One of my favorite hymns is this one, penned by hymn writer William Gay:
Each winter as the year grows older,
we each grow older, too
The chill sets in a little colder;
the verities we knew seem shaken and untrue.
So even as the sun is turning
to journey to the north,
the living flame, in secret burning,
can kindle on the earth and bring God’s love to birth.
This day, New Year’s Eve, is where Christmas meets Advent again—not Advent in the liturgical sense, but a secular one, our pregnant waiting for the new year to come in. We make new year’s resolutions; we gather with friends and family to watch the ball drop at midnight. Our culture has ritualized this time of new beginnings, of welcoming in the new year.
But, as the hymn text above reminds us, another year means we’re another year older, a reminder of our mortality. Still, the fact that days have been getting longer for over a week now as the sun makes its annual journey back to the north is a reminder of the renewal of life, the cycle of death and resurrection that we easily gloss over in holiday festivities.
As churches await Epiphany on January 6, these twelve days of Christmas become difficult for us to wrap our liturgical heads around. What do we do in this time? How do we continue to celebrate the birth of Christ while the rest of the world has moved on to celebrate the new year? There are no easy answers. Perhaps this is where worship must come home with us as worshipers:
O Child of ecstasy and sorrows,
O Prince of peace and pain,
brighten today’s world by tomorrow’s,
renew our lives again; Lord Jesus, come and reign!
As we celebrate the new year, let us also continue to celebrate the One who makes all things new. As we welcome 2012, let us welcome anew the One born to us in the fullness of time. As we make new year’s resolutions, let us remember the One who makes alive by killing, who brings death to the old self and resurrects the new.
May your new year be filled with God’s richest blessings.
2 comments:
I've never thought of NYE being where Christmas meets Advent. Interesting thought.
I'm not sure it's an idea that necessarily works, but that's what was percolating in my head as I was processing something to write that connected to New Year's. It's like a secular Advent: we fill the glasses of champagne, we get out the funny cardboard hats and the noisemakers, and we countdown with the timer on TV in anticipation before toasting our glasses, cheering, kissing significant others, and singing a chorus of Auld Lang Syne. Seems awfully Advent-y to me, and it falls at the halfway mark of the 12 days of Christmas. I thought it was worth unpacking a bit.
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