Tonight’s Scripture

 

Psalm 44         Isaiah 20:8-17             Romans 8:31-39          Luke 12:35-40

 

            At the end and beginning of each year we do a lot of reflecting and a lot of projecting.  We look back on the events of the year, the things that have happened.  Those things are real and we cannot change them.  We look ahead and make plans for the upcoming year.  We enjoy the prognosticators who make predictions what the New Year will bring.  The past is definite.  The future is something we watch for and try to prepare for.  The future is also something we know we do not have the answers.  Preparing and watching and waiting are the best we can do.

 

            The New Year follows one week after Christmas.  The two events line up so appropriately.  The savior so long promised is now here.  The New Year we anticipate is now here.  The life before the savior is resolved as he is the lamb who takes away the sin of the world.  In Jesus’ new life, we know we have new life.  Our old Adam, the sinful nature has been replaced with the new life of one adopted as God’s dear child in the waters of baptism.  The old year depicted as old Father Time passes and the New Year depicted as a new-born arrives.

 

            The difference is that the New Year too will pass and become old Father Time going out the door.  The new life given in Christ is an eternal life, one that has crossed over from death to life, one that has been sown perishable but will be resurrected imperishable.

 

            In tonight’s reading from Isaiah, we see that passing from condemnation to salvation.  Israel had turned from her trust in God.  In the political things of that time she was making an alliance with Egypt as the lesser of two evils to defend herself from the Assyrians.  Israel had long left behind the God who had led her through the wilderness and given the power to overcome the evil forces that stood in her way.  Tonight she trusts in her own prowess and has turned against God, has rejected him in every manner from daily living to how to conduct the affairs of the nation.  God pronounces his displeasure and judgment on those who reject him, those who have turned away from him.

 

            But God is a patient and loving God.  Beginning in verse 15 he shows his love and how he will restore his people.  Repentance and rest is your salvation.  Quietness and trust is your strength.  Confessing sins and leaving them at the cross brings us the Sabbath rest in Jesus, the rest from sins that are now washed away in his blood.  Not bragging of our human prowess but trusting in God’s wisdom, guidance and will is our strength. 

 

            Paul reaffirms this as he reminds us that if God is for us, who is against us?  It is Christ who condemns and also saves.  Not even death can separate us form God’s love.  In fact, it is in our earthly death that we are restored, resurrected and live with him.  We die to live.

 

            Jesus’ teaching in Luke tells us what we are on earth to do.  We are his servants, entrusted with this world while he is gone (in his human nature that is).  He has entrusted us with his house, his church, his world.  While he sits at the right hand of the father, he sends us his Holy Spirit who guides us in faith as we take care of and increase what he has given us in his house, his church and his world.  As we do all of these things, we also keep watch for his return knowing that it will be at any moment.

 

            Tonight we can watch the clock, watch the crystal ball in this city or that, and know the exact second when 2006 is completed and 2007 begins.  At that moment the celebration begins.  But it also ends almost as quickly as we retire for the night.

 

            Tonight and every day we watch for Jesus’ return.  There is no clock or crystal ball that gives us a visible measure of when this moment will be.  But there is preparation every moment of our lives.  There is repentance trusting his forgiveness won at the cross.  There is keeping his house in order, his church in order, his world prepared with the work proclaiming his truth to others.  As Jesus stated as an adolescent that day in the temple, we too are to be about our Father’s business as we are always preparing and always watching for Jesus’ return.  And when he returns, the party will not quickly fade away, but the feast will begin and will last forever.  Our Lord who comes in triumph, will at that time serve you with the finest of all things in his father’s house.

 

            Happy New Year!  And it always is for those who are faithfully watching for our Lord to come again.  And he will.