From the Pastor

The Beauty of God’s “New Year’s Resolution” to Us
(Luke 2:21)

On this New Year’s Eve morning, as I was driving over to church, I overheard a podcast about New Year’s resolutions. It was predictably full of all the conventional wisdom we usually hear at the start of the year:

• Young people (between the ages of 18-29) tend to be in the demographic most inclined to make New Year’s resolutions;
  
  
• New Year’s resolutions tend to be most often associated with saving money, losing weight, exercising more, or eating healthier;
  
  
• A 2016 study revealed that of the 40% or so of Americans who set resolutions, only 9% felt they were successful in keeping them… 23% of those setting New Year’s resolutions had given them up before the end of the first week and 43% quit by the end of January!
  
  

 And so on. You get the idea. It’s not that resolutions are bad. There are other podcasts or blogs that (of course) give advice about how to set and achieve New Year’s resolutions successfully. If you are reading this with New Year’s resolutions firmly in place for 2025, my prayer is that you find personal success in achieving the goal or goals you set for yourself. There’s no denying what can happen for the better when people establish achievable and personally gratifying objectives for themselves… no matter the time of year. It’s just that January 1 is notorious for being a trigger for low self-esteem when folks make the effort to do something differently and end up realizing how difficult “doing something differently” can be.

The good news is that January 1 is more than just a date for us to welcome in as New Year’s Day, with or without resolutions attached. January 1st is also the 8th day after Christmas. That means it is also the day the Church celebrates a feast day known as “Circumcision and Name of Jesus” Day. There might not be anything built into that day having to do with champagne at midnight, a crystal ball drop near Times Square, or human resolutions to more faithfully work out in the gym. But January 1 is the day the Church gives thanks for GOD’S successful resolution to save us! January 1 is the day we celebrate how Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple to be circumcised and named “Jesus” (God saves)… how God inaugurated Jesus’ saving work through the shedding of His own blood for us… and how that saving work would continue until the day Jesus shed His blood on Calvary’s cross, rescuing us from sin, death, and the Devil.

It’s a rescue delivered to you and me through God’s Word of promise and the water of Holy Baptism. If the question “When were you saved?” had anything to do with us and our ability to make lasting resolutions, we would all be in trouble. Because it has everything to do with the life and death of Jesus and GOD’S resolution to rescue us, it can never — ever — be in doubt.

The weeks and months ahead will give us the opportunity at RLC to celebrate God’s saving work through Holy Baptism and witness His successful resolution to save at work in the lives of His people. Won’t you join us in 2025 as we are confirmed again in God’s successful resolution to be at work in and among us… by His grace?

God’s abundant blessing in Jesus be with us all in 2025 and beyond!

Peace and joy in Christ,
Pastor Jonathan