That other commandment...

“The Word became flesh” – John 1:14

             And suddenly a new year is upon us – new goals, new dreams, new plans and expectations…  So many new things before us, but the same old problem: we’re stuck being the same old us.  Same old relatives on your back, same old body full of aches and pains, same old bills coming round every month.  So while we may hope for a better time around this year, we have our secret doubts.

            Doubts are a natural product of our human ability to reason.  Our brains like to analyze, to think through situations, work out probable outcomes and calculate probabilities.  We imagine the worst even while hoping for the best, just to keep from being too devastated by disappointment which might be lurking around the corner.  Doubt is also a product of sin.
            Stephen Colbert recently pointed out that Jesus actually commanded us not to worry.  And it’s true.  “Do not worry,” our Lord tells his audience at the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:25).  Do. Not. Worry.  But this is said in the midst of a long speech about God’s wonders, so we treat it more like a casual piece of self-help advice, not like the 10 commandments graven onto stone and handed down to Moses from on high.  Truth is, this is a command from God every bit as divine and important as those top ten – because it’s really just another way of stating commandment #1.
            If you remember those commandments, the first one is the biggie.  It’s the commandment that serves as the bedrock foundation for all the rest: You shall have no other gods.  That’s gods with a small g – little things we worship and obsess over -- things that occupy our minds and fill us with doubt and worry over what big-G God has already said he’s got a handle on.
            So when God tells Abraham that he’s covered, he doesn’t need to worry about who his heir will be for his wife Sarah will have a child in her old age, “Abraham believed God and that faith he had was counted as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).  And when baby Isaac was born, it confirmed to Abraham that God’s Word was more that a prediction or promise – it was a completely trustworthy statement of fact. 
            This is why Luther said that when Isaac was born, God’s Word became flesh.  Although the Bible applies the phrase “Word became flesh” to the birth of Christ, it is really true that when any of God’s promises come about, that Word takes on the flesh of physical reality and becomes visible to all.  What had once been surrounded by worry and doubt now by hindsight becomes a given.
            So this year, let’s put aside our doubts, worries and little-g gods and believe the promise.  The babe in the manger is the Word that has stood from all time, who points us to a future where all sin and sorrow are swallowed up in love and grace.  Instead of pursuing our dreams, let’s go after God’s dream.  Instead of being the same old us, let’s open our lives to be transformed and renewed… re-made from the inside out in the image of the one who came to earth to give himself away. 
            How will Atonement be renewed and revitalized in this new year of 2016?  Oh, we have our plans and ideas for new programs.  We have new staff to hire and new worship services to develop.  But ultimately we’re here to bring about God’s future, not our own.  We begin this new year with God’s Word, living around, in, and among us, working through us and speaking to us.  He has given us a promise: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).  Let us live with complete trust in this promise, and behold the Word made flesh.

Peace,

Pastor Scott