The Hand of God January 1st, 2023
In the law and the prophets, you give us your will and in Jesus Christ you revealed your love. Open our minds by the power of your Spirit so that we might understand what you are saying to your church. Amen
As we start of on another new year today, I’ve got a question for you to consider; “Are you an optimist or a pessimist? When you look at that glass of water, is it half-full or half-empty? When you face the trials and problems of life, do you face them with hope or with despair?”
Now there’s a big difference between an optimist and a pessimist. Somebody put it this way, “Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut, while the pessimist sees the hole.” Yet, it’s true that both have their place in life. It was an optimist who invented the airplane, and a pessimist who invented the parachute. It takes all kinds to make a world, and we need the optimists to keep us moving forward and the pessimists to make sure we’re going in the right direction.
What prompted me to talk about this subject today came from the research I did when I was trying to come up with a topic for today’s message. I started looking online to see what New Year’s Day sermons were out there and it quickly became obvious that the vast majority focused on all the troubles in the world. And it didn’t matter what year it was, 1991, 2001, 2011, they all talked about the threats of wars, political unrest, the state of the economy, and so on. The common theme was that the world was in terrible shape and was only going to get worse, so we’d better prepare ourselves for all the trouble to come. All one had to do was change the names of the countries and the people involved. It didn’t matter what year it was; the message was the same, everything’s going to hell in a handbasket.
But you know what? Here it is the beginning of 2023, and the world is still turning, people are still going about their business and life is still going on. With mass media and the internet, things can seem especially bleak as news of every terrible thing in the world reaches us quickly and much more often than before. Certainly, we have our share of problems, the continuing worries about COVID is a big one, but then there have always been troubles, only the names and time periods have changed. One of the oldest written documents known to mankind, called the Prisse Papyrus, which dates back over 6000 years begins with these words, “Alas, times are not what they used to be!”, so as we see, mankind has always been worried about the future. So, one might as well be an optimist, rather than a pessimist, the problems will always be there, but the way we look at them will be different.
For us, as followers of Jesus Christ, we should be optimistic because we know that God is at work in all the circumstances of our lives. Be it the good and the bad, the positive and the negative, the happy and the sad, in our sickness and in our health, when things are going well and when things are falling apart, God is always there, patiently working behind the scenes for our ultimate good. It may not always seem like it, but God is always there no matter what happens in our life.
And because that is true, there are valid and solid grounds for biblical optimism. There is such a thing as Christian hope—a hope founded on the loving character of God himself. And in the end hope will not disappoint. You may live to regret many things, but one thing you will never regret is putting your trust in God alone. Like everyone, Christians are both pessimists and optimists, but we are much more optimistic because though we see what is happening in the world around us, we know that Jesus Christ conquered the grave. And because he lives, we too will live.
And since this is Epiphany Sunday, a special day on the Christian calendar, it is a time to remind us of the remarkable arrival of the Magi, or Three Wise Men, to Bethlehem in order to pay homage to the Messiah for the world, Jesus. And the significance of that event is that it is a symbol of God’s welcoming of those who were not part of his chosen people, being the Jewish faith. Two thousand years before the birth of Christ, God had made a covenant with a man named Abraham, saying to him, “‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” (Genesis 12:1-3) This is a reminder that we, as Gentiles; that is those outside the Jewish faith, were to be grafted into the family of God, and that visit of the Magi to the home of Jesus, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh was a symbol of that event.
And these Magi were true optimists. The long and arduous journey that they took from their far-away home in the East to Bethlehem and back would have taken the better part of a year, one way. These adventurous men left home and family and braved the dangers of travel, which surely included thieves and others who wished to harm them. These were apparently wealthy men and they had items that would be of interest to robbers: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And they were following a mysterious star, and they would have to enter a territory ruled by Herod, a very powerful and violent man. But they saw the signs in the sky and believed that Jesus was the Messiah for all of mankind. So being true optimists, they continued on their journey.
And like those Magi, regardless of what happens in the world we, as believers in Christ, need to be optimists. Jesus commanded us, “‘Let not your heart be troubled.’” (John 14:1) The radio personality, Paul Harvey, who was best known for his tag line, “And now, for the rest of the story”, said this, “In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.” And you know what, Paul Harvey was right. There have always been times like these. But no matter what happens today, the promises of God will still be true tomorrow. God keeps his promises and in that we can always trust.
On Christmas Day 1939, King George VI of England gave a brief radio address to his troubled nation. England was already at war with Germany. Soon all of Europe would be plunged into the horror of brutal, unrestrained warfare. Hoping to calm the troubled hearts of his countrymen, the king offered words of encouragement as the storm clouds gathered overhead. He ended his remarks by quoting these lines from a poem by Louise Haskins, “The Gate of Year”, “I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown!’ And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’”
What a lesson that is for us today. No one but God knows what the future holds. Let us do as the poet suggested and place our hands in the hand of Almighty God. And let us go out into the unknown future with confidence, knowing that because God is with us, we need not fear the future. To walk with the Lord is the greatest of all joys, and it is indeed safer than any known way. Now that’s cause for optimism!
Let us Pray:
Father, we thank you for eternal promises. We thank you for a hope that does not diminish with the passing of time. We thank you for giving us a future that even death cannot destroy. We thank you for replacing the perishing hope of this world with a hope that is eternal. On this Epiphany Sunday, let us step into the new year with the optimism of the Wise Men and the confidence that no matter what the year brings, you will be with us. In your love through your son, Jesus Christ, we have what we need—yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. Amen.