Tuesday, January 4, 2022

A Fresh Start (January 2, 2022)

Happy New Year!!!!  It’s 2022!!!!!

Even as I type those words, it is hard to process, believe or imagine.  I know that I say this often, and I’m guessing that you have felt this way too, but whew!  Time flies!  Part of me is still feeling like we’re back at Y2K.  Do you remember that?  Some of me feels like we should still be back there, still at that time.  But no.  Here we are 22 years later.  Once again looking at a fresh new year.  A great opportunity for a fresh start.


Now this isn’t something that I think about often, but have you ever asked the question, “Why start the new year when we do?”  I mean, why January?  What is the significance of beginning then?  More importantly, why in winter?  Wouldn’t it make more sense to start the new year out in June?  Think about that for a moment.  New year.  Right at the start of the summer.  Right when the kids are getting out of school.  Right when vacations are happening and life is seemingly thriving.  Or I could see an argument for beginning a little sooner, like in the spring.  We could try starting the new year in April.  Why not start the new year then?  Spring rolling in.  Signs of life beginning.  April could be a good place to start, but nope.  Winter.  January.  In the cold, in the quietness, in the stillness, in the dreariness, in the brownness of winter.  That’s when we begin the year, and though it may seem to be an odd choice it honestly it works out rather well.  After all, there is no better time for a new beginning than right when things are looking their bleakest.  Perhaps the folks designing the calendar had it right.  Maybe the winter, right at the start of January, is the perfect place to locate the beginning of the year.  In this way, the new year falls just when we need to be reminded that there is always the chance for a new beginning, and winter provides the perfect object lesson for such a reminder…snow.


Ok.  Some of you may have gasped just now.  It was bad enough that I was talking about winter, but now I’ve really gone and done it by mentioning snow.  I know there are those among us who equate even the whispering of that word with swearing.  For some, saying “snow” is just like using some type of curse word or worse.  Still you have to admit, snow is beautiful…especially when it’s fresh.  (Not that salty, brown gunk that gets sprayed about from the roads.  That stuff gets pretty yucky looking for sure.)  


Picture it with me for just a moment…a clear, blue sky, the sun shining, the light of the sun sparkling off of the many flakes of some freshly, fallen snow.  The brown and yuck of the dead grass is covered.  The barren branches of the trees are full of the weight of winter, and a red cardinal alights at the tip of a branch, singing its song of enjoyment and delight.  It’s like I’m describing a Christmas card.  Snow can be absolutely beautiful, and I’m not kidding.  There is something about the freshly fallen snow that can be breathtaking and glorious, that can point us to God and remind us that Jesus makes all things new.


For me, if I get down to it, snow is the thing that I like the most about the winter, especially fresh snow, especially fresh snow paired with the idea of starting over.  It’s not the snow itself per se, but it is the promise of a fresh start, a new beginning, a time to reset and for life to cover over the deadness and dreariness of the past.  Snow becomes the perfect object lesson, teaching us that we can begin again, that we have an opportunity to start over, that we don’t need to be defined by our previous failures or the ways that we haven’t measured up in the past.  There is a chance for a new beginning, and we’re reminded of that hope right when we need it the most.  Right at the beginning of a new year.  Right during the winter.


You see oftentimes our lives can feel a bit like it looks outside during the middle of a dreary winter’s day.  Dead.  Dormant.  Brown.  Yucky.  Not a lot of green.  Not a lot of life evident.  Not a lot of light.  We can get bogged down in our sorrows, weighted down in our sin, overwhelmed in our shortcomings.  We can look around at our lives and not see a lot of cause for hope.  The leaves have all gone.  Most of the birds have left.  The grass has withered and the flowers have faded.  There are times in our lives when we feel like nothing good is happening and there is no cause for hope.  But then, the snow comes.  The snow comes and makes everything look bright and crisp and new.  The snow comes and covers over the brown, the mess, the yuck.  The snow comes and things are brighter once again.  There is reason to rejoice and hope and look forward to our future.  It is as if the past is washed away and a newness settles on the land.  The snow comes and there is the hope that the shortcomings will be washed away, that we can have life once more.  


Yes, friend, perhaps the winter is the best place to put the new year because just as a new year can cause us to consider beginning once again, the snow can come and repeat that message, letting us know that there is opportunity for a fresh start, a new beginning.


There’s a promise in Isaiah that comes from the Lord regarding new beginnings and snow.  It reads,


“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.” 

~Isaiah 1:18


This promise comes at at time when the Israelites were in desperate need of a cleansing and of a new beginning.  They had rebelled against the Lord their God.  Their guilt was “great” (vs. 1:4), and they were called a “brood of evildoers, children given to corruption.” (vs. 1:4)  In fact, their sin was so bad, that the Lord says their feasts, their sacrifices, even their offerings were worthless in His sight.  Not only that, but look at this dismal statement in verse 15.


When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening.


Your hands are full of blood!

~Isaiah 1:15


The Israelites had completely forsaken God, and God was not pleased!  Their worship was mere ritual, a set of steps performed without their heart being offered.  Their sacrifices, their offerings, their festivities, their celebrations, all of the same.  They had come to the point where even their prayers were just an act, not a true reflection of them seeking the Lord.  Empty words.  Just lip service with no heart towards God and certainly no actions that would please the Lord.  Their hands, full of blood, full of murder and wickedness and idolatry and evil, were lifted up to God as a mere gesture instead of a sign of need or repentance.  So, God let them know just what he thought of their state.  He would not hear such prayer.  He would not honor such worship.  He would not be impressed with such offerings.


And yet…


There was still the hope of a new start, a new beginning.  


Right into this mess is where we hear that promise.


“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.” 

~Isaiah 1:18


God promised to cover over their blood-stained hands and allow them to start again.  God promised to erase their past, and let them begin once more.  Though their sins were like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.  Snow.  The good stuff.  Freshly fallen.  Pure.  White.  Not tainted by the salt trucks.  Not polluted from the toxins in our air.  Crisp.  Clean.  Pure.  Light.  So bright that you almost need sunglasses to gaze upon it.  Completely covering all that came before.  Though you were like scarlet, you will be as white as snow.


That’s what we need to be reminded of in the winter.  That’s what we need to be reminded of at the beginning of the new year.  We need to be reminded that God isn’t looking for mere rituals or just words, that God isn’t impressed with the size of our offering or if we manage to do no work on Sundays or if we made it to church on Christmas Eve.  What God wants is our hearts.  What God wants is our lives.  What God wants is our hands lifted up in worship, in surrender, in praise…not just lifted up in some type of meaningless ritual, and certainly not lifted up, covered in blood.  


But what if we find ourselves where we have fallen short, where we have just gone through some motions, where we are in need of repentance, where we have blood on our hands and no way to wash it off ourselves?

Even then, there is hope for a change, hope for a cleansing, hope for a fresh start.  What had been promised to the Israelites is now given to us.


“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.” 

~Isaiah 1:18


What do we need to do to receive this promise?  To begin again?  To be as white as snow?  


Here we find an answer:


If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

~1 John 1:9


It’s not sacrifice or church attendance or giving or even lifting our hands up in the air while praying (although all of those are good things).  It’s repentance.  Recognizing where we have gone astray and turning away from those things.  But even more than that, a new start requires clinging to Jesus, trusting in the One who is able to make us new, make us right, make us pure, even purer than freshly fallen snow.


Friend, I encourage you now, right here at the start of 2022, right here in winter, to take this opportunity to cling to Jesus.  No matter your past, no matter your history, no matter what things have gone on before in your life, He is presenting you with a fresh start, a new opportunity.  Please don’t waste it!  Confess your shortcomings, confess your failures, look back on what you have done that is not pleasing to God and turn from those things into the arms of Christ.  Trust me!  It will be even better than the freshest fallen snow.


~ Pastor Chris