You know, there is something about New Year's Day that is a little bit like judgment day. It is a time when we look back and ask ourselves if we feel good about what we did with the year just past. Fortunately, for most of us, New Year's Day is a judgment day with the promise of another year -- another possibility -- a chance to do better attached. When old age or serious illness makes us wonder how many chances we have left, we may take the opportunity very seriously. We all should take it seriously. None of us know how many chances we have left to make the most of life. Assuming we all have at least one more chance, let's seek some biblical guidance to see how we can make the most of it.

There is a theme in the New Testament that comes close to reflecting the same kind of situation. Many of the Jewish people who lived during the time of Jesus believed that human history would soon come to an end. They expected that there would be a judgment day on which all people would appear before the judgment seat of God and a verdict would be pronounced on each of them. The righteous would be received into eternal bliss and the unrighteous would be condemned to eternal torment.

There was a belief among some of the Jewish people that, just before that final time of judgment, God would send an agent to warn the people of the coming crisis, show them the wrongness in their lives, and urge them to make needed changes before it was too late. Some people called that agent of warning "the prophet of the last days" and some referred to him as "the Son of Man." The beliefs about that expectation are varied and ambiguous in the Jewish literature of the time.

There is something interesting about the idea of the Son of Man. Jesus seems to understand his own mission, at least partially, in terms of doing the work of the Son of Man. He even called himself by that name. None of the Bible writers seem to have understood his mission in that way or called him by that name. But in the quotations in which Jesus spoke of himself, he most often referred to himself as the Son of Man. He evidently felt that it was his mission to confront people and communities with the things that needed fixing in their lives, to offer them a better possibility, and to call them to make needed changes. The word he used was "repent."

Now here is something important to remember. In the New Testament there is a difference between judgment and condemnation. Judgment is a loving act by someone who wants to help you avoid condemnation. It always offers a better possibility, another chance. Jesus seemed to be always calling people to make new year's resolutions.

As we look to find the risen Christ, the living God, at work to save in our lives, we may find that we often encounter him in crisis situations. He comes to us when circumstances force us to reckon with the fact that things as they are are not working and we need to make some changes. We may very well encounter the Son of Man as we look back on our year just past and make resolutions about what to do differently in the coming year.

Jesus does more than just remind us that we need to make some resolutions. He is eager to give guidance about the resolutions we should make. Most of us could use some help with that. We are good at thinking up resolutions. We are going to get organized, study harder in school, or lose weight. But most of our resolutions are pretty superficial. They would not make much difference in our lives even if we actually followed through with them. Jesus has a better suggestion.

Our scripture lesson for today is the parable of the last judgment in Matthew 25:31-46. In it, Jesus describes the last judgment when the Son of Man will come in his glory and the peoples of all nations will come before him for the final judgment. Jesus says that the Son of Man will say to some:

Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing. (vv. 34-36)

Then the blessed will ask, "When did we do those things for you?" And the king shall answer, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it for me" (v. 40). Then do you remember what the judge said to those who did not pass that test? "You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels..." (v. 41).

Gulp! That can take us by surprise, especially now that many people have developed a philosophy of life that makes them feel self-righteous about their selfishness and causes them to make loud speeches announcing that if a person is hungry it is because he is too lazy to work and the only thing that is significant about an alien is that he is illegal. Some people find comfort in that way of thinking, even though it is for the most part out of touch with the realities in to-day's world. When we apply that standard of judgment to our families, churches, communities, and political parties we can sometimes find ourselves saying "Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!" again.

Really now, is that all that God cares about? Is it all a matter of chalking up a good record with the local charities? No, of course it is not. Those things Jesus mentioned are just outward signs that may appear on the surface as evidence of something much bigger working at a deeper level in life. And what is that? It is a life lived in love. That is what God wants from us and for us. That is the truly good life to which God wants to save us. How have we missed that? Salvation is not just a matter of having confirmed reservations in Hotel Heaven. That is a good gift from God but God wants even more from us and for us. God wants us to live in love, just as God lives in love. The Bible makes that clear.

Many of us have a problem with the idea of living in love. Even if we have managed not to slip into the popular notion that love is mostly about sex, we are likely to think of it as a matter of warm sentimental emotion. We can't see how that could equip us to cope with the tough realities of life in the real world.

If we study our Bibles, we find a much different and more substantial understanding of what love is. Let's look at the best known verse in the whole New Testament: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life" (John 3:16). What does the word "love" represent in that context? It is much more than a warm emotion. In that context, the word "love" represents a commitment, a commitment of life to life, it is wanting for all who are loved what is really best. It is a willingness to give yourself, in costly ways if necessary, and enable what is best to happen. Yes, that is a much more substantial notion of what love is. That can indeed equip a person to cope with the tough realities of life.

We don't like that idea very much. It runs counter to our precious selfishness. We don't like to make commitments. In fact, many in our culture are trying hard to develop a notion of love between a man and a woman that does not involve commitment -- but it doesn't work. It takes commitment to make life work.

The Bible has a lot more to say about love. If you want to do something really interesting, read the first three chapters of Genesis to see the shape of the love that God lived out in relationship to the first creatures. There you will find a love that begins with a healthy love for self. God must have loved God's self since there was no one else to love. But it was not a selfish attitude that draws in upon self, it was a dynamic self-affirmation that filled God to overflowing and caused God to reach out to others and call other realities into being so that love can be shared. When God called others into being, God gave them freedom and responsibility and respected their separateness so that they could eventually learn to love as God loves. Yes, friends, that is our intended destiny. God gave the creatures all that they needed to live a full, good life -- including responsibility. We were created for partnership with God. But when our first representatives in the biblical story chose not to live the life for which God has created us, God let them/us go. Yes, God let them go! But God kept following at a distance, trying to find ways to love them -- us -- back into the life for which we were created. And that is what is still going on.

How is that for an understanding of what love is? There is more to it than most of us thought, isn't there? That is what God really wants to find going on in our lives.

There is just one more thing. The circle of God's love reaches out to embrace everyone in the world, and God wants the circle of our love to reach out and surround everyone whom God loves. If that happens, we will find ourselves being naturally responsive to the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, and all of the other needy people who are parts of God's family. It will just happen.

In case you haven't guessed, this life that God wants from us and for us is the very best life that we can have. It will get for us the thing that we hoped all of our other resolutions could get. It will not be easy. But it will be truly good and ultimately profoundly happy. We don't have to wait until the last judgment to begin enjoying the good life that God wants for us.

What about that other part of the parable of the last judgment? What about the unrighteous having to depart into torment? Well, we don't have to wait for that either. Most of the real suffering in our lives and in our world today is ultimately the result of our failure to learn to live in love. The lives of persons, families, communities, and churches fall apart because of the lack of love. Yes, worldwide political and economic systems fall apart because the world has not learned to live in love, because we have not learned to want for others the good that we want for ourselves -- and the destruction and suffering that result are horrible. Look and see if it is not so.

Does it seem that God is asking something from us that is impossible? How can we human creatures learn to love like God loves? God doesn't expect us to do it by ourselves. God wants to save us to that good life for which we were created; all of the saving works that Jesus has taught us to expect to find God doing in our lives are intended to move us toward that goal. Jesus has shown us that God is at work to set us free from fear, guilt, self-deprecation, and all of the other bondages of our lives. God is at work to equip us with the desire and enablement to move out into the real world where we are to live the life of love. God is trying to love us into the ability to love as God loves. Are you willing to let that kind of salvation happen in your life?

Go home now and look under your Christmas tree. I suspect that there is another gift there that you have overlooked. It is a gift from God. It is the gift of life and love. Unwrap that gift and have a happy new year.