A NEW BEGINNING

The new year is almost here. Many of us will wait up to welcome 2017 in whatever ways we deem proper -- or, perhaps improper. Many of us will skip the whole thing and get to bed as we always do, even if only to get a few more hours of welcome sleep-in time. No matter what we do or do not do, 2017 will begin shortly.

           

As with all new beginnings we have the opportunity to reflect both upon the past and upon the future. Many of us know by the time the end of the year arrives that there are areas of needed improvement in our lives. We’ve known it for a long time now. But the new year is a good time to put-off-to the changes necessary. Then we begin with relish -- okay, we just begin -- to start to do that which we have put off.

Thus, the new year offers us the opportunity to be born again, if you will, to start all over. We can start over with a clean slate, which we can do at the beginning of a new year or the beginning of a new day. We do anyway whether we realize it or not. But it won’t be easy. We know that.

Every year we resolve to start over, to begin anew, to be born again better and more determined. And every year we blow it, almost before we begin. The reason we do, I think, is that we often forget that being born again is not a painless experience. Birth is not a painless experience. Ask anyone who has given birth.

           

So why should any rebirth, born-again-experience be free from pain? It never is. It may be anticipated and joy-filled and exciting and uplifting. But it is always painful. If it is not, it is not real and it will not last. Change is always painful. Babies cry when they enter a new living space. They give up security to something unknown.

           

We are no different. Our present life, no matter how bad or how painful, is at least known. We may anticipate and be joy filled, excited and uplifted about a new birth, a new life, a change for the better. But once we begin to make that change, we discover just how difficult, just how painful it really is. That is not to discourage us. It is simply to remind us that if we truly want the new year to be better than the old, we have to work at it. We will have to change or else it will not happen.

           

“Oh!” we say. “I’ll just have to think about that,” we say. Well, okay. Think about it. But, then, don’t just think. Do. Those of us who are old enough to remember, remember those old “Think and Do” books we had in first grade. They tried to teach us a lesson we have often forgotten. Before doing anything, we need to think about what we are about to do. But then we need to get on with the doing.

           

The thinking may be difficult enough, even frightening enough. A few days is not enough time to think about what 2017 should be like and what we might need to do to change to make this new year better than last. Okay. So we don’t begin January 1. So we think about it some more. But a time will come when we need to start the doing, the changing. It will be painful. But it will be worth it.

CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT GOD BEING PRESENT

While it is true that God does not have to do something, there is still, I believe something that God had to do. What God had to do is what God did on the day we celebrate Christmas: become one of us. God had to become present in and among us human beings to know what it is like to be human. There was no other way for even God, all-knowing and all-wise that God is, to know what it is like to be human.

And so God became present among us, to live as we do, to love as we do, to suffer as we do, to die as we do. No, God not live, love, suffer and die in the exact same way as any other person who has lived, is living or will live. No two people live, love, suffer and die in the exact same way. But we all live, love, suffer and die. God became as one of us to understand just what being human means and is all about.

Now I know I am treading on heretical grounds here. This is not deep theology. I just don’t go there. Where I do go, where I do travel is this life where good and evil, love and hate, joy and pain are present everywhere and in every one of us. And when pain and suffering come my way, when I feel lost and alone and cannot understand why, I want to know that my God understands what I am going through.

Thus, because I know my God knows because God in Jesus experienced what I experience, suffered the way I suffer, and in many ways experienced more and suffered worse than me, I am comforted. I can come to God in prayer knowing God knows what I am going through because God in Jesus went through the same. The pain and suffering may not be lessened but knowing God understands certainly helps me in dealing with what is going on in my life.

God’s being present among us is akin to our being present with someone we love who is in pain, is akin to another being present with us when we are in pain. The pain is not taken away or even reduced but we give comfort and are comforted simply by that presence. That is the meaning of what we celebrate on Christmas: it is God’s present to us by becoming present with us.

And is that not what our Christmas presents are? They are symbols, reminders, of our presence, when we are apart, of our love and care for them and they for us. We cannot always be physically present with the ones we love, but our presents are reminders that we are always present if only in thought and prayer.

Christmas is a reminder that God is always present with us and knows and understands what it means to be human. God becoming one of us in Jesus, being present in Jesus, is the greatest present God could give to us. Our Christmas presents need to remind us of just how important being present really is. Our being present to another is the greatest present we can give to that person. We must never forget that.

DYSFUNCTIONAL

I saw a little sign in a craft store the other day that read: "Let's put the 'fun' back in dysfunctional." At first thought that sounded like a good idea. On second thought it reminded me that what makes being dysfunctional so "in" is that it is fun to be so. And make no mistake about it: being dysfunctional, coming from a dysfunctional family, is in.

           

The classic excuse these days for doing what we know is wrong is to blame it on the fact that we come from a dysfunctional family, live in a dysfunctional society, are prone to being dysfunctional because of our genes. For once we can blame our wrongs on something or someone else, we are off the hook. Then it is someone or something else's fault that we are the way we are.

           

And that is true. We are the way we are because of forces beyond our control: our genes, for instance, maybe even society. But being is not the same as doing. I may very well be the way I am, who I am, because of my parents. But they don't do what I do. I do. I am responsible for my actions: not my genes, my parents, my society.

           

Still, I am dysfunctional. We all are. Whenever we do that which we know we should not do, we are not functioning the way we know we should. We are dysfunctional. That is the psychological term. The theological term is sinful. My psychologist may tell me that the reason I lie or cheat or whatever, all of which I know is wrong, is that I am dysfunctional. My priest will tell me it is that I am a sinner.

           

Nevertheless, sinfulness and dysfunctionality have the very same reality in common: fun. We sin because it is fun, because we enjoy it, because there is pleasure involved. That's what drives us to do that which we know we should not in the first place: the pleasure, the fun. We don't have to put the fun back into dysfunctional. It was always there.

           

Now I know that there are those who will tell me that I am being too simplistic. Perhaps so. But I also think it is an oversimplification to blame wrong doing on forces beyond our control. We can't help it if we have genes that are prone to put on weight. We can help it when it comes to what we put into our mouths. We can't help it if we were born in a slum. We can help ourself get out of that environment; we can help make sure we overcome it and it does not overcome us.

           

It is so easy to spend a lot of time making excuses why we are the way we are. It's a waste of time. We are who we are and we will never be other that who we are. But we certainly can do something about why we do or do not do what we do or do not do.

           

The other reality that we will discover is that there is more fun, more enjoyment in doing what we should be doing than in doing what we should not be. There is more fun and pleasure in loving someone than in hating or hurting someone. Always. Every time. There is no need to put the fun back into being dysfunctional. What there is a need is for us to find the fun -- the good -- in living our lives as sinful but redeemed, as sinful but always-the-ability-of-getting-better Christians.

GOD’S HOUSE

In her wonderful book An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us that in truth “the whole world is the house of God.” And, of course it is. The world, the universe, known and unknown, is God’s creation. How all this came to be is a moot point because we really do not know. Scientists and theologians have debated the issue for centuries and are nowhere nearing an answer than they ever were.

Yes, it would be very interesting to answer the “how” or “when” of creation, if it could be done, but would it change anything? The fact is that we will never know no matter how smart we are. Believers believe the world is God’s house. Unbelievers believe the world, well, I don’t know what they believe because I am a believer and I really do not care how or when the world, the universe came to be. I simply accept the fact that it is all the work of God.

The question remains, however, is that if we believe “the whole world is the house of God”, do we live and act as if it really is? Even more to the point, Taylor asks a very searing question: “Do we build God a house in lieu of having God stay at ours?” In other words, do we keep God in God’s place as the deists did? They believed, still believe, that God created the universe and since then has kept a hands-off approach to creation. Do we act as if the church (building) is the house of God rather than acting as if God lives in our house, namely, inside each one of us?

If we believe we are children of God, then it follows that God lives in us, not in some even very beautiful building or somewhere out there. God really lives in our very homes because God lives in each one of us. That can be very frightening or very exciting depending on how we respond to that truth. We can be scared to death as it were, if we understand that our home should reflect the presence of God when it obviously might not.

We can be excited if we understand the privilege we have in having our home be God’s home even as that is a scary proposition.

The truth is that for the most part our homes are God’s home. Love lives there, love for one another. The further truth, however, is that we often don’t see it that way or are even aware of that reality. It is almost as if we are oblivious of what our home is and is always to be: the house of God. If we were more aware of that truth, we have to wonder what this world would be like. What would our own life be like?

It might not be too far from the truth to assert that the problems we encounter in our daily lives stem from the fact that unconsciously we keep God in what we think is God’s place, whatever that place is, like a church. Again, it is as if we are afraid to come to the realization that the one place God chooses to dwell is in our own homes. God is not afraid to dwell there so why should we be afraid to offer God a prominent place there? It will make our life better once we personally invite God in.