RESOLUTIONS

It is once again time to start over, to make resolutions, to begin a new year. Have you ever noticed that the Christian year offers repeated opportunities for a fresh start? Advent calls us to prepare the way for a fresh coming of Christ Jesus. Epiphany calls us to a fresh understanding of what that coming means. Lent calls us to reflect, to repent, and to renew our commitment‚ Easter calls us to put aside the ways of the world and to live as resurrection people, citizens of the kingdom of God.

Why is it that we are called over and over again to make fresh starts? Why are we reminded year after year of the need to make resolutions? It is because we are, above all things, very human. I don't know about you, but I never can seem to get it all together. I struggle to be the person God calls me to be. I identify with the apostle Paul who‚ wrote in his letter to the Roman church, "I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time."

It is a source of comfort to me that the father of the Christian church struggled as do I, as do we all, to be what he was called to be. It is a source of hope and joy that we serve a God of grace who knows what temptation is.Through his son God experienced temptation in the desert. That is why God is able to offer us repeated opportunities to begin again. God understands our human dilemma and cares about us deeply. God loves us all the time, even when we don't live up to our calling.

So, as we begin a new year join me as I seek to renew my covenant to be a true child of God. Confess your failure, your sin, and accept God's grace as you resolve to begin again, with a slate wiped clean by God's grace. May 2011 be a year filled with all the bounty God offers and may you begin it with a renewed commitment to serve God and all God's children.

Grace and Peace,
Rev. John