Good morning and Happy New Year 2009. I wonder what the New Year will hold for us? Hard to say isn’t it. I know this for sure – the steadfast love of the LORD will see us through what ever comes our way. What was it, 8 or 9 years ago we finished the year with the stock market up over 25% in one year. This year it dropped over 30%. So which one is better?
Either way, what matters most is that steadfast love of the LORD will never abandon us. When things are too good we tend to forget the LORD and go our own way. When times are tough, we are more likely to humble ourselves and return to him. When things are too easy, we tend to pull apart – put hard times tend to bring us together.
But what matters, isn’t our circumstances, they are in constant flux, what matters is that the steadfast love of the LORD is there in plenty and in want, in ease and hardship, in comfort and in anxiety. The steadfast love of the LORD is there. And He will be there for us in 2009.
In fact, the only New Year’s resolution that really matters, is the one God makes to us. So let’s go back and check it out. Open your Bibles to Jer 31.
The historical context. It’s some 600 years before Jesus was born. The nation of Israel is materially wealthy and spiritually bankrupt. They have rejected the LORD and become enmeshed and addicted to hideous pagan cults. Rather than seeking the LORD and trusting him to guide and protect them, they have made alliances with pagan nations believing that these alliances would keep them safe.
The LORD has allowed them to have it their way and like the prodigal son, they have lost it all. They find themselves living in exile in the desert sands of Babylon. They are economically, spiritually, emotionally bankrupt, empty. How do you make a New Year’s resolution to do better next year when you’ve hit bottom and you’re feel absolutely helpless and hopeless?
But that’s the point. The New Year’s resolution that matters for the coming year isn’t the one we make! It’s the one God has already made on our behalf. It concerns our past, our present, and our future.
Jer 31 begins with these words. “At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they will be my people.” This is the same promise made to Abraham and to Moses nearly a 1000 years before. Israel may have walked away from the LORD, but the LORD hadn’t walked away from her.
Please understand, when the Bible speaks about Israel, it is not referring to the modern secular state we know today as Israel. The apostle Paul makes it clear that the new Israel is the church - the Body of Christ. This text is about God’s commitment to us as his people.
Vs 2 “This is what the LORD says (promise we can bank on when all other banks fail) The people who survive the sword (consequences of their sin and the sin of others) will find favor in the desert (places of consequence) I will come to give rest to Israel.” The word rest means peace, absence of anxiety.
Consider, Jesus, born into our mess, born into the consequences of our sin, bringing God’s truth and love into the struggle of our lives. Listen to these words from Jesus and note how similar they sound to this promise, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Mt 11:28-30
How do we know God will be with us in the struggle of the present, especially when the present circumstances don’t look at that great – like Israel when this was written. Look at what vs 3 “The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying, “I have loved you with and everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness, I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel.” Jer 31:3
We like to make those kinds of promises to each other. But we have a tough time keeping them. We fail, we fall short in our love for each other and our love for God. But it’s not our resolutions that are the anchor of our lives. It’s God’s resolution to us. He has kept his promise in the past and he will keep it in the present and he will keep it in the future.
Look at how the LORD addresses us. He calls us Virgin Israel! You’ve got to be kidding! Picture this: There was a time when Israel was like a little pure and innocent little girl all dressed up and dancing and singing in her twirly dress, the apple of her father’s eye. But the little girl grew up, she abandoned her first love, she prostituted herself with every foreign idol that came along. She lost her innocence, she lost her song, she became spiritually, morally bankrupt. Yet the Lord calls her Virgin!!
How can this be? Can her innocence and purity be restored? Evidently God can do the impossible. “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isa 1:18
It’s important to make our New Year’s resolutions. I’m going to exercise more, eat better, try to watch the words that I say. But all my best intentions are going to fall short. I know it before I even try. What matter’s isn’t my resolutions, it God’s resolution to us.
Before I even knew I needed him, Jesus came with one purpose in mind. To give his life, shed his blood as the Lamb of God that takes away my sin, past, present, future. And my hope isn’t placed in what I’m going to do differently in the year to come, but what He has already done for me and will continue to do for me day by day in the days ahead.
I love the end of vs 6. “Come, let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.” Zion is a code word for God’s place. Let’s go worship him. Let’s get close to him. Let’s hang out with him. The only way that happens is if God changes our hearts from running away from God to running toward him. I can’t fix my sin-soaked heart, I can’t free myself from guilt and shame, I can’t soften a heart that’s grown hard and numb. God can and he made a resolution a long time ago with me in mind. That’s what counts in 2009 whatever the new year may hold.
What’s that mean for us, here at CLC in 2009? Jump over to vs 17. “So there is hope for your future”, declares the LORD.” Jer 31:17
How do you suppose the people of Jeremiah’s day responded to these words? I’m sure some of them responded like we did yesterday when the sun came out. Man, does that feel good.
There were others, who said, “Me, you’ve got to be kidding. Anybody that could love somebody like me must be sicker than I am.” And they refused to believe it. After all, believing that someone loves you like that puts you under and obligation to respond. And for some folks its easier to reject the love than it is to change how you chose to think about yourself for the sake of the future.
There were others who refused to give up their independence. Loving and being loved is a give and take proposition. It requires vulnerability, maybe more than we are willing to risk.
But no matter how these people responded it didn’t change God’s steadfast love, in the past, in the present, in the future.
So what will be the source of our hope in 2009? It won’t be in economy. It won’t be in making sure the people around us straighten up and fly right. It won’t be in our own ability to keep our New Year’s resolutions. It won’t be our ability to always make the right decisions, the right connections, the right alliances.
It will be in the steadfast love of the LORD revealed in the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for sinners like us, bankrupt, and helpless to save ourselves. It will be in God’s power to change our hearts so that they become like his own – full of mercy, forgiveness, faith, hope, peace.
The only New Year’s resolution in 2009 you can count on never being broken will not be made by you. But it’s already been made by God on your behalf. It will be here for us as individuals, as families and as a congregation! The Steadfast Love of the LORD is: The legacy of our past, the strength of our present, and the hope of our future. Bank on it!
