The Flash! – November 20, 2014
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne?
Robert Burns wrote this now famous song and refrain in Scotland in the 1700’s. Old Lang Synemeans “times gone by”. It did not become associated with New Year’s Eve until Guy Lombardo sang it at a New Year’s celebration in New York City at the stroke of midnight in 1929. The rest, as they say, is history.
For people who follow Christ and the annual liturgical calendar this Sunday is New Year’s Eve. Known better as Christ Our King or the Reign of Christ Sunday, this Sunday is the last one before we enter the season of Advent, which marks the beginning of a new church year. This is the Sunday we recognize – and rejoice – intimes gone by; the ways in which we have received the grace of God in the last year. But it is so much more…
This is the Sunday on which we take heart and hope in the reality that the reign of Christ connects our past, present, and future. It is the Sunday on which our gratitude for the past and our hope for the future meet in our present.
In anticipation of our gathering and celebration on Sunday I would commend another New Year’s tradition: resolutions. On December 31 we make resolutions about working, exercising, time management, and chocolate consumption. As this church year ends, and to honor the timeless reign of our Christ, why not offer spiritual resolutions for the new year?
As we prepare to receive the ongoing and everlasting reign of Christ in the new and coming year, let us imagine and make resolutions for…
how we might more fully and faithfully be in relationship with the One who created us in the past, sustains us in the present, and redeems us in the future;
how we might more fully and faithfully interact and relate with each other and the wider world while bearing and sharing Christ’s light;
and how we might more fully and faithfully present ourselves in pursuit of the righteousness and justice that honor the life and ministry of the One whose reign never ends.
Andy