Sermon - Brookes Christian Resources - Updated

I don’t know if any of you watch the AM Show with Amanda Gillies, Duncan Garner and Mark Richardson but I must confess – since retiring for the third time I’ve become somewhat addicted.  The show can be funny, its often enlightening, and the interplay amongst the three presenters is fascinating.   

However, I’m not here this morning to advertise the AM Show, but I do want to draw attention to one item from last week series.  This was an item on New Year Resolutions – you know, those well-meaning goals we – at least some of us – set for ourselves at the beginning of the year.

I learnt some interesting things about New Year Resolutions from the AM show this last week.  

First, the bad news!   The bad news is that by the end of March, a mere quarter of the way through the year, 50% of those who made NYR’s will  have ditched them.   The problem is that when one is on holiday, relaxed, and away from the everyday stresses and strains of life, it is relatively easy to make positive, well meaning, resolutions…and to make them sincerity, and with every intention of keeping them… but when the real world raises its often stressful head it can all become too much and our good intentions go to the wall.   So the casualty rate for New Year Resolutions is high.

The good news, according to Garner and Co, is that 14% actually make it not just till June or July but to the end of the year.  A great achievement.  These people, the Resolution Achievers, and you may be one, studies tell us have at least two things in common.  First, right back at the beginning, on January 1 or thereabouts, they tell someone, or maybe a group, of their resolution.   Oh yes, it helps when someone else knows, someone close, someone keeping an eye on you.  It helps when our friends know.

Secondly, the Resolution Achievers set attainable, measurable goals – they don’t set out to achieve the impossible, they set goals that are not doomed to failure before they start.   Their goals are in the realms of possibility for them, given their ability, stamina, and maybe their faith.

One man on the programme said he wanted to spend more time with his family this year.   As a means of doing that he and the family committed themselves to climb every volcano in Auckland in the next twelve months.  That is probably close to one a week but that’s an achievable goal, and it’s a goal that could be rewarding in a whole host of ways.   Three spring to mind: Scenically, imagine the views; health-wise, all those climbs to shed that extra weight; and togetherness, with the family bonding.

The Bible – is in many ways a book about beginnings.   You will know well the very first line of Genesis:  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”.   What a profound, powerful, and challenging statement that is?

At the other end of the Bible, in the book of Revelation, after a clear acknowledgement of the mess that humankind has created.  God says: “Behold I make all things new”.  Enough of all this thirst for power, enough of all this greed;  enough of wars and rumours of wars; enough of tribalism and racism; enough of gender wars; - “Behold I make all things new”.   Some of us long for that day.

But we are not there yet.   You and I are on the faith journey that started with Abraham something like three millennia ago when he responded to the call of Yahweh, of God, and turned his back on the past.   Abraham – of course we don’t know if it was a new year resolution – but we do know that it was something new.  It was a new start for Abraham, for the human race, it was a new start for the journey of faith.

God’s call to Abraham was for him to make a break with the past. Go from your country, from your kindred, from your father’s house!  That call is never an easy decision as some here this morning will well know.  Most of us have a love for the country in which we were born – I know that feeling.   Then this is coupled with all the emotional ties to family – the siblings and the cousins we grew up with – its hard to say “goodbye to them”.   And if that is hard enough, it is even harder to part from parents, the ones who gave us birth, who have nurtured us, and whom we might never see again.

No doubt Abraham and Sarah felt like that.   If this was a new year resolution – it was really up there in terms of the emotional challenge. But Abraham decided he was up to it.   The time for holidays was over.  Abraham however would not, could not, made this commitment alone – he consulted his wife Sarah, he talked to his nephew Lot, and probably others as well.   Then with an awareness that the hand of God was on him, and that God’s challenge was “to go” Abraham went.  It was a new journey to a new place, a whole new future lay ahead.

But would he be part of the fifty percent who give up by March?   Would he, when faced by the stresses and strains of everyday life decide that this was too much?   Would he turn around and head back to the comfort of the old family home?    Left to himself he might have done just that – but he was not alone in this – he had made a commitment to God – and he had made a commitment to Sarah, and to Lot, and others…that put some steel into his resolve – he would not let them down – he would not let God down.  When we make a New Year, or simply a New resolution, about the direction of our lives it helps to tell someone.

But did Abraham have a realistic, measurable goal in mind?    Remember

that was one of the criteria for the successful completion of a New Years Resolution.    Realistic, measurable…

The writer of the letter called Hebrews in our New Testament calls that into question for us, when he says that Abraham: “set out, not knowing where he was going.”   That certainly doesn’t sound like a realistic goal.   It sounds more like being in a maze and not knowing which turn to take to get to the exit or destination.   And as for being “measurable” you’ve got to be joking.    Climbing Auckland’s volcanos seems much more realistic and measurable.

But let’s remember the writer of Hebrews is intent on highlighting Abraham’s faith.   There is nothing wrong with that but this “not knowing where he was going” is only half the story.    Back in Genesis 12 we have the other half.   God says to Abraham “Go from your country” yes…but God does not leave it there.  It is “go from your country…to the land that I will show you”.

Abraham was prepared to take God at God’s word.  Prepared to believe that while he didn’t have his GPS turned on, or his map right in front of him – God did and God would show him where he wanted him to be.

And ultimately that would be realistic, and measurable.   He would arrive at a land that would be his and the land of his descendants, and his descendants would become and be a great nation.

When Abraham and Sarah, and Lot, and their families arrived in Canaan God again spoke to Abraham saying: “To your offspring I will give this land”.   Abraham, we are told marked the occasion by building there an altar to the Lord.   He knew it was time to worship and give thanks.   It was like arriving at the end of a year, this year perhaps for you, knowing that that resolution you made back in January – that goal you set yourself, has been achieved.   You will not touch cigarettes ever again; you have kept the peace with your mother-in-law; you have downsized and moved to that smaller house; you have read the Bible from cover to cover; you have taken some steps to reach out to your lonely neighbour; you’ve taken those clothes you no longer need to the op shop; and that weight you wanted to get off, those kilos, they’ve gone – hallelujah and amen.  Its time to give thanks!

Are there any lessons to be learnt from Abraham when it comes to the making and the handling of our New Year Resolutions?

I think there are:

Number one: make one big decision as the goal for your year ahead.

Two:      accept the emotional and/or physical cost.   They are just part of the deal.

Two:      tell someone about your resolution, and definitely tell God about it.

Three:  don’t expect it all to be mapped out from the word go – faith will be involved – exercise your faith – trust God to get you through. God is the one with the GPS.

Four:     resolve not to be part of the 50% who give up.   You know you are better than that.   You with God on your side can do it.

Five:      At the end of the year – give thanks – say hallelujah – worship the Lord who travelled the road with you.  Give thanks for the friends who helped you stick to your goal...and tell them how grateful you are.