The Sermons at
By Father Richard Humke
ONE MORE NEW YEAR
Well,
another year is past; Christmas is behind us once again; and we are off into a
new year. It rather surprises us, I
think, to find that that season, which takes so much preparation, is already
gone.
The
trees are coming down; the presents have been put away; the visitors have
returned home; those once-a-year glasses with holly wreaths on them are taking
up space in the cabinet for another 11 months; and the income tax forms and
seed catalogs are arriving daily in the mail.
There
are some good things that take place during the holiday season, and we all wish
they could continue for the rest of the year.
I'm thinking of that little bit of good will that strangers exercise for
a brief period of time each year when they may hold the door open for you as
you approach, or perhaps even smile and say some pleasantry.
Some
drivers have even been known to use their turn-signals during the Christmas
festivities, mostly an untried, new invention in
Now
a New Year lies ahead with all sorts of possibilities for whatever we want to
make of it. To a great extent that is
really true, I think: whatever we
want to make of it. It may be a time
of real growth on our parts as no other time has been, if we want it to
be. I think of something Tielhard de Chardin, the Jesuit
paleontologist and theologian, wrote:
If there
is a God, as I believe, (this God) will make the obstacles serve my progress;
and in the end I will find myself more able than ever to make the light shine
which some would like to see extinguished.
Who
knows what really lies ahead? There is a freshness about the future at the New Year, a freshness
that carries with it a hope, a promise.
This is symbolized, I suppose, by our nice, clean calendars, which, as
yet, have not been cluttered with meetings we don't want to attend or with
invitations we don't want to honor.
It's
also a transition time, a time when we can begin again in whatever way we
choose. That's why resolution-setting is
so popular at the New Year. We sense
that we need goals toward which to strive.
We need to stretch our abilities.
And so we make resolutions: less
food, no cigarettes, more exercise, fewer TV shows, ten minutes each day for
God, or whatever.
We're
all better, I think, for having some goals toward which to strive. Organizations are better for it, too, and
that's why goal-setting has become one of the expected tasks of any governing board,
including a vestry.
What
does one want to achieve? What does one
want to change? Where does one want to
be a year from now?
The
problem with personal resolutions is not that they are most usually broken
before the week is out, but that they are often impossible to attain because
they don't take human nature into account.
They don't take into account most person's
inability to stay with anything for 365 days.
When we try to do that, we become discouraged at the prospect of all
those days that lie ahead of us.
Alcoholics
Anonymous really does have that right when they speak of "one day at a
time." That's really all any of us
can do much about, and the resolutions we make at the New Year have to be
renewed each morning if they are to have any power. It is too discouraging to look ahead to a
whole year of doing without chocolates or cigarettes or pumping away at that
boring exercise bicycle for a half-hour each day. But if you can look at the one day that lies
ahead, then perhaps, just perhaps, it might be possible for that one day.
Some
of you use FORWARD DAY BE DAY regularly (I hope!). There is a Morning Resolve in FORWARD, which
has been there as long as I have known that little booklet. It says,
I will
try this day to live a simple, sincere and serene life...In particular I
will try to be faithful in those habits of prayer, work, study, physical
exercise, eating and sleep which I believe the Holy Spirit has shown me to be
right. (That just about covers most New
Year's resolutions.) And as I cannot in
my own strength do this, nor even with a hope of success attempt it, I look to
thee, O Lord God my Father, in Jesus my Savior, and ask for the gift of the
Holy Spirit.
As
people of God we are meant to affirm each day with some act of dedication of
the day because each day is a new beginning and each day is a gift from
God. If you are still looking for
resolutions to make for the New Year, I would like to suggest to you that you
resolve to begin each day with some kind of recollection of God and some kind
of dedication of that day to God.
In
this matter Muslims with their regular, five-times-a-day periods of prayers,
one of them being upon arising, put Christians to shame. One could do worse than resolve to begin each
day, if only for a moment, in the conscious presence of God, and in
gratitude for another day of life given to you, and in resolve to live that day
as fully as possible.
But
let me suggest something else as well that you might work on in the New
Year. Do you have attitudes about groups
of people that you need to change? What
prejudices about people of a different color, about Jews, about people of a
different sexual orientation, about Muslims, about poor people do you have? Do you think you are better than they? Do you believe that your attitude about these
people is really in keeping with the Gospel you claim to believe? Where would Jesus be in these matters? Is this an area you need to work on in this
New Year?
Identify
one prejudice in your life you need to change.
Just one will do for the moment.
Identify one relationship you need to improve. Identify one continuing act of charity you
will get involved in. Identify one thing
you don't need to do any longer.
Identify one area of your spiritual life that you would like to
improve. These are the kinds of things
that a New Year can be used for.
Each
new day -- each new year -- is a gift from God. And a wonderful part of that gift is that we
do not know what the day or the year holds for us. In part we do not know what it holds because
it is not blind fate that determines our future. It is not only other people. The decisions we make about our own lives are
the single largest components in determining what that future will look like.
As
you move into the New Year, accept it with gratitude -- with gratitude not only
that you are alive, but also with gratitude for the year itself. Each year has its own problems and each year
has its own blessings. The mature
Christian person knows that and will look out on much of the year with a kind
of detachment, not surprised by the year's problems and not seduced too much by
its blessings.
And
in any plans you make for the New Year, do not forget to decide to put God more
firmly at the center of your life.
Richard
H. Humke