The 8th Day of Christmas: A Day the Lord Has Made

It’s a good thing we begin a new year every year about this time, don’t you think?

If properly approached, the beginning of a new year can be beneficial to our psyche,
beneficial to our health, and beneficial to our soul.

However, as the years go by, Father Time becomes more of a caricature, and we pay less and less attention to the intention  of the season, don’t we?

Without the fol-de-rol of late night parties, New year’s Eve is of little importance to the on-going nature of our lives. 
We have no ceremony for this time of year, when a youngster may ask, “Why is this night, of all nights, important to us?” 

But, maybe we should. 
For this could be a teaching moment for all of us.

As I have noted before, most of us carry around way too much baggage.  We tend to tote pounds and pounds of grudges, animosity, resentment, and revenge, don’t we?
 
And, we know it’s unhealthy. 
Doctors tell us. 
Ministers tell us. 
Researchers tell us. 
Some friends tell us. 
Our blood pressure is affected. 
Our cholesterol is affected. 


Our heart rate is affected. 
Our mood is affected. 
Our relationships are affected. 
Our outlook is affected. 
Our immune system is affected. 
We become more prone to disease. 
We become more prone to mental disorder. 
We become more prone to grumpiness. 
And, our life is not what it could be. 
Our life is not what it should be. 
Our life is not what it is promised to be.

Dr. Bernie Siegel reminds us that there seems to be an innate desire in all humans to be reborn, to start again,
to make resolutions and changes we can live up to.

He notes that he sees evidence of this deep seeded desire
“every day in my role as a physician:
People learn they have a limited time to live, and they start their New Year behavior.
They move, change jobs, spend more time with those they love, stop worrying about what everyone else thinks of them, and start to celebrate their life. They are grateful for the time they have to enjoy life and they stop whining about what they wish had happened during the past year.”

So, he notes: we don’t need to wait for that one certain day of the year.

Dr. Siegel suggests that everyday can be the beginning of a new year.
When every evening is New Year’s Eve and every day you awaken is New Year’s Day, you are living life as it was intended.

For me, this is the message of the new year. 

As Paul reminds us in Colossians, it is time to put to death old attitudes and agendas.

Then, the new year has meaning.  
Then, the new life we are promised is closer to being fulfilled.

In this way, we nurture our soul. 
And, when our soul is tended, our health is better and our future is brighter.  
Then, and only then, can we truly welcome the new year and the days ahead. 
We know them to be the fulfillment of God’s time.

This is the day the Lord has made. 

When every evening is New Year’s Eve and every day you awaken is New Year’s Day, you are living life as it is intended.

Why is this night, of all nights, important to us?

It’s a good thing we begin a new year every year about this time, don’t you think?

If properly approached, the beginning of a new year can be beneficial to our psyche,
beneficial to our health, and beneficial to our soul.

However, as the years go by, Father Time becomes more of a caricature, and we pay less and less attention to the intention  of the season, don’t we?

Without the fol-de-rol of late night parties, New year’s Eve is of little importance to the on-going nature of our lives. 
We have no ceremony for this time of year, when a youngster may ask, “Why is this night, of all nights, important to us?” 

But, maybe we should. 
For this could be a teaching moment for all of us.

As I have noted before, most of us carry around way too much baggage.  We tend to tote pounds and pounds of grudges, animosity, resentment, and revenge, don’t we?
 
And, we know it’s unhealthy. 
Doctors tell us. 
Ministers tell us. 
Researchers tell us. 
Some friends tell us. 
Our blood pressure is affected. 
Our cholesterol is affected. 


Our heart rate is affected. 
Our mood is affected. 
Our relationships are affected. 
Our outlook is affected. 
Our immune system is affected. 
We become more prone to disease. 
We become more prone to mental disorder. 
We become more prone to grumpiness. 
And, our life is not what it could be. 
Our life is not what it should be. 
Our life is not what it is promised to be.

Dr. Bernie Siegel reminds us that there seems to be an innate desire in all humans to be reborn, to start again,
to make resolutions and changes we can live up to.

He notes that he sees evidence of this deep seeded desire
“every day in my role as a physician:
People learn they have a limited time to live, and they start their New Year behavior.
They move, change jobs, spend more time with those they love, stop worrying about what everyone else thinks of them, and start to celebrate their life. They are grateful for the time they have to enjoy life and they stop whining about what they wish had happened during the past year.”

So, he notes: we don’t need to wait for that one certain day of the year.

Dr. Siegel suggests that everyday can be the beginning of a new year.
When every evening is New Year’s Eve and every day you awaken is New Year’s Day, you are living life as it was intended.

For me, this is the message of the new year. 

As Paul reminds us in Colossians, it is time to put to death old attitudes and agendas.

Then, the new year has meaning.  
Then, the new life we are promised is closer to being fulfilled.

In this way, we nurture our soul. 
And, when our soul is tended, our health is better and our future is brighter.  
Then, and only then, can we truly welcome the new year and the days ahead. 
We know them to be the fulfillment of God’s time.

This is the day the Lord has made. 

When every evening is New Year’s Eve and every day you awaken is New Year’s Day, you are living life as it was intended

Facing the Day Ahead

The new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

It is good that we begin a new year every year about this time, don’t you think?

As strange as it might seem, the new year did not always begin on January 1!

To be sure, there almost always has been a celebration of the beginning of the new year, but it used to begin March 25. Yep, going back to the ancient Babylonians, some 4000 years ago, and for long periods of time since then, folks celebrated the new year in conjunction with Spring – marking the end of winter and the beginning of new growth.

In fact, it wasn’t until 1752 that England decreed that January 1 would mark the beginning of the new year there and in the colonies.

But, still, the fact is that most people in the world do not mark the beginning of the new year on January 1.

Jews the world over mark the beginning of the new year in September or October.

Hindus in different parts of India celebrate the new year on various dates.

Muslims use a calendar that has 354 days in most years so their new year falls on different dates as well.

The Chinese New Year begins between January 21 and February 19.

The Thai New Year is celebrated in April 13 to April 15.

The Vietnamese New Year is the Têt Nguyen Dan and is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year.

But, we take time just after the darkest time of the year, just as the days get longer, as things change, as more and more light illumines our lives,
to remember where we’ve been,
to remember what we’ve done,
to remember what has happened,
perhaps to evaluate our experiences,
perhaps to celebrate the moments of epiphany,
perhaps to grieve at what has been lost,
and then to look ahead to the days to come.

It is in the looking ahead that our faith gets expressed.
One study has concluded that on average each American makes 1.8 New Year’s resolutions each year.

Well, I know some don’t make any resolutions, because they don’t need the guilt attached to failed expectations.
But, resolutions can be powerful tools for behavior and attitudinal change.
I have seen it work time and time again.

Resolutions can be powerful tools if you write them down.
Resolutions can be powerful tools if you display them prominently on the refrigerator door or the bedroom mirror.
Resolutions can be powerful tools if you refer to them daily,
if you say them out loud,
if you include them in your prayers.

New Year’s Day may be the most active-minded holiday, because it is the one where people evaluate their lives and plan and resolve to take some kind of action.

It is no accident that the ancient Romans named this month January – after Janus, the god of gates, doors, and beginnings.

Janus is always depicted as having two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward.

And, that’s what we do, isn’t it?
We look back on the days past.
And we look forward to the days to come.

As we look forward to the days to come, let us remember that 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.

Frets and anxieties and regrets have a way of festering and infecting our lives with unhealthiness. Let’s rid ourselves of them. Misplaced allegiances and unrecognized debts foster unhappiness, unpleasantness and, ultimately, an unfulfilled life.

Let us follow the clue left by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
Because, that’s what we believe, isn’t it?
That’s what we hear and say each Sunday in church.

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 be encumbered with your old nonsense.
The new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

Yes! Yes! Yes! With its hopes and invitations, the new day is too dear to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

This is a call to each of us.
This is a call to our church.

Resolve to pray for your church each day in 2011.
Resolve to pray for all who worship here in 2011.
Resolve to pray for those who need to hear the message we proclaim in 2011.