What was different about that New Year's Eve and Day is the significance we attach to the arrival of a new millennium. It must be significant, for I have never before in my life celebrated New Year's Day every hour on the hour throughout the world. Through television, we were treated to a variety of celebrations from New Zealand to Paris to New York to Chicago to Honolulu.
Regardless of the different customs used to mark the new millennium, and regardless of the warnings or predictions associated with the day, they all have in common humanity's search for meaning, because it is inherent in our nature to seek meaning in the passage of time.
Time is the dimension that we use to organize, plan, and remember. We mark milestones in our history. We celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. We remember significant events. We keep track of the passage of time in order to preserve the past, make sense out of the present, and find direction and hope for the future.
Two Bible passages remind us that God does not measure time the same way we do. Psalm 90 (the basis for "O God Our Help in Ages Past") says: "For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night." And 2 Peter 3:18 (our second lesson) says: "But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day."
It is important to realize that God works in "patterns," not "moments." As we read the Genesis account of creation, we often think in terms of six 24-hour days rather than seeing creation as taking place from the beginning of time through the present moment in which we live. For God the past, present, and future are one single event.
The Bible uses two different words for time. God operates in kairos, a Greek word which means the "fullness of time." We operate in chronos, the Greek word which means the passage of minutes, days, years, centuries, and even millenniums.
For example: Mary did not give birth to Jesus on December 25 at 12:06 a.m. as we are prone to say in our society when a baby is born. Rather, the Bible says it happened when "the time came for her to be delivered" (i.e., the "fullness of time" for her pregnancy).
The opening words of today's Gospel couldn't be more appropriate for the first Sunday of a new year. If our New Year celebrations are about finding meaning in the passage of time, John starts his Gospel by taking us back to the beginning of time.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being."
If John's Gospel were the only one we had, this is all that we would know about Jesus' birth: before his name was Jesus, his name was the Word, and he was with God from the very beginning of creation, bringing things into being, making things happen, shining light into the darkness.
He was God's self, God's soul, God's life force in the world. He was the breath inside all living things. He was the electric spark that charged peoples' hearts. He was the fire inside the sun. He was the space between the stars. He was the axis around which the galaxies spin.
John goes on to say that not everyone got that message. Many were blinded by this light and preferred the darkness they knew to the light which they did not know. The Word sidled up to them and hummed life into their ears, but they cleared their throats and walked away. So God decided to speak in a new way. God decided to speak body language. "And the Word became flesh and lived among us -- full of grace and truth."
This is John's Christmas story in a nutshell. Like Luke, John is telling us about an encounter with the Holy One. God's Word was translated into a human being. God's self, soul, and life force were concentrated into one mortal life on earth, and as a result, nothing would ever be the same again. Not because everyone listened, because everyone does not, but because the eternal Word of God took human form.
Heaven married earth. The beginning of time merged into the present time. God's message was no longer ethereal. It had a face, a voice, and a pair of hands. This is the miracle of the Word made flesh: God delivered his message to us in person by becoming one of us.
The impact of this event has been earthshaking. Regardless of the number of world religions in existence, our present world marks time from the time of his birth. This Word of God is the pivotal person in our history. The meaning of all life -- past, present, and future -- is focused in this man!
If John takes us back to the beginning, the writer of 2 Peter 3:13 takes us to the future: "But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home." What God started from nothing in the beginning will reach its completion and full glory in the "fullness of time," whenever that might be.
This universe belongs to God, its creator. And we belong to God. That is why we begin and end the first worship service of a new year in confident trust: "O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Still be our guard while troubles last And our eternal home."