she is thrilled. I guess I am too as I see her grow and take these giant steps with not so much as a blink of an eye.
It makes me more attentive to every moment that we have. It makes me appreciate the word from God recorded at the advent of the New Jerusalem in the book of Revelation, "Behold, I make everything new." The writer was talking about the world as we had known it. After all hell breaks loose here on earth, we are given the assurance in the last two chapters of the entire Bible that God is making all things new. That is what God does. That is how God acts. Just when we think we have a handle on the way things are, God says, "Behold, I make all things new." Time to start all over again. Time to reinvent yourself. Time to do something new.
That’s what it feels like today. Everything seems new.
There are new decorations in the sanctuary thanks to Chea and Beth.
There is the start of classes here at UBC, the kickoff of our educational year with six count ‘em, six classes offered in about an hour. Something for everyone.
We thought we’d commemorate this with an ice cream social on the lawn, but we might sink in the mud. No one wants to be around Baptist stick in the muds.
There is the new choir season. Thanks Jean Lubke for directing until we find a permanent Music Director.
The Bells are ringing on Wednesday nights.
We see new people here today and some old faces we haven’t seen in a while. Welcome and welcome back.
There are new classes at the U or Hameline or Augsburg, or United, or from wherever you hail.
There is a new school year for children and teachers.
It’s like New Year’s in September.
Odd, you may say? Well that’s how UBC is. We are odd in the ways that make people hopefully sit up and take notice. We march to a different drummer.
Our Jewish friends are celebrating New Year’s this month with Rosh Hashanah. They have something there. I hear tell it’s mighty cold around here in January. Besides that, many of us are out of town with family and friends. For those of us whose lives are defined by the school year, this really is New Year’s Day. So as this new year begins, may I be the first to wish you a happy New Year.
We can have a New Year’s party on a Sunday morning when it’s relatively warm outside and we might even remember it. How about that?
But you know, none of this will mean a hill of beans if we are not new people. That’s the Biblical mandate, that we become new people. When Jesus began his ministry according to Mark’s Gospel, he said: "The time is fulfilled, the reign of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the good news." (1:15) During his first Sermon recorded in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus quoted Isaiah 61 by saying "The Spirit of God is upon me because God has annointed me to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the acceptable new year of God’s favor." (4:18-19) On New year’s Sunday, when we start over again, God says, "Behold, I make all things new." God wants to make you new as well.
One of the rituals we go through at the January New Year’s time is that we make New Year’s Resolutions. Since this is a new year, I want us to make resolutions for this new year. You have paper and pencils in your bulletin. I want you to write you resolution on the piece of paper and then put it in the envelope which is right there in your bulletin. Address then envelope to yourself. We’ll mail these to you in a few months.
Think about what the next few months or the next year will look like.
What do you want to accomplish?
What do you want to let go of?
What do you want to change about your life, your situation?
What does the next year hold for you?
What do you want to make new this year?
While you’re thinking about what that resolution might be, let me tell you a bit about the community to which God promised new things.
The communities to which Revelation was written were living on the edge of society. They were little house church communities probably no bigger than this one. What each of these seven churches had in common was a desire to be faithful servants of God. The problem was that their brand of religion was not very popular. In fact the Roman Empire sought to destroy those who followed the emerging sect called Christianity because they said "Jesus is Lord, not Caesar. They wanted to do this because the Christians saw little need to follow the unjust laws of the Empire. They refused conscription to the military. They refused to worship at the temples of the other gods. They took their ethics from Jesus who welcomed the stranger and had the guts to stand up to the powers of the empire even if it cost him his life. Revelation was written to strengthen these tiny communities so that they might bear the faithful witness in the face of persecution.
The writer of Revelation also warned against going along too much with the ways of the world. He called this becoming drunk with the wine of the beast. The people in the churches are told to have patient endurance as they bear the faithful witness against great odds. The terror unleashed in Revelation is what happens to a world that is bent on evil. Bowls are poured, seals are broken, trumpets sound and all hell breaks loose. Our persecution can come from too much conformity to a wayward world.
The only ones who are spared are those who bear the faithful witness in the face of empire. They are the ones who see the new Jerusalem and hear God declare, "Behold, I make all things new." In other words, the worldly empires we think have control over us in the end, aren’t really in control. God makes all things new. God is always doing a new thing in us and calls us not to conform to the destructive ways of the world.
In this new year, think of the empires that control your lives.
The empire of the world economy?
The stock market?
Racism, sexism, ageism, classism, compulsory heterosexuality and homophobia?
The man?
The university?
The job market?
Organized religion?
Disorganized religion?
Our families?
Our friendships?
The question is, as we approach this new year, who is going to make all things new?
Are we going to let the empires that are out there take us down the same oppressive tired old roads?
Or are we going to cling to God who makes all things new?
If we cling to the familiar empires out there, we can predict the results. We’ve been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
But if we cling to God, then a new thing might just happen.
It’s not always easy to start something new.
My wife Kim called her mother yesterday. As many of you know she had another in a series of strokes this past month. She is now making the decision to move into an assisted living facility, finally realizing that she is no longer able to live on her own. While we are happy she will have adequate care readily available, it’s a time of saying goodbye to independence, to her apartment, her freedom. It is part of a recognition that she is older and can’t make it on her own anymore. And in the midst of this, my often-cynical mother-in-law said repeatedly, "It seems that everything is coming up roses for me." She likes the idea of moving. And just as we see young Amanda moving on and older Mary Jo moving on in a different way, it is us who has to readjust. We are the ones who have to ask, how does this new year affect us? I know we are going to look more to God to help us through this year. And I know that whatever happens, God will be there in the midst of it making us new people through the things we experience.
As I look at this new year in my life, there are lots of changes that are going to happen. The first full winter in Minnesota.
The first full year in elementary school.
Trips to Cleveland to close out Mary Jo’s apartment and getting her settled in her new space.
Adjusting to new jobs and budding friendships.
Seeing just how these new students that are here are going to lay claim on us as they challenge and enrich us with their varied lives and experiences.
I hope and pray that we might all be able to approach this year with enthusiasm, sure, but also with a commitment to looking at the world through God’s eyes, the one who makes all things new.
I remember that we are not alone. God is here, too. So is this community.
I invite you now to write down what you would like to commit to in the coming year. What will God make new in you?
What kind of person will you become in this new year?
If you recognize that God is here alongside you, making all things new, then you can’t help but have a fulfilling and exciting New Year. It’s more than simply being happy as we say Happy New Year. It is about being content to know that you are part of God’s plan.
You matter.
And we are on this road with God to make all things new in our lives.
So we can blow party favors, make a joyful noise and even say "Happy New Year" in September, because God is making something new out of us.
Behold, says God, I make all things new.
Amen.