let us begin afresh-Theva

Let Us Begin Afresh!

John 1:10-18.

Dear friends,

Today is an auspicious occasion for it is the first Sunday of a brand New Year. Even otherwise by rendering the most meaningful worship to our God and by raising some critical questions as to what does it mean to begin a year again and afresh, we can make this day auspicious. We have now put our Christmas celebrations on hold for another year, the pageants and the cantatas, the carol singing and the candle lighting. I heard someone say here in church last Sunday “now since Christmas is behind us my stress level is a bit low”.

          When a little boy reached school age, the mother worked hard to make him enthusiastic about school. She bought him new clothes. She told him about other children he would meet in school. So on the first day of school he went eagerly, attended classes and came home with excellent reports of what school was like. Well! the next day the mother went into the bed room and said” Son, wake up”. And he said what for? You have got to go to school the mother said. The boy said what? Again? Christmas emphasizes on a yearlong work plan. Beside our celebrations have we spread the Christmas spirit around Fairport? Have we challenged already the powers and the systems of oppression and corruption? Have we worked hard enough to promote the efforts for just peace in our communities? Have we done our best in feeding the hungry healing the sick and freeing the imprisoned? Have we worked tirelessly for the reconciliation of those who have alienated themselves from friends and families?

       Now here is a word about the New Year. The American born, British poet, T.S Eliot, after having had a spiritual experience and an inward shift from agnosticism to faith in God, he penned these lines: “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring, will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.” You don’t need a preacher to remind you that in this New Year we will have births, deaths, marriages, anniversaries, job changes and relocations as it was in 2013. You don’t need a Pastor to predict to you that just as we lost some world leaders like Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela by death we will lose a few more this year as well. I am not a meteorologist however I can predict we will have some heavy snowfall in some parts of the country. There will be earthquakes and floods and hurricane in some other parts of the world. And in Fairport there will be some cold nights in February, a gloomy overcast in June and some gorgeous and warm summer days in July and August. The comedian, Hentry Youngman, tells about the time he was thrown out of an antique shop. “All I did”, he said, “was walk in and asked: What is new”? Think about it. There may be nothing new in an antique shop however each time we enter into it can we go in with new eyes? Can we anticipate 2014 to be filled with a measure of optimism and wonder? Can we cultivate love, friendship and a Spirit of understanding to thrive among our communities and nations in such a way we have never done before? What are we seeking after? Are we seeking after success and popularity? What are we striving for? Are we trying to make a fortune? Are we trying to find our names in the headlines of New York Times? Think for a moment, even the best scholars in the world whether Einstein or Thomas Edison, Steven Hawking, who occupies the chair of sir Isaac Newton in Cambridge in England or the Microsoft big name Bill Gates any one of them knows less than one tenth of one percent of all that might be known on this planet earth. Let me recommend my prayer to you as well. “Deliver me O God from the Spirit of regrets and resentments, revenge and bitterness for they are not good for my soul”. “Give me fresh energy, fervent faith and new dreams for a new year”.

          In a “peanuts” comic strip Lucy is speaking with Linus at the base of a hill. She says “Someday I am going over that hill and find the answers to my dreams”. “Someday I am going to find hope and fulfillment”. “I think, for me all the answers to life lie beyond these clouds and over that grassy slope of that hill”. Linus removes his thumb from his mouth, points towards that hill and responds ”Perhaps there is another little kid on the other side of that hill looking this way and thinking that all the answers to life lie on this side of the hill. Lucy looks at Linus and turns towards that hill and yells” forget it kid”. Human life is made of good times and bad, sunshine and shadows.

          Our worship is also called a condensed form of a covenant service. John Wesley 250 years ago, urged the entire Methodists around the world to renew their covenant with God on the first Sunday of the year. We will sing a covenant hymn today and pray a covenant prayer. Our text for today is from John chapter 1. And the word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son full of grace and truth. That ancient word, that energy of the cosmic fabric, that rational principle of the universe, came and lived among us. With grace and truth our lives can be transformed to be an incarnational life. This cannot be attained by going to an academic institution, attending classes and sit for an exam and pay our semester fees? I do not think that I can win it like a lottery. I do not think that I can achieve it like Michel Jordan, Julia Roberts, Tiger Wood and Serena Williams in basketball, acting, golf and Tennis with systematic practices and persistent discipline. Grace and truth are gifts freely available to all of us. We have to reach out and receive them. The problem with the world today is that we do not know how to receive free gift. Who said there is no free lunch? But I can guarantee you, there is free grace available, so that we don’t have to be aimless and wander. Why do we behave like dead and graceless people? Why do some of our churches look helpless and suffer from lack of spontaneity, hospitality and gracefulness. Walker Percy a secular novelist is asking a pertinent question in his novel” The Second coming: “If Christ has brought life into the church then why do the churches smell of death?” How can we make our lives incarnational? How can we begin a new year afresh? How can we begin to live again as though this is the first time of our living on this planet earth? Amen.