Psalm 8:3,4; Matthew 25:44,45

Reordering our perspective

The first Sunday of the year should feature a question mark, so today I have a question for you: “How does your faith in God impact your relationship with other people in the world we live in on this New Year’s Day? In other words how does our faith reorder our actions toward others in this specific time?

I vaguely remember having talked about Burt Bacharach a number of years ago, but I don’t remember when that was and what I said, so I guess I can have another go at it.  Burt Bacharach and Hal David songs tried to make sense of relationships in their time in the sixties and seventies. Bacharach’s music was unique in that it operates at the edge of the voice range much of the time. The lyrics make you look at life in a new way. That’s what art is supposed to do. Tell the truth or a truth in a new way. Bacharach and David write about our relationship to each other and to the world, but also there is a spiritual dimension.  While most popular songs sing about the heart, they may begin with a chair. “A chair is still a chair, even when there’s no one sittin’ there. But a chair is not a house and a house is not a home. A room is a still a room, even when there’s nothin’ there but gloom. But a room is not a house and a house is not a home When the two of us are far apart.”  The song reorders the perspective on human experience.

In the song Alfie about a working class English Casanova, they get philosophical in examining the inner life. What’s it all about Alfie? Is it just for the moment we live? What’s it all about, when you sort it out, Alfie?  Are we meant to take more than we give, or are we meant to be kind? And if, if only fools are kind, Alfie, then I guess it is wise to be cruel. And if life belongs only to the strong, Alfie, what will you lend on an old golden rule? As sure as I believe there’s a heaven above, Alfie, I know there’s something much more. Something even non-believers can believe in.” You see the spiritual side, the golden rule? Then there is the song “what the world needs now.” It is about love, but it’s vision of the earth as a place that will always be there for us no matter how much we abuse it: “Lord we don’t need another mountain, There are mountains and hillsides Enough to climb. There are oceans and rivers enough to cross. enough to last ‘Till the end of time. Lord we don’t need another meadow. There are corn fields and wheat fields enough to grow. There are sun beams and moon beams enough to shine. Oh listen Lord if you want to know. What the world needs now is love, sweet love, It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of, What the world needs now is love, sweet love, No not just for some but for everyone.” We live in a time when we are aware of how fragile mountains and meadows are. A thinking person would not write a song that way these days.

Friends, we talked about at different times in the history of the world, New Year’s day had a different meaning. Like a hundred year ago or eighty years ago or fifty years ago. Each generation has to decide how to live life with faith in our time and act in a certain way toward others. All of this is never easy.  It begins with the problem of understanding ourselves in our time.  In each phase of life and especially at the beginning of each year when we are more introspective, we have to deal with who we have become, one year older and accept who we have become and think of ways to be better and more effective.  Around that central point are all our relationships.  As hard as understanding ourselves is, it is even harder to understand the people we love.  We may know them very well, each trait and attitude, each of their favorite stories, but we may not understand them.  We try and we come up with new angles and perspectives. Even if we have known people for decades, there is always something new to learn.  Beyond that are the people we know but do not know well.  And beyond all that but connected to us is God.  Our relationship with God changes as the years pass.  That will not come as a surprise to you.

The book of Genesis offers a great new idea for its time:”that humans are made in the image of God.” Psalm sing a slightly different song: “What are humans that You are mindful of them.” And then it goes on to say that in spite of our lowliness humans have been place just “below the angels.”  Then at Christmas, which we celebrated last week, at the beginning of the Gospels, God becomes one of us. Finally, in today’s lectionary  at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says:”whenever you help someone in need, you help me.” So God has truly become the lowliest human.  It is a total reordering of the way we look at the world, even to this today, where the powerful, the well-connected and the famous are still the ones we aspire to be.  So the narrative of the Bible challenges all that. Friends, how can we challenge ourselves on this day?

Let me end with you the translation of some lines from a Dutch poem: “One star makes the atmosphere less threatening. One candle makes the light less dark. One hand makes the road less lonely. One voice makes the day less silent. One spark can start a fire. One note starts a song. One child is the start of the future.” Thanks be to God!