Parish Magazine feature - January 2007

Helen Bence writes-

Well, here we are in 2007. Seven years since the Millennium – seven New Years Days – and probably seven sets of New Year’s resolutions.

What is it about the New Year which makes us want to abandon all the things which we do which we know are not good for us, or do the things we don’t do, which we know we should do? It’s as if the New Year gives us a renewed hope that a new start is possible and yet, since the Millennium, it’s likely, if you are like most people, that those resolutions were quickly abandoned and forgotten, until they were re-resolved on the following six New Year’s Days. New Year’s resolutions seem to fall into the category of the triumph of hope over experience, yet, in the end, experience triumphs over hope.

As I reflect on that, it seems to me that we human beings really do long for life to be different somehow. We long to be people who have more self-control and so we resolve to drink less or eat more sensibly or give up smoking. We somehow sense that there is more of life than we experience most of the time and so we resolve to take up a new hobby or spend more time with the family. We long to be better than we are and so we resolve to serve our community in some way or raise money for charity or to keep our temper or not gossip. And yet, for most of us, soon after New Year with all our new hope and new sense of longing to be better and live better and do better, it all trickles through our fingers like sand and we are left with our hope dashed and our longings unfulfilled. It’s all very discouraging and very frustrating. You can’t help feeling that somehow we’re tackling it the wrong way, because those hopes and longings are real and good and somehow it ought to be possible for things to be better; for us to be better; for life to be better.

Jesus told a story to illustrate this point:

“He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins." Luke 5.36-39

If we try to patch ourselves with old material, or try to put “new wine in old wine-skins” we are bound to fail but the good news is that there is a way and it is possible for things to be better; for us to be better; for life to be better. The trouble is we can’t make it happen – only God can – but the good news of the gospel is that God has already sorted it.

Paul writing to the church at Ephesus says:

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”. (Ephesians 4.22-24)

If we want to keep our new year’s resolutions, we need to “put off our old self” and “be made new in the attitudes of our minds” and we can’t do that in our own strength. Indeed, our “old self” is so “corrupted by its deceitful desires”, that, however muc we long to be better and do better, and however convinced we are that we will this year somehow manage to keep our new year’s resolutions, we’re back to our “former way of life” and our “old self” before we know it.

But the Christian message is a message of hope – we can be better and do better – life itself can be better. Paul again, this time writing to the church in Corinth says:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
(2 Corinthians 5.17)

Being “in Christ” means letting God into our lives so that we are changed from the inside. God’s promise to each one of us is:

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” Ezekiel 36. 26-27
If we are prepared to accept that promise, we will be able to follow Jesus’ key teaching, which was revolutionary then and is just as revolutionary now for it would revolutionize our world if it were applied today:

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
(John 13.34-35)

The whole story of God’s dealings with his people is about making things new. In the Old Testament, Isaiah speaking as God’s prophet says:

"Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. (Isaiah 65.17)

In the New Testament, Peter writes:

“But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth”.
(2 Peter 3.13)
And in the last book of the Bible, we read:

“He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" (Revelation 21.5)

The theme is consistent throughout - God is working his purposes out and his purpose is to renew his creation until it becomes everything God meant it to be when

“In the beginning God created….” Genesis 1.1

His purpose is to transform the world which we corrupted until it once again lives by God’s principle of love

So, this year, why not make just one new year’s resolution - to rely on God to fulfill your longing to be better and do better and live better, because as it says in Lamentations 3.22-3

“Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”