New Year’s Day, Cycle B
Even though from the perspective of the Christian Church Year we have already observed “New Year’s Day approximately one month ago on the First Sunday of Advent, we can be grateful if people will come together to worship God on the first day of our secular calendar year. It is good to see that for some people worship of God in Christian community on the first day of the secular year is more meaningful than “celebrating” with alcoholic drinks and watching football games. It is interesting to see the texts selected for us as we prepare this worship service, since the American secular year is obviously not noted in our biblical tradition. They provide for us a challenging set of choices rather than a unified theme.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
This popular selection from the Qoheleth supplies for us on this day a collection of philosophical reflections over contrasting activities in our lives. It concludes with the observation that it is a gift from God that our eating, our drinking, and our occupations, even if tedious, should be enjoyable to us.
The wisdom tradition here has some similarities to Eastern philosophy, to Oriental wisdom, especially to the Taoist concept of yin/yang, the combination of opposites to attain completeness. As we have completed one secular year and as we begin another, it can be comforting to realize that although much of what occurred for us during the previous year was beyond our control, we can believe that, in spite of it all, God wants us to enjoy life and wants us to believe in God and to believe that, ultimately, God is in control of our lives and of our destiny.
Psalm 8
Psalm 8 in this context is a reminder to us that God, awesome as God is for us, has given tremendous responsibilities to us to care for the creatures of this world. As we ponder this, perhaps making some serious New Year’s resolutions with regard to our God-given responsibilities to care for this world and its creatures and for our own bodies as individuals and as groups of Christians in communities of faith would be appropriate. If we make resolutions, we should keep them.
Revelation 21:1-6a
Although we are not on this day in a new heaven nor on a new earth, we are beginning a new secular year and the old year has passed away. The sea, however, is still with us and is rising! On this New Year’s Day and every day God is the Alpha and the Omega for us, present from the beginning to the ending of our lives.
There is an expression of faith in this text that God will be with us at every moment in our new year to “wipe away every tear” that may come into our eyes. We should be ready and prepared to see the hand of God in whatever form that hand may be expressed for us during the coming year.
Matthew 25:31-46
The clear emphasis in this text upon judgment of people by the Risen Christ based on works of mercy and of kindness that they may or may not have done may appear to be in stark contrast to the insistence by the Apostle Paul that we are being judged by God and saved from eternal suffering and death by the undeserved grace of God, not based on our own good works. Certainly different and even contrasting emphases can be and are present in our biblical collection of documents. Also, it is helpful to see contrasting teaching as present in creative tension within our Scriptures.
A key factor in this Matthew 25:31-46 text, however, is that it is “all the nations” that are said to be judged by the Risen Christ as the “Son of man” here in 25:32, not the People of God, not those who believe and trust in God. Perhaps the people who do not believe in God and who do not trust in God are considered here in this text to be judged by criteria that are different from the criteria under which we are to be judged. In any event, during the coming year as in the past, eternal judgment is the work of the eternal God, not of mortal humankind.
