Happy New Year!

It is New Year's Eve and everyone is preparing to celebrate, or maybe not. Actually, the changeover to a new liturgical year is probably something that few people pay much mind. Many Christians have rejected liturgy and so they do not even know it exists. Most liturgical Christians are only mildly invested in the calendar, so though they might know it is Advent, they really do not think through the ramifications of a new year.

At Morning Prayer this morning I read about Jesus enterring the city, with a blind man (Bartimaeus) crying out for mercy. Jesus asked him, "What would you like me to do?" The man said, "I want to see." That is the last image of the year past, for me, asking Jesus to heal me so I can see.

Sitting here at my desk with tri-focals on my nose I have some awareness of how poorly I see. I am also aware that there is a deeper, spiritual meaning to the story. Jesus is going to meet His doom (His destiny). He will be confronted by any number of blind people in the course of His trial and suffering. That is the way things happen here on planet earth. Blind people run the show. In the end, we are all blind, that is why we need Jesus.

Lately I have run across several articles by economists who are writing about the influences on human decision making. Their point is that we make lots of bad choices for lots of bad reasons. That fact correlates to the Gospel message. We need deliverance and are incapable of doing it for ourselves. That is why political movements fail, in the end. New leadership is blind, too.

Advent points us toward the hope of salvation. Today's readings speak about waiting. There is a deliverance coming our way, from God. We wait for it. I will preach on what that waiting looks like, how one waits faithfully. But I wanted, prior to that, to reflect upon the new beginning. We will read Mark's Gospel. We will begin by looking at The Day of Deliverance, then shift our gaze to the Birth of the Messiah. Soon, baby Jesus will be leading us through Lent to His passion and death. Then Pentecost and the long season which follows. And in a year, we will begin the cycle again.

Each new year is part of the cycle and a reminder that some day all will be new. That is the Good News. Someday it will all be new. In the meantime, we are to live as people who trust in His deliverance and wait for it with patience and love. Keep attuned to the season, it will shape you.