Steve's Letter: Happy New Year?

Good heavens!

Where did 2010 go? Seems like just yesterday I struggled to write "10" on my checks and letters. And now I've got to somehow start to do "11."

As you know, I write these letters to you a good deal in advance of when you receive them. I'm writing this before Christmas and during Advent, and I stopped to write to you. Do you know what I was doing before I just wrote this? I was working on an Advent sermon which is a part of a traditional series of Advent sermons that my pastor, Pete Alwinson, and I do each year. This year our Advent series is on the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah in the book of Isaiah.

I preached the first in the series last Sunday and Pete will preach this Sunday. Then I'll do the third Sunday. My text (the one I was working on) is from Isaiah 11 and, frankly, I don't have the foggiest idea what I'm going to do with it. But as I work on it, I'm thinking about the prophecy of the "shoot" that would come from the "stump of Jesse" (that would be Jesus). My mind keeps returning to the words of Isaiah about the idyllic future promised by God. You know the words, but let me give them to you. They are appropriate words for the beginning of a new year:

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (vv. 6-9).

As you know, I'm a cynical old preacher whose saving grace is that I'm more cynical about me than I am about you or anybody else. I often read the book of Ecclesiastes because it rings true to me.

There was a time when I was very political and thought that if the right people had the power, then things would get fixed. They did and things were still not fixed. Then I turned to the church and really thought that kingdom work would build the kingdom and the world would flock to the church and her King. But the kingdom still tarries and they aren't flocking to us; they're running away. Then I came on the biblical idea of a "remnant"-a remnant of God's people who, as Christians supposedly did in the "Dark Ages," kept the faith alive until paganism, greed and sin had run its course. Then the Christians emerged with the answers that purported to fix the problem. Problem was that those who ran and hid didn't fix their own problems and the light from the answers that burned in the darkness was exceedingly dim.

I'm no longer surprised at sin...mine or yours. With Dr. House, I believe that everybody lies (well, almost everybody) and not only that, they lie about the fact they lied. The older I get and the more confessions I hear, the more I'm aware that if the message I teach on radical grace isn't true, nobody I know (that includes you and me) has a prayer.

As I'm writing this, the headlines everywhere are about the secret documents released by WikiLeaks. Over 250,000 secret government documents have been released to the press and are being published by outlets (no surprise) like the New York Times. Doesn't that just "burn your chicken"?! As an American, I believe that those leaks have put lives in danger, encouraged terrorism, and embarrassed our nation in profound ways. I think the people responsible should be prosecuted, convicted and strung up.

But with that being said, I've read some of the revelations. What I've read is, maybe for the first time in diplomatic history, an honest assessment of what some of our leaders really think. Our diplomats are scrambling to do damage control; but frankly, I think that their effort is one of trying to put feathers back into a feather pillow...one that has been slashed open, feathers flying to the four winds.

Those leaks include "inappropriate remarks" made by Prince Andrew about a foreign country and how the pompous prince shocked Americans by his rude behavior abroad...how King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia urged America to attack and destroy Iran...and how a manic/depressive Labor Government minister in England is a "hound dog" around women and on a number of occasions, sexually harassed them. The documents reveal what our leaders really think about some world leaders, to wit, that French President Sarkozy is an "emperor with no clothes," Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi is a "feckless, vain and ineffective leader," North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il is a "flabby old" crazy man and Russian President Medvedev is a "pale, hesitant" guy who plays Robin to Putin's Batman. And that's only the first reports on the leaked documents.

I know, I know, all of that is way above my pay level; but, frankly, it doesn't help my cynicism. It robs me of hope, makes the future look bleak, and causes me to think that these bozos don't know what they're doing and we're in serious trouble.

You think?

Then there is Isaiah and his dream-the lion, the wolf and the calf together, and a child leading in a world full of the knowledge of God. That promise would be a pipe dream were it not for the One who made the promise. It is God's promise. And as I pause over Isaiah's dream, something in me is hopeful and even excited by the future. Something in me, even when it's dark, sends me to the dawn of a new day and the beginning of a year with joy. Maybe today or this year God will say, "It's enough." Gabriel will blow his trumpet and God will bring down the curtain of history. There is something in me that cries out with Christians of all the ages, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

If I were not a believer, wishing people a "Happy New Year" would be mindless drivel with no possibility of anything but the darkness. Camus' pessimism about any meaning in this mess would make a drunk out of me at best and suicidal at worse. It's the reason I don't begrudge the unbeliever his or her life of denial because that's all unbelievers have. Go ahead, "amuse yourself to death" (Neil Postman) or do it with pills (Aldous Huxley). If all we have is environmentalism, politics and New Age drivel, go for it! "Men must work, and women must weep, and the sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep."

If that is all there is, go for it!

But this cynical old preacher is, believe it or not, going into a new year with a great degree of hope. It's anchored in the promise of a Creator God who loves us and promises to clean up the mess. It's enough to hold on to in the dark.

I don't remember his name. He was a Christian comedian who talked about having dinner with a friend who was a wonderful cook. He said that the most glorious words in the English language were often spoken when she was cleaning up the dishes after the main course. She would always say, "Save your fork."

The comedian said when he heard those words, knowing that dessert was on the way, "All the fat cells in my body stood up and sang the Hallelujah Chorus."

Something sort of like that happens when I read those words from Isaiah 11. I've read them thousands of times, taught them more times than I can remember, and can come close to repeating them by heart not because I memorized them but because I've been there so often and thought about them so much.

When I read those words from Isaiah, all the cynical cells in my body groan, get off the couch, and stand up and sing the Hallelujah Chorus.

You're forgiven, loved and accepted just the way you are. And not only that, you have a future promised by the only One who can make and fulfill that promise.

So let me wish you a Happy New Year!

God told me I could do that because of him.

In His Grip,