Rev. Dr. Joel D. Biermann
Luke 2:21
January 1, 2017
1-1-17—New Year’s Day, the beginning of a brand new year. It’s day number one of 365. The baby, newly-arrived only a few hours ago, is still crawling in diapers, at least for another few days; but soon enough, the infant will be forced to grow up and face the sober realities of life in 2017. Today, though, it’s still new. Today, it’s all fresh and unspoiled—a full set of 365 days lies ahead waiting to be lived and enjoyed. So, most people make the most of the new year. They set goals for the year ahead. They make plans. They make new beginnings. They resolve to start fresh—and why not? It’s New Year’s Day. It’s Day 1. It’s the perfect time to start a tobacco-free, debt-eliminated, always-clean-house, reach and keep the ideal weight, never-be-late, get into shape, spend more time with the family, read the Bible every day, and eat healthy meals almost all the time, year that you’ve always dreamed of. Day 1. New Year’s Day. The first day of the rest of your life, and all of those other applicable platitudes. It all sounds wonderful. It might even be cause for just a little bit of excitement as you sit here on the cusp of a new year. A fresh start with fresh motivation and enthusiasm—it’s exactly what everyone needs. Welcome 2017!
So, why don’t I feel all tingly with excitement? Where’s that everything-remade, fresh start, new beginning feeling? Maybe it’s just me and my well-honed realism (all right, it borders on pessimism…) getting the best of me. Actually, to be honest, New Year’s Day has never done much for me. I don’t know quite what to make of it, or what to do with it. Every other Christian and even national holiday makes sense. I know what Memorial Day and Thanksgiving are for, and I can appreciate the Fourth of July and even Labor Day. Christmas, Easter, All Saints—those are easy and obvious. But, what’s the big deal about New Year’s? What, exactly, are we celebrating, on New Year’s Day? Personally, I suspect that the whole thing is nothing but a thinly disguised excuse for one more round of excessive consumption of comfort food and alcoholic beverages. New Years’ Day is little more than the necessary period of post-binge recovery before returning to the normal routine. We act like it’s a big deal: a brand-new beginning, a significant intrusion in the flow of time. But, besides changing the final digit on the date, January 1st is absolutely no different than December 31st. Nothing has changed. The “new beginning” is pure fabrication. It’s not real, and you know it.
The fact is that you woke up this morning and you greeted the same exact reality that you left when you fell asleep last night. Nothing has changed. Your credit cards are still groaning under the load you’ve forced them to carry. Those extra pounds that bother you have not magically melted away, and the unresolved argument with your spouse, or parent, or sibling, is still unresolved. The fact that it’s day one of 2017 makes no difference. The empty hole ripped in your soul by death is still empty. The loneliness and fear that stalked you last year were waiting for you at the front door of 2017: the same responsibilities, the same health problems, the same boss, the same routine, the same all of it. The big problem with New Year’s Day is that it can’t erase or alter everything that went before. Changing 2016 into 2017 changes nothing else. The partying of the previous night was a fraud. The festivities were forced. The celebration was contrived. There was no real fun in any of it because nothing significant happened. New Year’s Day is about as farcical, phony, and futile as Las Vegas or a riverboat casino. It’s hollow and hopeless and everyone knows it. Joining in the charade of celebration changes nothing. There’s nothing new about Day 1.
I know, it’s a hard, nasty, bitter, disappointing dose of reality. But, it is reality. With the arrival of 1-1-17, your world has not changed—not one bit. But this is not the worst of it. No, the worst thing is that neither have you. You start 2017 as the same person who finished 2016. You have the same fears, the same weaknesses, the same temptations, the same failures and flaws, the same body with the same aches and pains, the same mind that too easily wanders and worries and misses the joke, the same personality that struggles to fit-in, and the same will that struggles to master your emotions. You still have the same sin that embarrasses and shames you. Yes, you’re still you, with all the same weary reserve of resources available for tackling your reality. Let’s face it. The prospects for success in 2017 are exactly what they were in 2016. There’s nothing different about today, January 1st. Day 1 changes nothing. Day 1 is no big deal. Call off the party. Cancel the festivities. Save the celebration.
But, do save it. Don’t pack it in, just yet. Don’t let all hope drain away. Don’t give up on today entirely. Perhaps this day can be salvaged, yet. It’s true: Day 1 of 365 is nothing to celebrate. It changes nothing. But, January 1st is not just the first day of an arbitrarily declared new year. Today, is also the eighth day. That’s right: it’s day 8. And day 8, is a very important, and very good day. Did you hear that? January 1st is also day 8—the celebration is back on. Reschedule the party. Line up the festivities. Let the blow-out begin…ok…so, you’re not buying it, are you? You’re not convinced that Day 8 is a big deal. All right, then, I’ll prove it to you. We’ll start with that strange reading from Leviticus. Chapter 8 of the third book of Moses records the elaborate and demanding process that Aaron and his sons endured to become priests of God. This ordination procedure took a full week of fasting, and waiting in isolation in the tabernacle. And then in chapter 9, we read, “On the 8th day, Moses summoned Aaron and his sons,” and for the first time, the newly ordained priests offered sacrifices for the people. Through God’s system of sacrifices, the people would maintain their relationship of grace with God. Through the sacrifices, their sins would be forgiven, fellowship restored and peace extended. The priests were not part of a legalistic game of earning grace. The entire system of sacrifices was a mark of mercy—God’s mercy in providing a means of grace. Aaron and the sacrifices were that means. On the 8th day, that system began, and we’re told that “fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar.” When the people saw it, they shouted for joy—God was confirming the plan and delivering his grace; and it all happened on Day 8.
Now to Genesis, chapter 17. God’s called man, Abram, is about to become Abraham. God is going to make his covenant—a promise of unending grace and love. Well, actually, God is going to cut his covenant with his man, Abraham. Blood is going to be shed; the man is going to be changed…quite physically and permanently. Circumcision is the sign for God’s chosen man. Circumcision will be the sign for all God’s chosen men. “For the generation to come,” says Yahweh, “every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised.” It’s another day 8 event, one repeated for every on of God’s men. On the 8th day, the covenant was cut; the boy was now part of the people—part of God’s people. God’s grace was his: another Day 8, when God gives grace to his people.
You’ve probably noticed a pattern developing, here. Day 8 is all about God’s grace. Day 8 is a grace day. It is essential that 7 days must pass before we get to Day 8. Day 8 comes after an entire week’s worth of real life has elapsed. Day 8 takes into account all the hard and happy, bitter and bright events that mark a week of living. Day 8 is about reality. Unlike an artificially declared Day 1 that tries vainly to ignore all that has gone before, Day 8 faces the facts. Day 8 is God breaking into the reality of life after a full week has gone by—seven days of the rhythm of life, one complete cycle of 7 of the daily routine that marks and measures all of life. Day 8 comes after a week of typical days. First we live; first we face reality; first the 7 days…then Day 8, then God comes and delivers grace. God does not declare the past gone and of no account; he declares it forgiven and redeemed by his grace. Day 8 always deals in realities—the hard, painful realities of sin and failure, and the astounding, joyful reality of grace that forgives and then re-makes. That’s what happens on Day 8.
And, today, remember, is Day 8. It is. It’s the 8th day of Christmas, the 8th day since the shepherds came and the angels sang, the 8th day since Mary and Joseph made the best of things, and found a cradle in a manger, the 8th day since the birth of Jesus. Today is Day 8. It’s the day. It’s the day of circumcision, the day for Jesus to join his people, the day for the covenant to be cut again, the day for Jesus to shed blood…for the first time. It’s a significant event even for you—bigger than you may realize. Certainly, Jesus does not need the rite of circumcision. He does not need to be made a part of the covenant. He is, in fact, the covenant-maker. Nor, does Jesus need to be brought into a right relationship with God. The Son is already (and always) in perfect harmony with the Father. No, the circumcision is not for Jesus. It is for Joseph and Mary and the shepherds, and Herod, and the wise men, and the Pharisees, and the Romans, and…you. Jesus is circumcised, his blood is shed, for you. In complete and perfect obedience to the Law, to his Father’s law, to his Father’s will, Jesus is circumcised. He does it as the Messiah, as the one sent to save. And, being circumcised, living fully in obedience to the command of God, he is doing messianic work; it is the work of saving his people. It is an act of grace, a Day 8 act of grace for God’s people.
All of those previous Day 8 acts of grace on behalf of the people are captured by, are fulfilled by, this one. Abraham and the grace given to him, and the grace of circumcision given to his heirs, Aaron and the grace of the priesthood and the grace of the system of sacrifices: they are all present today, on the day of Jesus’ circumcision. Jesus is Israel reduced to one. He is all of the people reduced to one. He is born for all people, his birth replacing their sinful births. He is circumcised for all people. His blood is shed, and so theirs is shed, so yours is shed. He lives in perfect harmony with God the Father, and so in him, you live in perfect harmony with the Father. All that God has previously done for his people on Day 8 points to the Day 8. That’s why Jesus’ circumcision matters. It means that God’s grace is for you because you have in Jesus the one who fulfills all of God’s will for you.
So, today is a day to celebrate: it’s January 1st, it’s Day 8. It’s the day when grace is delivered. But, not only is it January 1st, it’s Sunday, January 1st. It’s Day 8 twice over: once for the 8th day of Christmas, and once for the 8th day of Holy Week. Every Sunday marks that Day 8. The day of Palms is day one. Day 6, Jesus blood was shed and the work was finished. Day 7, just as God had designed it, Jesus’ lifeless body rested in the still darkness of the tomb. And then…Day 8—the day when grace was delivered to God’s people. A touch of glory, a flood of grace and all the previous week suddenly made sense and was redeemed. So it is with every Day 8. And that’s what we celebrate, today. It’s Day 8. Jesus is circumcised, for you. It’s Day 8. Jesus is raised for you. It’s Day 8, God’s giving new grace to you.
You don’t need a new year to get your act together, or to find some way to start fresh. There’s nothing special about the arbitrary naming of Day 1 of 365, anyway. It’s Day 1—so what? Day 1 means nothing. It’s Day 8—thank God and rejoice. Day 8 means everything. Day 8 means that God knows all that you know. He knows everything that’s gone before on the previous days. He knows the reality you went to bed with, and the reality still waiting for you when you awoke, today. He knows the truth about you: the you that is still the same even on the first day of 2017. He knows the past and he gives you, today, grace, anyway, grace to face and overcome your reality. “New beginnings” and “fresh starts” are the stuff of myth and empty wishing. You can’t flee reality just by declaring a new beginning. You don’t need those futile and fake attempts to justify a celebration. Far better than an arbitrarily declared “new” start, today you’ve got abundant, real, grace for the past and for the future. With that kind of God-given grace, you can deal honestly with the truth about you and your reality. It doesn’t matter what those truths are—no matter how sad, how discouraging, how worn-out, how terrifying—no matter what reality you’ve got, today, God’s grace has got it covered…all of it. It’s Day 8, God’s delivering his grace now. It’s Day 8, let the celebration begin. Amen.
Lord, better than a new beginning, today, I have you and your grace delivered to me in the middle of my reality. Keep me in that grace, secure, strengthened, and forgiven. Keep me in that grace this day and every day. Amen.