Church of the Holy City

The Coming New Year

The Coming New Year
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
December 28, 2014

Isaiah 61:10-62:3 Luke 2:22-40 Psalm 148

The calendar says that a new year is coming in a few days. The dates on the calendar are fixed. They have no relation to human experiences. The question, therefore, is this: “Does it feel to you like a new year?”
Our spiritual condition has its own time. We have spiritual markers sometimes that mark time for us spiritually. Maybe something like the birth of a child so transforms us that time is never the same since that date. Maybe a special vacation leaves a state of blessedness on our souls and we feel that blessing when we look at a souvenir or a photo album. Maybe times of sorrow or catastrophe leave a scar in us that marks a certain spiritual condition in us. So our souls have time of their own that is independent of the calendar.
There is a benefit to the time marked by the calendar. The fixed dates of the calendar give us a way of measuring our spiritual condition. We can measure how far we are from some of those spiritual markers. We can look at the calendar and say, “That was a long time ago.” We can look at the calendar and say, “Has it been that long?” We can measure our life against the fixed dates of the calendar.
For example, it meant a lot to me when I was admitted to Harvard University back in 1983. But now, in 2014, I can hardly remember that feeling of exhilaration when I was admitted. I can hardly remember attending Harvard. When people occasionally ask me, “What was that like?” I can only reply, “A lot has happened since then—that was a long time ago.” In fact, I think that if I still marked my life by that event in 1983, I would be a fairly stagnant person. That is, if nothing eventful happened to me since then, I think my life would be rather impoverished.
The calendar gives us a time to reflect on those markers in our lives. It gives us an opportunity to think back over the years and to measure who we are against who we were. It gives us a time to add up the significant events in our lives, and to reflect on what they meant at the time, and what they mean now.
While being a student at Harvard may have meant something at the time, it has since faded. What it did to me remains. I acquired certain research and writing skills that remain with me in all the work I do now. And all the experiences that have happened to me in my life all conspire to make me who I am today. All the pleasant times, all the shocks, all the misery, and all the joy carved their marks on my soul and have made me into the person I am now. There is a wonderful characterization of the kinds of experiences that make up a soul in a poem by Wallace Stevens. In a poem called SUNDAY MORNING, Stevens writes of,
Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow;
Grievings in loneliness, or unsubdued
Elations when the forest blooms; gusty
Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights;
All pleasures and all pains, remembering
The bough of summer and the winter branch.
These are the measures destined for her soul.
I read this as a poetic sum of the kinds of things we go through that make us who we are.
The stoic philosophers say that life is impress and reaction. Events impress our souls like a stamp that leaves its ink pattern on a piece of paper. We react to that stamp of experience and between the experience and our reaction to it our character is formed. We have little choice over the events that happen to us, but how we react is something we have much power over. We can fret and despair over unfortunate experiences, or we can use them as teachers. Or we can simply experience and notice.
When we are young, things all seem so crucial. Now in my mature age, things seem to affect me less and less. I have a friend who told me that he no longer has problems, only situations. Difficult things are matters requiring attention to address—the emotional shock has gone out of them. I somewhat agree with this philosophy. I feel as if now I negotiate life, rather than life negotiating me through shocks. Things just don’t affect me so much, unless I want them to. For instance, the Detroit Lions are playing football in about two hours for the division championship and I am choosing to let that affect me greatly. But that is my choice.
Sometimes things trigger a reflection on the spiritual markers we have. There are two songs that were on the radio during a very depressing time in my life. Whenever I hear them I can tend to wallow in the misery of that time in my life. I wonder how I ever made it through that time, and I marvel at how well I feel now compared to then.
There are things that made us proud and happy, too. My degrees give me a feeling of accomplishment. Perhaps the way some people feel about their children and families. I don’t have the feeling that I need to prove myself to new professional acquaintances because my degrees do that for me. This gives me a feeling of relaxed competence I might not feel if I didn’t have tangible evidence of my capabilities.
I think that the calendar measurements lead us to one of life’s most challenging questions. That question is the measure of our self-worth. “What have you done for yourself?” Is a pointed way of putting it. Are we worth the years that we have lived? John Lennon wrote a Christmas song that contains this challenge, I think,
So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

The question of self-worth is one we all struggle with. Do we need to prove that we are worth something? Some people struggle to achieve and achieve and to possess and possess to prove that they are worth something. Some people measure their self-worth by the material possessions they have accumulated. Some measure their success by the wealth they have gained. Some measure their self-worth by their children’s success. Some people measure their success by their status, their degrees and publications. But I think all these means will never answer that question of self-worth.
The fact is, we are all of infinite worth simply because we are children of God. We are created beings of inestimable meaning. We are made by an infinitely good Creator. And that Creator makes only good creations. Genesis says that when God created humans God looked at God’s creation and it was very good.
Maybe we need credentials to present ourselves for various positions in this world. But we don’t need credentials to prove that we are worthy of love and of life. We are all loveable. And we are all just where we need to be. We are all just who we need to be. We don’t need to prove ourselves worthy. As creatures created by God, we are all worth the life we have been given.
Let us remember that. And let us remember that everyone else is as loveable as we are. We are all created beings, created by God, in God’s image and likeness. That is what we are intrinsically.
But we are also creatures in process. We are continually being created by experience and our reaction to experience. So while we are intrinsically God’s creations, we are also growing and being created into a better and better likeness of our Creator. In this continual creation, time is on our side. The longer we grow and mature, the more we are shaped into God’s image the way a potter shapes clay. Let us, then befriend time, befriend the years, befriend our age. It is just where we are supposed to be.

PRAYER

Lord, a new year is approaching. In this world, time is measured by clocks, the sun and stars, and set down in calendars. But we know that in the spiritual world, there is no time, there are only states of mind and soul. We pray this morning for a prosperous new year. And for our souls, to be enlightened and pacified of all troubles. May we not look upon the passing of years with sadness. Rather may we befriend the years, and grow more and more into an image and likeness of you. As time passes, so we grow more perfect in heavenly loves. As time passes, our sorrows become more distant and more tempered with heavenly joy. Be with us in the coming new year, Lord. For with you all things are possible and all good things come to pass.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. Comfort their family and friends. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.