1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word as we celebrate this New Year is taken from Isaiah 51:4-6, it’s entitled, “Endings & Beginnings,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. When one thing begins, another ends. When a church season or church year ends, we mark the time by changing the colors on the altar and on the pastor. The music, the hymns we play, reflects a new emphasis, a new focus on the Word of the living God. Now that the calendar year has ended, a new one has begun. We have had parties, noisemakers, watched the ball drop in Times Square, and maybe a bit of overindulgence. Tonight, we take time to mark what we’ve gained and what we’ve lost, to share tears, laughs, and stories. A new year is upon us, and we mark the time.
3. We love to mark the days as they go by. But, can you imagine living as if tomorrow will never come like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day? I would either devolve into whatever indulgent activity seems like fun at the moment or turn into a useless blob sobbing on the floor and waiting for the end to put me out of my misery. Humans are designed to operate with the idea that life is an ongoing concern. We live with what God promised Noah in Genesis: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Gen 8:22).
4. But as this past year has come to a close, the prophet Isaiah reminds us that a different day is coming. Our text tells us about the day when Christ will “come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead.” You might describe this day by saying, “When he comes, everything goes.” Everything that humans covet, fly, drive, sail on, or fight over will be gone. The earth and everything in, on, above, over, or under it—all time, space, matter—gone.
5. This is not like what happens when you clean out the basement or the garage. You can get rid of all the stuff you have, but it’s not really gone. You take it to the curb or call a junk removal company, or you take things to Goodwill or some other donation site. Your stuff isn’t really gone. It’s just not in your space anymore. It’s either in a dump, in a resale shop, or in someone else’s home. It’s their junk now. It’s not gone. It’s just somewhere else.
6. But Isaiah describes this day as everything going away: “The heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner” (Isaiah 51:6b). Things in our lives wear out, and we replace them—cars, dishwashers, computers, hips, and knees. But this is a day when the earth goes hollow and dry like an old piece of paper. It just falls apart.
7. On that day, a day of ultimate endings, everything that seems so solid in this world blows away like useless chaff. On that day we’ll find out what “gone” truly means. There’s a difference between sky and nothing overhead, between space and nothing, between time and nothing. That day will make that difference plain.
8. For today, though, we look around us, we take another breath, and we drive our cars and plan to go to work after our holiday celebrations. Today a time of ending seems far off and maybe even far-fetched. Being the twenty-first-century, enlightened, educated people that we are, we’ve come to rely more on ourselves than on the Word of the living God. Instead of lifting up our eyes, we lift up our telescopes to the heavens. And even in the face of all the wonder and vastness of the universe, we dare to think, “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” Astronomy is a beautiful science, and if anything, it shows us just how small and fragile we human beings really are. The universe is vast beyond our minds, as we lift our eyes to the heavens. As we look to the earth beneath, the wonders never cease. The miracles of rainforests and oceans are still being explored, and we still don’t know it all yet. It is all so complex.
9. Without a doubt, we take the heavens above and the earth below for granted. Maybe human pride will even think we’re in control of it all or that we can bend it to our will. Instead, we should wonder at the stability of God’s preservation of all things for us. His hands contain the whole universe, and no nation, no person, and even no hell-bent terrorist group can change that. Nobody with a bomb controls the future. God does. That stability should strengthen us. And yet this world is so fragile. How dense we are for forgetting that! Our world and everything in it is held together by God’s powerful Word. All the while, we sin and come up with new and inventive ways to break his commandments. We giggle at the idea of holiness: “What do you mean, no sex outside of marriage? Nobody lives like that anymore. Come on, you only go around once.” God the Father keeps the oceans in place, keeps asteroids from pounding us into another ice age, keeps the very breath in our lungs, and we dare him to call our bluff of unbelief. Isaiah reminds us that we are ripe for the ending of it all.
10. Our fallen world of sin, death, and shame will meet its end one day. God himself will come with his justice and his righteousness to this sin-beaten world. And we would do well to remember, as the day draws near, that what we confess with our mouths and what we believe in our hearts will determine our eternity before him who judges with perfect righteousness and justice.
11. On the Last Day, it is the justice of God that prevails, not human strength, wisdom, bombs, or bullets. On the Last Day it is the righteousness of God that will win. The things of this earth may disappear like smoke or fall apart like an old garment. But the Lord goes on to say in our text, “My salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed” (Isaiah 51:6c).
12. This is good news beyond belief. Even when the great Day of Ending comes to pass, God’s salvation remains. His righteousness, even when sky, land, and sea have disappeared, will still be here, and it is for you. To get your mind around what God’s salvation means, just think about this: Imagine everything that has ever gone wrong; God will make it right again. Broken lives are rescued. Addictions beaten. Relationships healed. Sick and broken bodies restored. Violence, a thing forgotten. Holy lives abound. All your sins forgiven, and people forever alive.
13. Sounds good, right? See, the same power that brings the world to its end will bring about a new beginning. A new beginning of remade humanity. That new beginning seeks you out and brings to you as a gift the salvation of God. It seeks you out and finds you even when—especially when—you are lost and hurting over your sins.
14. Jesus has come near to us. He is the Word that holds all things together, and he is the one who died for you and for me. His blood was shed and his body was broken for sinners. And in him every sinner has a new beginning. You don’t have to fear the justice of God. Jesus fulfilled it. No longer do we have to fear any person, fear that our sins will remain, or even fear the ending of all things. Christ has died, and Christ has risen from the dead. It has all been done for you and for me. God’s own righteousness given to you, God’s salvation promise sealed in the blood of the Lamb, lasts forever.
15. Out of love, joy, and thanksgiving, I pray you be renewed daily in your Baptism. Every day, God’s mercy is new. Every day is grace; every breath is a new beginning in the life of faith. Salvation’s name is Jesus. So, until the end, we wait in hope for his coming. Jesus says in Mark 13:37, “Stay awake”! Stay awake in your life of faith. Don’t let the enemy lull you to sleep. During times of trial, don’t lose heart. God does not change, and his salvation is forever. Take to heart those words from the book of Jude. Build yourself up in faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourself in the love of God. Have mercy on those who doubt, and show mercy without fear (cf Jude 20–23).
16. My brothers and sisters, another year has ended and a new one has begun. Who knows what triumphs or tragedies we’ll encounter and endure this new year? Some things in our lives will stay, and some things will go. We may enjoy times of stability or endure things that will shake us to our very core. But know this: Our world is passing away, and one day this world will come to its end, but God’s salvation in Jesus Christ has no ending. The salvation of God, the righteousness of God, lasts forever. You have a new beginning every day that will last forever. His name is Jesus Christ, and he is for you. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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