Happy New ______! - Luke 22:14-20

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In the beginning—the beginning of all beginnings—was the word. And the word was with God, and the word was God. All things were created through him. Apart from him, nothing was created that exists. Life was in him, and that life was the light of humanity. That light shines in the darkness. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering like a mother eagle over the surface of those waters. In that beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He said, “Let us make humanity in our image according to our likeness.”  (from John 1, Genesis 1)

There was a moment in eternity when God said, “This is the moment.”  

God created us in his image: the image of a God who says, “3, 2, 1... Life!”  

God did not begin, had no beginning, no first heartbeat, no first thought. The unbeginning God lived in an unbeginning eternity of unbeginning love. And in all that unbeginningness, he imagined time. He imagined a beginning. He imagined cause and effect.  

He imagined us with the same capacity: to look into emptiness and see possibility. He gave us the capacity to ask the question, what if?  

What if I said out loud what everybody is thinking? What if I did what everybody knows needs to be done but nobody is doing? What if I sat down next to that person who is alone? What if I opened that door and walked through?  

What if? What then?  

God has given us the imaginative capacity to look beyond what we can see and to ask, “what if?” To say, “This is the moment.” 

When we approach a new beginning, like a new year, we bring with us that question: what if?  

When God began everything, he didn't ask that question. He knew the answers. He knew ‘what if.’  

He knew that it would begin very well with life and love and understanding and friendship and community. He knew that somebody who shall remain nameless would mess it up: somebody with ambition and arrogance. God knew that there would be division and disagreement and grief and separation.  

He knew all of that, and he made us anyway. So when we turned our backs on him, he did not turn his back on us. He kept on looking into the darkness that we had created and seeing what could be. He kept working, he kept reaching out, because he has a goal—to bring us back to where we belong, next to him.  

For that reason, God chose to step into time. He chose to experience moments and days and “3, 2, 1...” He chose a life marked out with new beginnings. The unbeginning God... began. When Jesus was conceived in a human body, God began. He began in a way that had never happened before, combining the miraculous...  

...The one conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:20

 ...with the ordinary.  

She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him up snuggly, and laid him down [to sleep] in a manger. Luke 2:7

Then, having begun, God spent 30 years counting down to the day when his work would begin: when he would say, “This is the day. 3, 2, 1... Go.” He began to teach and he began to work miracles and heal people and he began to preach “The kingdom has come.” 

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For God, as for all of us, there were new beginnings that didn't feel good, or come with optimism and laughter.  

We may experience a new beginning like a diagnosis. A uniform at the door. A first drink, a first pill, a first hit. Getting in that car. Giving your credit card information to the guy on the phone. A letter from your landlord. These are new beginnings that we do not enjoy.  

For God, as for all of us, some new beginnings feel like fear. Like betrayal. Pain. Loneliness.  

“3, 2, 1... weep.”  

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 disciples, went to the leading priests and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him 30 pieces of silver. From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus. Matthew 26:14-16 

Then they came to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus told his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” And he took with him Peter and James and John, and he began to be deeply troubled and distressed. And he said to them, my soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Mark 14:32-34

 Some new beginnings come not with delight, but with grief.  

God had spent three years preparing himself to begin the darkest days.  

This was the day. 3, 2, 1... Die.

For the people he left behind, there followed three days of darkness, of confusion, of bad news and hiding and fear. Because they did not know that God was counting down again.  

“3, 2, 1... Victory!”  

A new day began, literally, figuratively, cosmically. For planet earth, for the human race as we all began that slow journey towards the ultimate healing of creation.  

I will not drink wine again until the kingdom of God has come. Luke 22:18

There is a promise in there, of a new beginning. Jesus is saying, “I will drink wine again when the kingdom of God has come.”  

At the last supper, he was preparing them, he was promising them, ‘This is the beginning of a new beginning.’ 

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So on January 4, 2026, what does this mean for us?  

This is all very big picture stuff; eternity, and metaphysical questions about the nature of God and how he works and how he moves and who is he and who are we. But what does it mean for us?  

Here's a question for you.  

Do you think that Jesus ever made New Year's resolutions?  

I'm thinking probably not. 

The apostles, though... I can see them making a few.  

• Next year I resolve not to give Jesus any reasons to call me satan.  
• Next year I resolve to be nicer to the Samaritans, and to not call down fire on their cities.  
• I resolve to not demand the best seat in heaven and to think twice before I speak.  
• I resolve to stop helping myself from the benevolent fund.  
• I resolve to stop losing my temper with the Corinthians.  

Whether you make New Year's resolutions or not, what does this mean for us? What does this mean for you?  

I think it means that we keep looking for new beginnings. We keep looking for those opportunities to start again.  

We keep looking for those lines that God has drawn, and we keep choosing: am I going to stay on this side of the line where I'm comfortable, and I have lots of excuses for how I've been living? For what I've been doing and not been doing?  

I have lots of excuses for staying on this side of the line. For staying in the old year. But God is giving me an opportunity to do better, to accept forgiveness, to move forward. To forgive myself, to forgive other people, to accept his forgiveness.  

We have opportunities every day, and especially in moments like a New Year season, to step into new beginnings.  

Sometimes that can be daunting. We have to admit things about ourselves that we don't want to admit. We have to listen to something that somebody has said to us about ourselves and go, ‘Oh, darn, I think he's right.’  

God gives us opportunities to step into new beginnings, to rediscover our faith, to rediscover our joy, to rediscover that we are loved and forgiven. We do that as believers in Christ.  

With Christ, we move forward knowing that no matter where stepping across that line takes us—whether to the heights of heaven or the depths of hell—he has gone there already. He is there waiting to meet us in whatever he calls us to journey into.  

This is a new life. This is a new year. This is a day when God says to us, ‘This is the day. 3, 2, 1...”