Sermon for New Year’s Eve – Saturday December 31, 2022
Calvary/Marquette ● Soli Deo Gloria

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Psalm 51:1–9 (ESV)
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

In the Name of Jesus, the Christ,
Our deliverer in the past and,
Our hope for the future,
Dear Fellow Redeemed in His Blood –

On New Years’ Eve we typically look back on the year that is drawing to a close. We make a point of remembering the events that have taken place since we’ve made a full circuit around the Sun in our solar system.

Maybe you’ve noticed that nearly every media outlet has reviewed the year already, ranking the greatest and most tragic events of 2022. CNN, Time Magazine, the New Yorker, Reuters, the Washington Post and even NPR have taken it upon themselves to review the last 365 days. As you might expect, things like the death of Queen Elizabeth are included because of their historical significance. But, after reading NPR’s review, “50 Wonderful Things from 2022” I found that I am completely out of touch with pop culture, recognizing only 3 of the 50 wonderful things.

While our society mourns the passing of entertainers and sports heroes, they weren’t really part of our lives. A little closer to home, we ask how has time made changes in our little family here at Calvary...

 In the last year we said goodbye for now to two Calvary family members: Robert Vidlund and James Goodman.
 In the past year we smiled as one of our own changed her name from Heather Parent to Heather Edmundson.
 Our families have welcomed new grandchildren into this world named Marigold, Brighton, Thomas and Wyatt.
 We’ve watched our little ones get a little bigger.
 We’ve watched as our elderly have become a little feebler.

In many ways, our world returned to normalcy after the Covid-19 Pandemic finally moved on kicking and screaming. We gathered for worship here at Calvary throughout the year and resumed many of our usual celebrations.

Did anything stand out separating 2022 from any other year?
Was it - for the most part - ‘same old, same old’?

Let’s take a few minutes this evening to soberly look back on the past year through the prism of Psalm 51. Since this Psalm is a penitential psalm, one calling upon us to confess our sins and seek God’s forgiveness, we won’t be wearing ‘rose colored glasses’ when we look at 2022. We will look upon the past year as our Heavenly Father sees it, warts and all. We will find that many things were unchanged...and in some cases that’s a very good thing.

We ask that the Spirit of God would bless our worship this evening and so we pray: “Sanctify us by your Truth, O Lord, Your Word is Truth. Amen.

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Let’s back all the way up to New Year’s Eve last year. On New Year’s Eve 2021 we gathered here at 7pm for worship. We meditated upon Luke 2:21, (which relates the naming of Jesus) under the theme: The Word of Salvation is Begun. We confessed our sins and celebrated the Lord’s Supper, using the same Worship Supplement Liturgy for the Service of the Sacrament we will tonight. There was a note in the bulletin about Robert Vidlund’s Funeral which had been planned for January 7th ...but was rescheduled because of the weather.

We went home and the next morning we woke up in the year 2022. I don’t remember if I made any resolutions (probably not) and I don’t recall if any of you planned to change things for the next 365 days.

So, did you change anything in your life by means of new year’s resolution? Did you resolve to lose weight or walk or stop eating after 7pm? Did you try the newest diet? Did you resolve to refuse to be nasty to spouse or family during the calendar year?

If you did...how did it go? Did you turn over a new leaf and become a new thoughtful person...or was it:

Same Old, Same Old?

Well, it only lasted two days at the beginning of 2022. I doubt you recall, but just two days after entering the New Year, we again gathered here to confess our sins and seek God’s Forgiveness on January 2nd, celebrating the Lord’s Supper again. We also prayed for Bonnie Reedy’s Thyroid Cancer treatment and Earl and Donna Knutson’s 60th Wedding Anniversary.

A week later those who gathered for worship publicly confessed their sins, seeking God’s mercy and forgiveness in Christ. We did it more than 50 times during the year.

I guess we didn’t stop being sinners or suddenly become good people in 2022, did we? It was same old, same old. We repeatedly sinned and then did the very same thing that David does in Psalm 51. We asked God to have mercy on us and cleanse us of sin.

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

There is one thing that didn’t change in 2022...and that no resolution will change in 2023. We will continue to sin against one another and against our Creator God. God’s Law will continue to condemn us as worthy of eternal death. God’s Law leaves no way out for us and we can only throw ourselves upon God’s mercy and pray that He wipe away the record of our sins and wash our iniquity away.

God’s Law is meant to show us that we are desperate and hopeless beggars. We can only beg for God’s forgiveness and then bow our heads and await His Word.

In 2022 God answered our cries for mercy...and He will every day in the coming years until He returns. The fact of our sin might be described as ‘same old, same old’ ...but God’s mercy dare never be...it is new and undeserved every morning. God doesn’t have to be merciful, but He is because of His Son.

On this New Year’s Eve, we pray that God would in the coming year grant us daily to see clearly the gravity of our sins. Let these words be our guide:

3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

It happened many times in my childhood. My brother Seth and I would play baseball in the back yard up against the house...and it would frequently result in arguments. He’d hit a lucky homerun and then taunt me and I would be a sore loser and chase him around the yard trying to pelt him with the ball. I often succeeded too. Then my mother would tell me to, “Say that I’m sorry.” I didn’t want to, because I was angry.

It wasn’t difficult for me to see that I sinned against my brother. It wasn’t as clear to me that in hurting my brother I was also sinning against God. After all, God demands in the 5th Commandment that I not ‘hurt nor harm my neighbor (including my brother) in his body. I hadn’t only sinned against my brother...but against God.

We all hurt one another in different ways. We don’t only sin against one another; we also sin against God. Whether it’s a snide comment during choir practice or gossiping around the kitchen table, we sin against God. We may not think about it because we have history with family, but it’s still sin.

What’s more...
 “I didn’t mean it” doesn’t take away the hurt and it’s not the same as saying, “I’m sorry that I hurt you...and sinned against God.”

 “I’m only human” is just an attempt to evade blame, not far removed from saying, “It’s God’s fault.”

 “Being sorry you got caught” isn’t the same as being sorry you have sinned.

 The fact that other people do the same...and have done it to you...doesn’t cancel out your sin.

Confessing our sins means confronting the fact that we have sinned against one another...and against God. When we seek forgiveness, we seek it of one another...and of God.

We may be able to deceive ourselves...but we can’t deceive God. He knows why we do what we do. He is justified in condemning us and righteous in His judgment that we have sinned.

God help us in the New Year to be grieved that we’ve sinned against God. God help us to understand the gravity of our sin, only one is sufficient to condemn us and to bring eternal judgment against us. God is well pleased when we confess our sins, when we stand up, raise our hand and admit, “I did it. I have sinned.”

The fact that I am sinful by nature...wasn’t my decision; but the things I do...are mine.

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

We have studied God’s Word throughout the past year and if we’ve learned anything, it’s that He delights in truth. He would have us know the truth within and live according to it. He would have us proclaim the truth, and show what is true and God-pleasing in our actions.

We can put on a show and fool one another, but He is not fooled by an outward show. He is not fooled when we hold back certain sins when we make confession because we plan to continue in them. He knows when we plan to sin because we figure we can always ‘get forgiveness’ later. True Godly wisdom strives to be rid of sin and not entertain it as a guest in the heart.

True Wisdom in 2023 is calling upon the LORD to cleanse us of sin and its consequences:

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

Hyssop is a familiar plant in Holy Scripture. It was a plant used like a paintbrush in the Passover Festival to paint the blood of the Passover Lamb on the doorposts and header (lintel) of the door (Exodus 12:22). God commanded that it be used in the ritual cleansing of Lepers in Israel (Leviticus 14) and the cleansing of those who had contact with a corpse (Numbers 19:18). In preparation for his final words from the cross, the Roman soldiers soaked a sponge with wine vinegar and using this plant, lifted it to his lips for a final drink.

Hyssop was often associated with cleansing as promised by God, for leprosy and for uncleanness. When the Psalmist David prays that He be purged with hyssop and washed...his cleansing isn’t dependent upon this plant or upon some special water with soap, but upon God who alone can cleanse of sin. We join David in the coming year to pray that God would cleanse us of sin and erase the record of our sins, to blot them forever from the memory of God.

For while we will continue to sin in 2023, we also believe that God will continue to have mercy upon us and cleanse us of our sins through faith in Christ. By faith we know that He will take away the sorrow and pain that we feel over our sins and will wipe away all our sins.

For while the Law of God leads us to be pessimistic about the coming year; God’s history of mercy and love with us leads us to be optimistic even joyful to enter another year of Grace. We confess that in the past year we have been guilty of sin and deserve eternal punishment; but we rejoice in the coming year that God cleanses us of sin through the spilt blood of Jesus Christ.

In Christ, it will be a happy new year indeed.
Amen.