Christmas 2

Someone has offered this toast for a New Year for those of us who are getting a few years on us:

May your hair, your teeth, your face-lift, your abs, and your stocks not fall; and may your blood pressure, your triglycerides, your cholesterol, your white blood count and your mortgage interest not rise.

May you get a clean bill of health from your dentist, your cardiologist, your gastroenterologist, your urologist, your proctologist, your podiatrist, your psychiatrist, your plumber, and the IRS.

May what you see in the mirror delight you, and what others see in you delight them.

May the telemarketers wait to make their sales calls until you finish dinner, may your checkbook and your budget balance, and may they include generous amounts for your church and charities.

May you remember to say “I love you” at least once a day to your spouse, your child, and your parents.

The New Year is traditionally a time for reflection. We look back over the year and assess our successes and failures. We gain some satisfaction over our successes, and we experience some grief and guilt over our failures. Each time we face a new beginning. We have hopes that things will be different and better. But sometimes it seems that the future just keeps turning into more of the present.

Listen to our very upbeat Epistle from Ephesians 1 for this New Year: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (1:3-6).

What great good news! We are God’s chosen ones. His elect. God doesn’t want our lives to be humdrum, meaningless, depressing routines. God wants something better for us than that. That is why there are some things we need to recognize as we begin this New Year.

First of all, we need to see that God loves doing a new thing. He said in Revelation 21:5: “See I am making everything new.” He said practically the same thing through Isaiah the prophet, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing” (Isaiah 43:18-19).

That is the exciting thing about knowing God. God loves doing a new thing. You and I are often afraid of change. We long to be able to cling to the status quo. Someone has said that status quo is Latin for “the mess we’re in.” It’s dangerous to stick to the status quo.

Let me give you an example. Something happened in 1906 that dramatically changed the game of football. Before that year, football had been a low-scoring game of running and kicking. Guys in leather helmets plodded down the field methodically seeking to overpower the other team. Ever hear the expression “three yards and a cloud of dust?” This was the strategy employed throughout football before 1906.

Then something revolutionary happened. The forward pass was legalized, making it possible to gain forty yards with one throw. During that first season, however, most teams stayed with the tried-and-true way of playing the game with three yards and a cloud of dust.

One team, however, took another approach. Coaches at St. Louis University decided to switch to an offense that used the forward pass. That first season they outscored their opponents 402 to 11!  Sometimes, change is for the better.

God loves change, especially changed lives.

What we need is not inspiration, but transformation. Not a resolution, but a revolution. We need a change in our lives that comes from God. What we need is something that will truly satisfy our longings, something that will bring true and lasting change. What we need is for God to do a new thing within us. And that can happen. For God loves doing a new thing.

We also need someone who can look beyond our faults and weaknesses and not only love us but expect the best from us. Someone who will believe in us, who will give us another chance, who will call us by another name.

Some of us are our own worst critic. We are more aware of our weaknesses and imperfections than we are our strengths. How Jesus longs to give us a new name!

Perhaps you are one to whom a specific action has dealt a deadly blow in your life and others have been affected by your failure. Because of your past, people expect you to fail. To you, too, Jesus longs to give you a new name.

Listen to these words of the Lord: “The nations will see your vindication, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow. You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.” (Isaiah 62:2-3).

I am amazed how many people think that God sees only the bad in them. They believe He is more aware of their failure than He is the good that is in them. Please know that God is much more concerned over the good in you. He is much more anxious to reward your goodness than to punish your evil. Many times, while we are condemning ourselves, God is trying to help us realize His forgiveness.

The Bible says, “If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20). While we are calling ourselves “failures,” God is calling us “forgiven.” God is calling us by a new name.

The final thing we need to realize is that God’s new name for us means a new beginning. It sounds unbelievable, but it seemed unbelievable when God changed Abram’s name to Abraham. Abram and Sarai were childless, but God called him Abraham: “Father of Multitudes.” He made him a father of a nation. Sarai he called Sarah: “Princess.”

What a marvelous and transforming imagination God has. How full of love God’s heart is. How powerful His Spirit, to take our failures and give us a future. How marvelous of God to take people who were headed nowhere and use them to fulfill his plan for the world.

The Book of Genesis describes the life story of Jacob. From his birth he was named Jacob, a Hebrew name which meant “supplanter, schemer, trickster, swindler.” And he lived up to his name (or down to his name) just as everyone had expected he would. He cheated his brother out of his birthright; he deceived his father and cheated his father-in-law out of his possessions. But when the angel of the Lord came to him, he asked his name. When he replied that his name was Jacob (schemer), the angel replied that he would no longer be known as Jacob, but as Israel, which means “Prince of God.”

Imagine that. Not only was Jacob’s name changed, his heart was changed as well. And he was never the same again.

Those the world called tax collectors, Jesus called disciples. Those called sinners, Jesus called companions. Those scorned as immoral, he called forgiven. Those called common fishermen, he called fishers of men. A crucified thief he called an heir of paradise.

What names have you been called? What names have you called yourself? Jesus Christ offers you a new lease on life. A new chance in this New Year. A new name.

A New Year is also a good time to give other people a new chance. It’s a time to also expect the best from them; to realize that perhaps, with a little help and trust from you, they could be different. Give people a chance to begin over again with you. You and I are to forgive those who have sinned against us. If we cannot even forgive each other, how can we ever hope to experience the unconditional love and forgiveness of God? When we call other people names, it influences their identity and their future. We are to speak the name that God would speak to them.

God wants something better for us in this New Year than we have experienced in the past. Think about the names God has called us in today’s Epistle. He has called us blessed, chosen, holy, blameless, adopted sons and daughters of God. Listen as God gives you a new name for this New Year, and then go out and live as blessed, chosen, holy, blameless, adopted sons and daughters of God.