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New Year's Revelry: Band-Aids for the Lost
by Adam Richardson
Come every January 1 entire nations grind to a halt to indulge in the revelry of celebrating the new year. It never occurred to me until now to ask why people celebrate the new year. So what if the calendar turns over -- tomorrow may be worse than today. The answer must relate to something inherent in the human condition, because it is a universally celebrated holiday by peoples around the world regardless of age, race, language, culture, or religion. Though there may be a variety of explanations for this, I believe that it is largely the result of man's fundamental need for 1) forgiveness of the past and 2) hope for the future. Though this may seem like a logical leap, I believe it will become clear after a brief explanation from the vantage point of a Christian worldview.
This annual holiday interrupts the daily grind and affords us the chance
to "reboot" our lives, hopefully eliminating the "bugs"
that exist there. Take for instance the congratulations people commonly
exchange: "Happy new year," "May all your dreams come true,"
"All the best," "We're starting with a clean slate,"
"Cheers to your health and prosperity," etc. All of these are
expressions with which we exonerate each other of past mistakes and woes
and offer in their stead the hope of a better life. Pretensions aside, I
did a double-take in asking myself a rather penetrating question regarding
these statements which I seem to repeat ad infinitum, ad nauseum in the
days surrounding this holiday: Why (do I say these things)? Or more specifically: On what authority do I make these statements that gives
them meaningfulness? For example, in Luke 7 Jesus spoke with authority reserved
entirely for God in saying to a mourning woman, "Your sins are forgiven.
Your faith has saved you. Go in peace." These are the words that every
person longs to hear and needs to hear, though many have no awareness of
this spiritually. So instead of receiving this blessing from God, they receive
it from each other; though it must offer little satisfaction, it is better
than nothing at all. Or is it? In fact, in these congratulatory exchanges
it would generally be a faux pas to mention the last year (except
as being over) because life is hard, and who knows what difficulties a person
may have faced in the past twelve months? No one wants to be responsible
for inadvertently recalling someone's sooner forgotten memories. So we are
all heroes for appealing to the "new year" (as if it were itself
an active agent) to bring each other better fortunes and to erase our troubles
in the oblivion of yesterday. Is it meaningless jargon or meaningful blessing?
In his Concise Theology, J. I. Packer says that God's common grace reveals to all people at least four spiritual truths ipso facto living as a part of Creation. This common revelation includes the following: 1) a mighty Creator exists (Rom. 1:19-21, Acts 17:28); 2) the Creator is good, as evident from kindly providences (Acts 14:17, cf. Rom. 2:4); 3) at least some of the holy demands of His law are known to every human conscience (Rom. 2:14,15); and 4) there is an uncomfortable certainty of eventual retributive judgment for sin. In short, God has revealed Himself, His goodness, His standard, and His justice to all. To the unbeliever this revelation is unsettling and provokes a need to respond in some way -- if not to God then at least to other people. It would make sense for new year's celebrations to be one of man's oblique and woefully insufficient though necessary responses to this revelation; after all, even atheistic hope can be cathartic. So, new year's wishes and revelry which ignore God are symptomatic of a much deeper issue: man's separation from God. People seek to ease the pain of their depravity with the balm of the approval of men or whatever is humanly attainable. But, if Heaven has a problem with you, then Earth cannot offer a solution; it's like putting Band-Aids on a cancer patient. Though they may be full of wit, charm, and good intentions, the reality is that their speeches, toasts, and congratulations are full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
The problem lies in the fact that God's words are effectual, and man's answers are "blowin, in the wind" (if "all we are is dust in the wind"). God literally spoke the universe into existence ex nihilo. God called me righteous, and though I am not (existentially), I am (essentially). Though my words are important for the encouragement or discouragement of others, they carry no ultimate authority because I am not The Speaker but the spoken, and I live fully by the mercy and under the authority of The Speaker. If I speak in His Name, I can be confident in the authority and meaningfulness of my words; if not, I speak in my own name, for what it,s worth. So unless I have an audience with The Speaker in which to appeal for His help in another's behalf, my words to that person serve only as linguistic noise that may better my position in his eyes but not his position in life.
So what should be our part in and response to the hoopla of the new year? Let us, as objects of God's mercy, be extravagant in our praise and worship as we begin the year. Let us look back, thanking and honoring our Sovereign, Who for the past year continued His faithfulness to us in so many ways. Though we have all seen troubles, He has not left us unprotected or without a Comforter. Let us look forward, savoring the fresh hopes we have for the future and acknowledging our complete dependence upon and submission to God in all things. Though the calendar offers annual opportunity for reform, God renews His mercy to us every morning. So we wish each other a happy new year, not as some ethereal or esoteric wish that disappears like empty calories, but based on our faith in a God Who is sovereign, a God Who is good and merciful, a God Who is there and is not silent.
