St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church -- Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for New Years Eve and Day -- December 31^st and January 1^st, 2006-2007

Dear children of our Heavenly Father. Amen

Water is pretty amazing. You can take a little drop of water and have it just drip continuously upon a rock or hard soil and eventually after a long amount of time a groove will be worn in to that rock or soil; and that rock might even crack or crumble from that little drip of water. Slowly and efficiently, the little drops of water strike their mighty blows to whatever is in the their way – even very hard rocks.

So it sometimes seems to be with each passing year. Year after year passes and we hardly can feel the blows that time has been inflicting on us and our world. Like the little drops of water, the passing years begin to gray our hair or weaken our strength and shorten our lifetime on this earth. Time seems to slowly but surely wear us down one small drip at a time. But there is one thing that never has been worn down by time and that is our Lord and Savior. He has overcome the problems that come with time. How great it is to stand upon the Rock that will never be worn down or change. This is especially true as we stand on the brink of another year as we look at how wonderful it is to be in God’s house to learn what our Lord and Savior means for us as we close one year and move forward into a New Year. Our theme will reflect this wonderful truth about our Lord and Savior.

During this past year all of our thoughts and actions have been recorded in God’s great book of history. God keeps accurate records of all the details of each one of our lives. He knows the motives in our hearts as well as the passions that drive us. He also knows and has recorded every word or action that has occurred over the last 365 days. Every person is included in God eternal history book so don’t think that your life and actions have been overlooked or forgotten. On the Last Day when all the world is assembled before God’s throne, He will open his book and judge all men from what he has recorded.

Knowing God stringency for perfection is there anyone here who would want to stand before God on their record from this past year? Is there anyone who can say that he can enter this upcoming new year without humbly falling before our Lord and Savior pleading for his forgiveness? This past week I read an article, which said that lying to others has become the up and coming new problem. One of the things that struck me was how much people lie – about 70% of those surveyed had lied in the past week, but something even worse that caught my attention was it also said that at least 40% of the people survey had even lied to their own family members. The article went on to make excuses saying that much of this lying is taking place because people don’t feel as guilty if they lie while talking on the cell phone or typing an e-mail or instant message. Does that really make it all right? The world doesn’t always see a need for God’s forgiveness, but the truth is that we fall into this trap of sin just as easy as others do.

If the truth be told, our record before God isn’t all that great. And to make matters worse, God reminds us that we are different because we are his new creations and we are to serve in with all hearts and soul and mind. God has given us his pure and perfect Word. He has given us his true body and blood together with is body and blood. He has given us his gospel message of the work of his one and only Son and what he did for us on the cross. We know that Jesus’ death freed us from the guilt of our sin and brought us into God’s kingdom of grace. We believe that we have eternal life as our gift from God himself. These are just some of the many blessings that God has personally given us over the past year and through out the past.

God wants us to seek him first and serve him. He wants us to boldly confess his name and humbly confess our sins often. He wants us to be in his house of worship often and to come to the Lord’s Supper often. He wants our lives to be a reflection of the love that he so freely gave us in his one and only Son. That is why it is so wonderful that God’s forgiveness that came in the form of Jesus never changes. Each year we can remind ourselves again of this wonderful truth of God love. It is truly with gratitude in our hearts that we realize that we don’t have to impress God with our lives, but that his forgiveness is always there for us. His forgiveness will not change with time. His love will not run out after 2006. He will not change his mind or take back his wonderful promise. His forgiveness will follow us all the days of our life. This is a hope we can have as we move forward into the year 2007.

And as we move into the new year we are reminded that our Savior has promised to watch over the physical welfare of his children. Of course we know that living in a sinful world, we have good reason to see that things may not be perfect for his coming year, just as they were most likely not so perfect last year. But God encourages us to begin this new year with the trust of knowing that God is working in our lives for our eternal good. The difference is how we approach this coming year. Some look ahead and see a giant black hole called 2007 and begin to tremble just thinking about the unknowns. While it is true that there are many unknowns when it comes to the future, we cannot let this cripple our faith and our lives.

Just as our Savior has taken care of us in the past year and even further back, he will care for us in the coming new year. Yes, the new year may be like riding on a ship – there are going to be ups and downs. The difference is how we handle these ups and downs. Do we sometimes feel that the ups and downs mean that God is not around or watching over us? Does the least bit of trouble or distress or sadness threaten our hope and peace? Or do the darkest days of our lives cause the light of God’s love and mercy to shine even brighter? Often times we can see that God’s love and concern for us is most evident when we realize that we can’t make it on our own. We need to God’s help.

How would you rate your life last year on a scale of one to ten – one being the lowest and ten being the highest? Anyone have a ten for last year? Anyone have a one for last year? Most likely we fell somewhere in the middle. There were plenty of good things and now that you mention it there were many difficult times. As we look at answering this question, wouldn’t we really all have to say that last year was a ten and every year that we are in God’s family is a ten. Can there be anything better than living in the hands of the Good Shepherd? Can there be anything better than knowing God is watching over every part of may life making sure that my eternal welfare is secure and safe? Is there anything better than knowing God’s forgiveness is mine as a free gift from my heavenly Father?

But this time of the year also reminds us another rather sobering fact. Some might say that this is a difficult time of the year to deal with our view of life and death. Some say that each passing year is a pretty tough reminder that we are getting another year older and maybe a year closer to leaving this world. Maybe you had that first gray hair appear or those terrible wrinkles around the eyes. Maybe you had your first surgery or an AARP application showed up in the mail. Maybe some of us saw a dramatic decline in our health or maybe it was just the general aches and pains that come from being another year older. All these are reminders that we are changing. We never stay the same. Also this past year many of us have had one of our loved ones leave this world to live in a better place called heaven. We can’t run around like an ostrich with its head in the sand and pretend that death doesn’t take place.

But in a way it is this time of the year that also can make it one of the best times of the year. Today we have been talking about Jesus our Savior who is the same forever and ever. His work that he did on the cross of Calvary and his working on defeating death on the third day are reminders of something that doesn’t’ change. It is the constant of Jesus’ death and resurrection that remind us that our God has promised us something far better than another good year on earth,. He has promised all his believers an eternity in the glory of Jesus’ presence. There is coming a day for all of us that will be greater than any New Years celebration when we will open our eyes from death and see the glory of Jesus face to face. Death doesn’t have a grip on any of us. Jesus took all the power out of death. What on this earth has anything close to this kind of power and glory – the answer is nothing?

How wonderful it is for us to gather in God’s house as we step out of one year and into another and see that we have the same Lord and Savior stepping with us. He led our paths through last year and he will boldly lead us through another until we reach our final goal of heaven. May our never changing God fill our hearts with strength in his forgiveness. May he bring us peace in knowing that we are secure in God’s hands and may we never lose sight of the eternal glory that is waiting each and every one us. Amen.