Sam Bush “New Year, New Me”
It’s an honor to get to speak to you this morning. Happy New Year! It’s 2017! It’s nice to say that. Isn’t that nice to hear? No matter what last year was like for you, you’re probably ready for a new start. It seems like all we’ve been talking about is how awful 2016 was and now we can *take a deep breath* move on. We can put the Zika virus behind us; same goes for election talk; same goes for celebrities icons dying. It’s 2017! We don’t have to talk about that stuff anymore! Even things that happened last week (any lingering family holiday awkwardness). Any mistakes or disappointments in your life. That was the 2016 you. That’s in the books. Fresh start! Moving forward! “New Year, New Me!” as the saying goes.
I’m preaching this morning on the Galatians passage that we just heard in which there is a lot of material. In the fullness of time, a baby was born under the law in order to redeem those under the law. And that through Jesus, God has adopted us. Before we unpack all of that, I want to tell you about a movie. You may have seen it – it’s called Moonstruck (1987). Maddy and I saw it a few weeks ago and it’s been on my mind ever since and I want to talk about it because I think it has some insight to the New Year New Me mentality.
It stars Nicolas Cage and Cher (stick with me!) Two incredible performances. Cher won an Oscar for best actress and, we can now see that Nicolas Cage was definitely in his prime. In the movie, Cher plays Loretta Castorini. She’s a book keeper from Brooklyn. And Loretta finds herself in a difficult situation. She falls for the brother of the man she has agreed to marry. This man, played by Nicolas Cage, is Ronny Cammareri. Ronny is an outcast after losing his hand in a bread slicer and when the word got out that he was maimed, his fiancee left him and so now Ronny has nothing. Early in the film, he dramatically says (and it’s Nicolas Cage so it’s really dramatic), “Is it just a matter of time before a man opens his eyes and gives up his one dream of happiness? Maybe.” And so, maybe she’s attracted to drama – Loretta ends up falling in love with this guy.
And she’s struggling – after all, this is her fiancee’s brother. So she decides to take control and says to Ronny, “Look! I’m gonna marry your brother and you’re gonna leave me alone. A person can see when they’ve messed up in their life and they can change the way they do things. I can take hold of myself and I can say yes to some things and no to other things that are gonna ruin everything. I can do that. Otherwise, what good is this stupid life that God gave us?”
Who can’t identify with that? That’s what New Years resolutions are all about – changing the way we’ve done things, taking a hold of ourselves. Every year we say this. Its empowering to think that we have the ability to get ourselves in order. It’s an honest wish, but it’s also an exhausting way to live especially after a year like 2016. It is what Paul is talking about when he says that we were living under the law – that our righteousness depends on us shaping up.
And Ronny calls her bluff. He says: “Loretta, I love you. Not like they told you love is, and I didn’t know this either, but love don’t make things nice – it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren’t here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die.
Ronny is on to something here. He understands the human condition better than any of us. Notice there’s no mention of self-betterment in his life cycle. But why? Is he just wiser? Is he better educated? No, it’s because he lost his hand in a bread slicer and his fiancee left him and he’s at the end of his rope. He knows how life goes. He knows that the whole “New Year, New Me” is not just a fool’s errand, but a law that, by the end of the year, will have not only failed to improve us, but will have exposed us for how little newness there is inside of us. Touching back on the Galatians passage, we are indeed born under this Law that demands perfection. We experience it in different ways but it is the Law of God and at the end of the day unless there is an equal sign between you and God, you will be found unrighteous.
That’s why this passage matters: “God sent his Son in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” He who created the Law voluntarily placed Himself under it and allowed it to exercise dominion over Him, to accuse and to condemn Him. He who was blameless was condemned to die on a cross so that through Him we are redeemed.
And then Paul says that we receive adoption as God’s children which is a beautiful image for how we relate to God. The adopted child does experience the newness when given the title of “son” or “daughter” from a loving family. Yet, I think this image gets oversimplified sometimes. A family with extra love and resources and a child who needs both is set up for a happy ending. But The Atlantic Monthly wrote an article about a year ago about a report saying that adopted children tend to continue to struggle over time. That, despite the care they receive from their adopted families, many students continue to struggle in school. What’s most surprising is that these struggles don’t fade over time, but actually multiply. At the beginning of kindergarten, one quarter of adopted children have a learning disability and by eighth grade, half of them do.
But doesn’t that increase the profound nature of adoption? That children are adopted without an end goal in mind. Nothing can shake their identity as a “son” or “daughter.” Martin Luther talks about this passage, saying “A son is an heir, not by virtue of high accomplishments, but by virtue of his birth. He is a mere recipient. His birth makes him an heir, not his labors.” If there is an end goal in mind it is Christ crucified – where our sin and the Law are both finished.
So when Ronny Cammareri asks you, “Is it just a matter of time before a man opens his eyes and gives up his one dream of happiness?” The answer is, sadly, often “yes.” You might think otherwise until something unexpected happens that you really just can’t control. But, in those moments, when you find that your dreams are given up and your eyes are opened, a figure may come into focus. The figure of a baby that, “when the fullness of time had come,” was born to become a man who gave up not just his dreams, but his life. So that His life is now your life.
I’ve heard it said this way: Imagine that you’re waiting at the final judgment and you get up there and God opens a very large book and it says Your Name and “A Biography, Complete with Thoughts, Words and Deeds” and God reads this and whatever is in the margins that includes what you didn’t do. There’s good stuff in there, when you made a sacrifice for your spouse, there’s a time when you helped your kid and there’s a time when you screamed at your kid. And, no matter who you are, the verdict afterwards will end with the words, Not Righteous. BUT, imagine a different scene. You wait in line, you get your turn, God pulls out a book (that isn’t quite as big) and He opens it and it goes like this: “He was born among the animals in a town called Bethlehem…” And as he finishes this book, he says “You are my beloved Son.”
Your biography is not the basis of your righteousness. Jesus’ birth, life and death has taken the place of your birth, life and death. In other words, your memoir has been ghost-written for you. And if you want to read it, I recommend Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Through Christ, you are now no longer a slave, but God’s child and an heir to his kingdom. Your fresh start – your “New You” – does not begin on January 1. It began in a manger. It was established on a cross and fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not just for this year, but now and forever. Amen and Happy New Year!
