Something remarkable happens at this
time each year. Millions of people spend billions of dollars on new diet plans,
workout equipment, organizational materials, and whatever else gets marketed as
a new year, new you product! What is your New Year’s Resolution? Have you kept
it thus far? How is the new diet, workout routine, or prayer practice going?
While on one level taking on new
routines this year could be seen as commendable, however the overarching
concept of making yourself better stands in opposition with the message of
Christ. As strange as it sounds, God did not send Jesus to us so that we might
lose a few pounds or organize the garage in the New Year. In the First Letter
of John we are reminded of our true nature, which requires no resolving to be “better”
this year. John wrote, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has
not yet been revealed.” Living a healthy life for your sake or for your family’s
is great! Being more prepared is fantastic! Exploring nature through exercise
makes my heart sing. And yet, we are God’s children NOW!
The trouble with resolutions comes in a
fundamental misunderstanding. We do not make ourselves good, instead God has
made us good in our Creation and in our restoration. It is through Christ’s
Incarnation in Jesus his life, death, and Resurrection that we see and
experience ultimate goodness! John’s letter goes on to show us that as God’s
beloveds our entire existence will take the shape of Christ’s own life! He
wrote, “What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for
we will see him as he is.” This stands out as AWESOMELY good news!
No resolution is needed for us to be
made into God’s beloved. We are already these loved ones! And, as we see Christ
in our lives and in the world around us life will take the shape of Christ: living,
dying, and resurrecting. During Advent as my Sunday School class discussed the
shape of the Church Calendar we found that in Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and
Easter Morning, what is known as the Triduum, most of or maybe even all our
experiences exist. Fellowship, service, betrayal, denial, torture, greed, rage,
self-emptying, love, isolation, forgiveness, solitude, death, and resurrection
are all on display here. In the person of Jesus, Christ models for us all of
human experience such that resolutions no longer make any sense. We are already
beloved by God, how can we become better, how could we possibly achieve
something greater? However, what may be beneficial to us in this New Year is an
intention to remember that we are God’s beloveds through a practice or
observation.
John the Baptizer shows us a helpful
practice for now and into the future. In today’s Gospel lesson the forerunner
of God knew that Jesus was the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the
world. Notice that this text says sin and not sins. According to Richard Rohr,
the Franciscan priest and monk at the Center for Action and Contemplation in
New Mexico, this is no mistake. There is but one sin that John the Baptizer
observed. Rohr states as this, “Ignorant hating, excluding, and killing is the
universal sin of the world to this day.”[1]
It dates back to Cain and Abel, was seen in the death of Jesus and the first
martyr Stephen, and it is still seen in modern martyrdoms here and abroad. So what
do we do?
May our intention be to stop the cycle
of hating, excluding, and killing this year! May we practice the self-emptying
love of Christ! May we be willing to give up our way, so that God’s way may be
walked together, hand-in-hand with all the people of this world! These huge
objectives of stopping hatred, bringing about peace, and uniting all people in
love seem impossible; however, the reign of Christ has already begun and we can
co-create with God through even the tiniest of steps. When we stop judging, manipulating,
or reprimanding others we are then able to live into our belovedness, as
instead of trying to change how others are we may take on their pain, empathize
with others, and together be transformed by the resurrecting power of God’s
love! THAT IS WHAT THE GOSPEL IS ALL ABOUT!
We are already God’s beloved. Now we
are called into a new intention. As the Body of Christ we must be part of
taking way the sin of the world (hating, excluding, and killing), so that we
may instead remember that all are God’s beloved, as we are all healed by the
Lamb of God!
[1] Rohr, Richard. Changing the Game. December 26,
2016. https://cac.org/changing-the-game-2016-12-26/ (accessed January 3, 2017).
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