“Beginning Again”
Today, for those of you who don’t know, is the beginning of the Chinese New Year. This year is the Year of The Rabbit.” I have spent most of my adult life and ministry in Asia or in Chinese churches. Chinese New Year is a family time, a time for celebrating and feasting. It is a time for looking forward to the future and to a new adventure.
For me, Chinese New Year has meant all these things, but I have also seen it as a chance to begin again. This is especially true when you see it as a chance to begin the new year over again after the January 1 New Year. Many of us make New Year’s resolutions – to lose weight, to start a hobby, to work on a relationship, to be less critical, not to lose our tempers, to simplify our lives, etc. And, if you are like me, about two weeks into the New Year, you’ve already broken or forgotten or given up on those resolutions. Then Chinese New Year comes around at the end of January or in February and you have another chance, a new start. Maybe you restate your original resolutions, maybe you realize that they were hopelessly ideal and forget them, but whatever you do about resolutions, you are reminded that it can be a new start. Actually, every day can offer a new start. Especially if we remember that the God Jesus reveals to us is a God who can and wants to offer us a new start. The God of creation wants to make us new creations in Christ. I think this is especially important for those of us who have a tendency to get down on ourselves, to beat ourselves up because we aren’t where or what we wish we were. And sometimes we project that dislike of ourselves or doubt onto God. And this can especially happen when it come to forgiveness and our relationship with God. “God can’t or won’t forgive me for ….” We think. And so we find ourselves mired in guilt or hopelessness. But the good news is that every day can be a new start. Of course, it is more than a cavalier or casual asking for forgiveness and expressing our love to God and then going on doing the same thing over and over again, thinking that we can come to God as a kind of slot machine who dispenses forgiveness and renewal if we drop a coin in or say the right words. 1 John 1: 9 reminds us that if we confess (truly agree with God) that we have sinned (blown it -- fallen short of God’s desire and intention for us), God is faithful and just and loving and will forgive us of all our sins. It’s a great gift. But even with that promise and the reminders of God’s grace and care that come to us each day if we have the eyes to see, some of us still don’t get it. Somehow we think that the possibility of forgiveness and starting over doesn’t include me. Maybe some others can experience a new beginning, but not me. Jane Keiller says of this attitude, “If we deny God’s forgiveness we demonstrate an extraordinary arrogance in believing that the cross is adequate for everyone else’s sin except ours.” It is arrogance and it is a shame because it keeps us from moving on. Instead of accepting this great gift and starting again, we keep score of those things that we feel God keeps score of. But God doesn’t keep score. Thomas Merton reminds us, “Quit keeping score altogether and surrender to God who sees neither the score nor the scorekeeper but only his child redeemed by Christ.” So, on this New Year’s day (and every day) let’s start over, begin again. It can be a new year, new day, new life when we see ourselves as one beloved and accepted by God in Christ. And as Brennan Manning loves to say, “faith is the courage to accept acceptance.”
