Tag Archives: new year’s day

New Year’s Day 2025

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Welcome to the first day of 2025. On the way into the church office this morning to get ready for today’s New Year’s Day worship, I listened to a podcast interview with an executive from an artificial intelligence (AI) company. He said more than once he believes the new year holds much potential. My first thought was, “The potential for what?”

Of course, as someone betting on AI’s success, he noted only positives. He talked about its monumental efficiency relative to almost anything it does. He spoke about how it can reduce human error and increase safety. He mentioned its already incredible strides in the fields of medicine and education.

Frankly, he lost me at education. Actually, he’d already lost me with “much potential.”

It seems to me that the more AI does for us, the lazier we’re likely to become. As this meets with education, why bother learning the essential mechanics of a crucial calculation or digging deep within oneself for the best words in the best order when, in the end, AI can do the mathematics without your understanding or write one’s final paper without your grammatical skill? I know I’ve written in the past that Turnitin, a plagiarism and AI detecting tool, reported that of the two hundred million papers submitted in 2024, twenty-two million were at least 20% AI-created. Six million were over 80% AI-generated. That’s not good. Are we getting dumber and lazier? Maybe. Concerning “much potential,” we could be putting ourselves out of work. With AI’s increased capabilities, human potential may even become irrelevant entirely.

In a more profound sense, everything has potential. But is it good or bad? It was Winston Churchill who said, “Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.” Churchill said things like that to inspire and unite his nation for what would be a long and dreadful war against the Nazis. Interestingly, Adolph Hitler said parallel things about potential, ultimately rallying the German people with fiery speeches geared toward similar resilience.

But these were two very different forms of potential being provoked.

I’m sure everyone has an opinion about this kind of stuff. However, it seems Churchill labored to preserve liberty as a universal principle. It may sound somewhat nerdy, but I’ve memorized several of Churchill’s speeches. From what I can tell, he wanted to awaken the nation’s potential for positive moral courage leading to action. He desired to enlist and then prove that potential’s limits during a time when he believed it was needed most. Hitler’s efforts were far different. He tapped into sinister potentials born from entirely different principles, ones that bolstered tyranny’s capacity and fostered unity around a national entitlement fixed on an assumed inherent racial superiority. Overall, his goal wasn’t to defend individual freedoms or lift Germany’s citizens to something better. His goal was to unite in the persecution of others while subjugating everyone and everything else.

I can already tell I’m about to wander into a much longer conversation. I don’t want to do that. And so, to get back on track, I guess what I’m pondering out loud is that 2025, like every year before it, has potential. But as Christians, there’s something fundamental that we already know about potential.

Christians know the world’s potential cannot be separated from human sinfulness. Saint Paul reminds us in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Aware of this, as long as we remain in this fallen world, every pursuit—technological, social, political, or even moral—will carry the burden of imperfection. This means that human achievements, no matter how grand or well-intentioned, always bear the possibility of ruin. Human or AI, it doesn’t matter. Humans are sinful. AI was created and is being developed by humans. It may streamline processes and expand our reach, but as a tool held by sin-stained fingers, like everything else, it is forever susceptible to misuse.

In short, Christians know that human potential untethered from godliness goes nowhere. They also know something else Saint Paul said about humans who’ve been grafted to Jesus. By divine inspiration, he assured us that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). Unlike the fleeting ambitions of this world, Christian potential is anchored in something other than the human will. It’s not fixed to our abilities, efficiency, or productivity. It’s fixed to something—to someone—eternal.

Christians step into every new year, knowing their greatest potential is found in Christ. They know that to be shaped by His Word and aimed toward all circumstances sustained by His ceaseless love is to rest in His powerful potential. His potential offers a very different answer to the somewhat cynical question, “The potential for what?” The Lord’s potential is strength in the face of adversity, hope when hope appears nowhere to be found, joy amid sadness, and light in a darkened world in need of rescue.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer to start 2025 fixed on Christ’s potential, not my own. Doing so, I expect 2025 will be an outstanding year. Now, as I already mentioned, there’s a New Year’s Day Divine Service this morning at 10:00 AM here at Our Savior. What better way to begin a new year than by receiving from Christ through His Word and Sacrament everything I just described? I hope to see you here. You certainly have the potential.

New Year’s Day, 2024

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Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? I did. I do every year. I decided on this year’s resolution a few days before Christmas, so in a sense, I’ve had the chance to test-drive it here and there.

I don’t know if, how, or why you decided on yours, but two things in particular modeled for mine. The first was Saint Paul’s encouraging words, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Romans 12:12). The second was Michigan’s dismal climate. We don’t get much sun from October to March, and so I’m perpetually watching for stray sunbeams piercing the dreary grays. If I’m paying close enough attention, I can usually spot two or three throughout the day. Like atmospheric phantoms, they come and go. On occasion, one descends through a nearby window. When it does, I’ll sit right in the middle of it. It’s a rejuvenating opportunity, even if only for a moment. 

Together, these two things stirred a New Year’s resolution to find at least three positives in any perceived negative situation and, from among those three, if possible, to discover at least one opportunity for making life better. It might sound like a complicated resolution compared to exercising or cutting back on sweets. All I can say is that as I get older, I want to continue being the kind of person who’s happier to see the New Year arrive than to see the current year leave. To do this, I know I need to bring something with me into the New Year, and it can’t be the old self. The old self gets tired. The new self in Christ brings hope, patience, and prayer.

One thing is for sure: my newest resolution was pressure tested days before the clock struck midnight on December 31st.

I woke up this past Wednesday with a whole day of nothing facing me. That’s right. I had nothing to do but rest. The only task owed to the day was to take the artificial palm tree Jennifer bought me for Christmas to my office at the church. I planned to set it just beyond my desk where I could see it daily.

But my restful do-nothing day was foiled.

I started the day plinking away at what would become the sermon for this morning’s Divine Service. I did this awaiting my turn in the shower. Once Jennifer was done, and because I was still typing, she cleaned the bathtub, filling it with hot water before giving it a good scrub. Afterward, it was my turn in the bathroom.

My shower was ice cold.

I thought at first that Jennifer had used up the hot water while cleaning the tub or that perhaps one of the kids was actually awake and had showered, too. Strangely, the urge to visit our water heater in the basement storage closet emerged. And so, I did. Sure enough, it was dead, and its contents were just beginning to leak out onto the floor. I shut off the water supply, and while Jennifer began moving our closet belongings to other locations, I called a local heating and cooling company that we trusted. I learned they could be out by 4:30 p.m. for an estimate but likely couldn’t perform the installation until two or three days later. Still, I scheduled the appointment and then went to work helping Jennifer.

Once done, we sat together in the living room, calculating our fate. We were looking at a post-Christmas expense of about $2,000 and a couple of days of traveling back and forth to Jennifer’s mom’s house for showers.

Sigh.

“How many gallons is our water heater?” Jennifer asked, tapping on her mobile phone.

“Fifty,” I replied.

“How tall is it?”

“Right around fifty-five inches.”

“How wide?”

“About twenty inches.”

“You know, Home Depot has two in stock. They’re a little shorter and wider, but we could get one today. If we buy it and you do the installation, we could save about a thousand dollars.”

A moment passed.

“I’ll get my coat. Call upstairs to Harrison. He’s going with me.”

Harrison and I spent the next few hours removing the old water heater and installing a new one. We were done by 4:30 p.m. Had we kept the appointment, the repair man would’ve been arriving just in time to congratulate us.

What does this story have to do with my New Year’s resolution? For starters, everything about the situation was deflating. Not to mention I didn’t want to spend the entirety of what would be one of my only free days in a year doing what I was about to do. However, I’d already chosen my New Year’s resolution, and as such, I was ready to steer into the effort with hope, patience, and prayer, all the while looking for the moment’s sunbeams. And I found plenty.

The first ray of sunlight was that I actually had an entirely uninterrupted day to do the job. Second, we discovered the problem before it could cause significant damage to our basement. Third, we couldn’t necessarily afford $2,000, but we could afford $1,000. Fourth, a relatively warm day for the end of December, Wednesday was near-perfect for doing the work. The outdoor tasks would’ve been a messy struggle if it had been cold and snowy. I can only imagine having to uncoil and drag a frozen hose inside to drain the water heater; or attempting to dolly the rusted beast out through the basement door, likely struggling to ascend the side yard’s treacherously icy slope to get the appliance to the street, and then do the same in reverse with the new water heater, surely tracking the outside’s elements indoors.

As you can see, at least four sunbeams were streaming through a relatively cloudy scenario. I had resolved to find only three.

But what about the opportunity for rejuvenation? Well, that’s an easy one, too. Harrison and I worked on the job together, spending much-needed father-and-son time accomplishing something beneficial to the family.

In short, it was a struggle, but with my sights set in the right direction, it was a good day.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that every day can be the best day of the year. As a Christian, I agree. A Christian’s “every day” has Christ. With Christ, there’s always hope, no matter the challenge. Even better, we have access through prayer to the Creator of the cosmos, the One who promises to listen and respond, ultimately ordering all things, good or bad, for the salvific benefit of those who are His own by faith (Romans 8:28).

I already know these things. Still, I intend to be deliberate in my awareness of them in the New Year. I will find these sunbeams in a world intent on shrouding faith’s joy.

Having said all this, if you are yet to make a New Year’s resolution, feel free to steal mine…or the one I mentioned in yesterday’s note. Either way, trust me when I say that the New Year has only just begun, yet the peace that comes with a heart settled in this way is sure to pay dividends all along the way.

God bless and keep you by His grace!

New Year’s Day 2023

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I don’t intend to take much time with this morning’s scribbling. I’m functioning on very little sleep, and I think I’d rather sit, drink coffee, and rework the sermon I’ve already prepared. I mean, why not. With the New Year comes new thoughts, new intentions, new perspectives—all aimed at doing what one can to get things right, to shore up the previous year’s holes.

Lots of folks humbug the usual New Year sentiment of self-betterment. They mock resolution makers, chuckling at the exercise equipment boxes leaning against trash cans at the curb. Their chuckling becomes full-throated laughter when they see the equipment that arrived in those boxes at the same curb a few months later. Still, I won’t slight anyone willing to try. I’m glad for people who want to do better, who walk in hopeful stride alongside the starry-eyed poets who wrote, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” In other words, they know that it’s never too late to start a new course, be healthier, have a brighter spirit, and see each moment as an opportunity for fresh beginnings.

Christians own the corner market on these things. How could we not? Every time we fail, our Lord lifts us by His Gospel, reminding us that He succeeded in all things in our place. He drenches us in this forgiveness. All year long, he continues to wipe our slates clean, continually announcing He remembers our wickedness no longer (Hebrews 8:12). I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve heard a struggling Christian end a moment of sorrowful reflection with the phrase, “And yet, every day is a new day in the Lord.” To say this is nothing short of reciting the divine comforts leveled in Lamentations 3:22-23 and 2 Corinthians 4:16. Indeed, “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Indeed, “we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”

Praise God for this! As I preached in last night’s New Year’s Eve sermon, we’ll need this divine love every day of the oncoming year.

Aware of this love, there’s something else to keep in mind.

For starters, I don’t know too many genuine Christians who are comfortable with their sins. Christians want to do better. They want to be faithful. This means they want to exchange faithfulness to “self” with a better alignment to Christ’s will. Of course, they will struggle to accomplish this, having trouble jettisoning certain behaviors that haunt them, finding themselves in a perpetual wrestling match with these ever-stalking ghouls. Still, they’ll be honest about it, craving Word and Sacrament gifts of Gospel love that strengthen them for the bout. They know that only by the gifts God gives can they rise from the previous day’s struggles and say, “Every day is a new day in the Lord.” This is the voice of faith. This is proof of the Holy Spirit alive within them. This is evidence that they know what Saint Paul meant when he said, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17). Aware of this dynamic, Christians make conscious commitments to fight.

I say, get fighting. Take advantage of the New Year tradition of resoluteness and go to war against these things. Start the New Year reenergized for doing so. Commit to waking each day, remembering that in Christ, “every day is the best day in the year” (Ralph Waldo Emerson).

God bless and keep you for this. Trust Him. He certainly is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).

By the way, if you find yourself struggling with this assurance, find a crucifix and take a long hard stare. In fact, I recommend putting one where you’ll see it first thing every morning. The reality symbolized by that gruesome scene is the “power at work within us.” Christ’s death has freed you from Sin, Death, and Satan’s power. Every day of each oncoming year that can be pitched against the events of Calvary will be a new day bolstered by the Lord’s marvelous love.

Again, God bless and keep you for this. It’s my prayer for you this New Year’s Day.

New Year’s Eve 2022

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I wanted to take a quick moment to invite you to the New Year’s Eve Divine Service occurring here at Our Savior in Hartland at 4:30 pm. Although a strange time of day for a worship service, its selection is purposeful, allowing a brief intermission in your day before venturing out to whatever New Year’s Eve plans you may have. Although, whatever those plans might be, don’t forget about the New Year’s Day Divine Service tomorrow (Sunday) at 9:30 am.

Gathering in the Lord’s house on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day is good. Actually, the Church doesn’t necessarily refer to the gatherings using the titles of New Year’s Eve or Day. January 1 has long been celebrated as the “Feast of the Circumcision of Christ” because, according to the Law, a newborn male was required to be circumcised on the eighth day. For Jesus, according to our current Gregorian calendar, that would be January 1. Naturally, the night before was referred to as the “Eve of the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ.” A little further into history, the titles changed a bit. On many church calendars, the dates are referred to as the “Circumcision and Name of Jesus.” This is due to what’s written about the event in Luke 2:21, which reads: “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”

No matter what you call the event, again, it’s good to be in the Lord’s house on New Year’s Eve. Tonight, we understand ourselves as pitched against a brand new year. Christians are inclined to go into it having first visited with Christ.

But why?

Because anything could happen. All things considered, we already know we couldn’t have made it through the previous year without Him, and we know far too well that we won’t survive the coming year apart from Him. He must be our point of origin and destination in all things all year long, all at the same time.

The Lord’s circumcision is a hint to this. His name is, too.

Christ, the perfect Son of God, could never be found accused by God’s Holy Law. And yet, as we are beneath it, He shows His willing submission to it—to bear its heavy burden perfectly—when He sheds His first few drops of blood through circumcision. Moreover, the announcement of His name—a name that literally means “the Lord saves”—testifies to who He is and what His trajectory will be relative to the Law. Indeed, He will keep it perfectly. Moreover, He will die as the perfect sacrifice measured against it. He’ll do this for us, not for Himself. He will be our substitute. And when He accomplishes it, He will give the merits of the victory to us.

Evelyn and I listen to music every day to and from school. One of the bands we’ve been singing along with lately has a particular lyric that reminds me a little bit of what New Year’s Eve holds in its back pocket. It’s a short lyric, but it’s memorable: “We walk the plank on a sinking ship.”

This is true.

The world is sinking. If you feel differently, then you’re not paying attention. Moreover, the crew—the Devil, the world, and the sinful flesh—has a sword in the back of humanity, pressing it to the edge of the ship’s plank.

In a sense, when we celebrate the “Circumcision and Name of Jesus,” Christians realize two things. Firstly, we’re reminded that Christ shed His blood so that the plank’s end would not be the final word for any of us. Regardless of how the crew might accuse us, we are innocent. Christ saw to that. We can go into every new year, walking any of life’s planks along the way, with this promise in our pocket.

Secondly, we’re reminded of just what it means to do these things relative to the Lord’s name. For anyone attuned to the biblical promises associated with God’s name, it’s likely baptism will be one of the first things that comes to mind. It certainly did for Saint Peter. In Acts 2:38, Peter announces the essentiality of being baptized into the name of Jesus, which is to be baptized according to the mandate Jesus prescribed in Matthew 28:19—that is “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Among the many glorious benefits, part of the point here is that God puts His name on you in the waters of Holy Baptism, and God has long promised that He will dwell where He puts His name.

Walking the plank on a sinking ship isn’t so bad when I know these things. For one, the plunge at the end of the plank becomes an opportunity to remember no matter the waters I’m entering, I’ve already been through the best waters there are. I’m bearing God’s name now. He loves me. He gave me everything that belongs to Christ. He said as much. He said that all who’ve been baptized into Christ have been baptized into His death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4). And if this is true, then, what comes at the end of any plank is of no concern. God said this, too. Death holds no mastery over me because it holds no mastery over Christ, the one who has clothed me with His righteousness (Galatians 3:27).

Remembering and celebrating these things is an excellent way to begin a new year. I encourage you to begin yours this way. Join other Christians who gather to receive this Gospel. The oncoming year promises a regular need for it. Christ promises to be there to give it.

I suppose I should conclude that if this message finds its way to a Christian whose church does not offer New Year’s Eve or Day services, then may I humbly urge you to go and find one that does? If anything, my guess is you’ll sense a level of spiritual awareness communicated by those services, a sense that proves their relevance for this troubled world. That alone makes it well worth your while.