All Things New
Series: Happy Holy Days - Part 6
Ephesians 4:21-32; Isaiah 43:18-19; Mark 2:21-22
Don’t remember the prior things;
don’t ponder ancient history.
Look! I’m doing a new thing;
now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it?
I’m making a way in the desert,
paths in the wilderness.Isaiah 43:18-19 (CEB)
No one sews a piece of new, unshrunk cloth on old clothes; otherwise, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and makes a worse tear. No one pours new wine into old leather wineskins; otherwise, the wine would burst the wineskins and the wine would be lost and the wineskins destroyed. But new wine is for new wineskins.”Mark 2:21-22 CEB)
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
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Happy New Year!
But wait, we’re still in the middle of the 12 days of Christmas. Epiphany / Three Kings Day is later this week. And if we want to be really technical, the Christian new year begins the first Sunday of Advent.
In some ways, New Year’s almost seems to short-circuit our Christmas celebrations, calling everyone to take down the decorations and move on. But what if our New Year’s Celebrations could actually move us deeper into the celebration of Christmas instead of rushing us too quickly past the season?
Like the Winter Solstice, New Year’s celebrations are ancient traditions honored in cultures all around the globe. The earliest recorded new year’s celebration occurred roughly 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon. For them, it occurred in mid-march when the crops were planted. They held a 12 day religious festival known as Akitu, where they would reaffirm loyalty to their king, crown new kings, and make vows to the gods to pay back their debts and return anything they had borrowed. If the Babylonians kept their word, they believed the gods would grant them favor in the new year. Rome, Egypt, Persia, and China also have a rich ancient history of celebrating the New Year.
But what does any of this have to do with Christianity? Technically, absolutely nothing. New Year’s celebrations and even some of our traditions like new year’s resolutions date back long before Christian history. Nevertheless, Christians have always been good at adapting cultural traditions, using them both to strengthen our own faith and to bear witness to the ways God is already showing up in the traditions of others, just as we have seen with the development of Christmas.
The idea of making rededicating our lives or renewing our covenants and promises which is part of nearly every new year’s tradition is also a central part of Christian practice. The Christian life begins with repentance, remembering one’s past mistakes and committing or “resolving” to do better in the future. In 1740, John Wesley developed this theme into a formal service of Covenant Renewal most commonly held on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. Another form of Christian New Year’s celebration is the watch-night service, which includes scripture readings and hymn singing, offering a spiritual alternative to “ring in the new year” with prayer instead of partying.
Research shows that nearly 45 percent of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, but only 8 percent are successful. These resolutions or goals are generally more about self-improvement. Perhaps its time to stop making empty promises to ourselves and take advantage of this day to renew our covenant with the one who can truly make our lives new.
On January 2, 2022, we used the traditional liturgy from the Wesleyan Covenant Renwal Service at Shiloh UMC in Granite Quarry. You can participate in that service online below.