January 2nd

Jeremiah 31:7-14; Ephesians 1:3-14; John 1:1-18

I don't know about you, but the Advent and Christmas season has gone fast. It seems like only yesterday that the young people were going Trick-or-Treating. I can remember the stores and how they put out the Christmas merchandize about the First of November. It seemed also that the pace picked up. And as the pace picked up there seemed to be more to do.

When we look at the time between November 1st and January 2nd we remember the gatherings with friends and family, first with the Thanksgiving celebration, in which we have our turkey with all its trimmings, the rolls and the dressing, cookies, pumpkin pie, and then comes the shopping for gifts, the baking and baking of cookies, and the plumb pudding for Christmas, the excitement of the special music played, the Christmas caroling, the Sunday School programs, the gift exchanges, the wondering of "What am I going to get for Christmas?" The wrapping of gifts, buying and setting up the Christmas tree and decorating it with lights, and the Nativity Scene being put up. And then Christmas comes and we open our gifts with excitement. We travel to be with family and friends for Christmas or they come here. And there's more excitement. Then we eat the special meal on Christmas, and then it's on to New Year's preparations. And New Year's Eves are fun, because of the goodies to eat and the egg nog to drink. New Year's Eve just tastes good! And then we stay up to see the ball come down in New York City. And we even talk about New Year's resolutions; and it's fun. Merriment is in the air as we wish good will to all in 1994.

And then January 2nd comes. The party's over. The food that hasn't been eaten needs to be cleaned out of the refrigerator and tossed into the trash before it starts growing penicillin. The house needs to be straightened. The trees has to be taken down. The bills from the spending hit us. The resolutions to lose weight because we can't get into our clothes are given a second look. The snow and cold weather has set in and tax time will be coming soon. Eck! We are overweight, exhausted, in debt, with clean up to do as we find ourselves at January 2nd. What a day! What a mess.

A friend of mine, a psychiatrist, told me that there are two rough days in the year for him and for people in general: January 2nd and April 15th. He says that every year he is swamped with calls from persons trying to deal with January 2nd, when all the hopes and dreams of the Christmas season were not lived up to; and April 15th, tax time, with the crunch of having to pay Uncle Sam for programs the person doesn't believe in.

With January 2nd comes the thought of winter really being here -- January, February and March -- all cold and dreary for us to face with little to look forward to until the Lenten Season is well under way. But, then, the Lenten Season, itself, stands for sacrifice and penitence. Of course, now, we have Epiphany looking at us, a season that starts on January 6th, a day we remember how the Magi visited the Christ child. We remember, as well, the baptism of our Lord. But, even so, as we are reminded of how Christ is the light of the world we still feel the effects of January 2nd.	So, somehow, we have to get a more positive attitude toward this day.

The month of January takes its name from the Roman god Janus, who was a two faced being with each face looking the opposite direction. Janus or January can be thought of as a hinge time because the month is really a vantage point from which we can still see back into the past year and yet face forward and look expectantly at the year that is ahead.

January 2nd need not be only a day to sigh over "how far" we got into debt, how much weight we have gained and need to lose, how messy the house is. Rather, January 2nd is also a hinge point for us to plot the course of the New Year. Janus, the god, looked backward into the past, but he also faced towards the future.

So, January 2nd can be thought of as the start of hope. January can be the "Hope Month," not just the let down of "the party's over."

I believe part of the problem of January 2nd in our lives is that we remember past January 2nds. We tend to repeat each year the same. Doing this we have little sense of an ownership about the future, about the coming year and what we can plan and accomplish.

Yet, in our Epistle lesson from Ephesians and the Gospel Lesson from John we are given a great hope. the hope is that Jesus Christ came into our world. God loved us so much that he sent his only Son to be among us and to die for our sins. And this brings us great hope for our lives, today, but also for the future. The "Word" has come into the darkness of this world. The "Word" is Jesus Christ.

And as God in Jesus Christ has come to us, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. God has chosen us through grace, unmerited love, to be his children. I am reminded of a story by a well known preacher, G. Campbell Morgan, about a conversation he had with a coal miner. The miner told him that he would give anything to believe that God would forgive sins. He said, "But I cannot believe He will forgive me if I just turn to Him. It is too cheap." Morgan says that he then asked the miner, "You were working in the mine today. How did you get out of the pit?"

The miner answered, "The way I usually do; I got into the cage and was pulled to the top."

"How much did you pay to come out of the pit?" asked Morgan.

"I didn't pay anything," was the miner's reply.

"Weren't you afraid to trust yourself to that cage? Was it not too cheap?

The man replied, "Oh, no! It was cheap for me, but it cost the company a lot of money to sink that shaft."

It was then that the miner saw the light: that it was the infinite price paid by the Son of God for our salvation, which comes to us by faith and not by anything that we can do, that gives us oneness with God.

The apostle Paul gives us something to think about in the book of Ephesians. As he talks about grace, he makes it clear that grace is more than an undeserved gift from God. It is much more! In fact, according to Paul, grace means that we are accepted as children of God! Grace means that we have the promise of unity with God and all of creation. Grace means that even though we do not deserve it, yet by our faith in Jesus Christ we shall inherit everything that a deserving son or daughter of God should have.

The apostle Paul called this "glorious grace." The hymn writer called it "Amazing Grace." We call it a mystery. But, it is, as Paul says, the age-long purpose of God; and we can accept it with joy and hope.

Most of us probably didn't know that for one hundred and fifty years, following the founding of New York City in 1624 two crystal- clear springs of pure, cold, water supplied the whole city. In the march of progress and with the passing of time the pond that collected the water was filled in, but the springs remained. Deep below the Criminal Court Building today the springs still give forth sweet, pure, cold water. But, instead of quenching thirst, the water from the spring flows to large sewers that eventually carry it to the Hudson River.

The clutter left over from Christmas, the reality of January 2nd, the worries that we bear upon our shoulder, may have, likewise, covered up the miraculous and amazing truth of God's glorious grace which is offered to us all. Yet, be assured that God's grace is still there for us, for the taking, offered freely to us without a price. All we have to do is look a little below the surface all the peripheral things of life, and there it is.

Yes, sure, it's January 2nd! The parties are over. But the coming year promises us more than dieting and paying our bills. Let us, this January 2nd, begin to create a future built on hope. It is the fist day of living a faith that looks backward at God's great gift in Jesus Christ and forward to the day when God's plan "to gather up all things in him" will become a reality.

Let us live 1994 to the glory of God!

Amen.