Old resolutions for the New Year

Resolutions are traditional for the New Year: the act of making resolutions is traditional and (quite often) the resolutions themselves are traditional (every year we resolve the same things and – traditionally – every year we fail in those resolutions within days).

Today’s first reading (1 John 2:3-11) offers us some important insights for our resolution-making this year.

First of all, it offers us some very old resolutions for us to consider: the Commandments.

The Commandments may not have been high on our list of possible resolutions. We covered those in Sunday School, we might think, and we haven’t killed anybody or anything like that.

But if we really think about it, our keeping of the Commandments has significant room for improvement (especially in our coveting) and so many of the problems of our life and our world would be much less if we and others followed those Commandments much more.

The way we may be sure that we know Jesus
is to keep his commandments.
Whoever says, “I know him,”
but does not keep his commandments
is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But whoever keeps his word,
the love of God is truly perfected in him.
This is the way we may know
that we are in union with him:
whoever claims to abide in him
ought to walk just as he walked.

Second, we may have experienced some familial strains during these weeks of gathering with family and friends. In this light, the words about hating and loving our brother are particularly relevant.

Whoever says he is in the light,
yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness.
Whoever loves his brother remains in the light,
and there is nothing in him to cause a fall.
Whoever hates his brother is in darkness;
he walks in darkness
and does not know where he is going
because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

These verses also remind us of how we can be blinded and led astray by hatred.

We have seen this happen on a large scale too much in recent times: partisan, ethnic, religious, and anti-religious hatreds blinding the eyes of many, pulling people into cycles of conflict and even horrific violence.

We see this also in our own lives: we let emotions cloud our decision-making, pulling and pushing us in this way or that – usually in directions that end up hurting us and hurting others.

We should not only walk as Christ walked and walk in his light rather than the darkness of hatred, we need to let ourselves be filled with Christ, with Christ’s light, and with Christ’s love.

We fail in our resolutions because we are human, but we can succeed in our godly resolutions if we open ourselves and keep ourselves open to God’s grace, light, and love in and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This New Year, may we resolve, with the help of God’s grace, to be channels of the light, life, and love of Jesus Christ.