January 6, 2008 Message

Ephesians 3:1-12
“The Re-Solution”

One of the first questions asked me this new year was, “What was your New Year’s Resolution?” I’ve never been one for making New Year’s Resolutions so you can guess what my answer was. However whether we do or not, this time of year is about resolutions. It’s a time when most of us realize that the old solutions in our lives aren’t working and there is a need for self-improvement or personal transformation, or even spiritual formation. There is need for change. And some of us respond by making New Years resolutions.

For more than two thousand years people have been making resolutions on New Year’s Day when January became the first month of the Roman calendar in 153 B.C. Named for Janus - the god of doorways and gates because he could look both back on the past year’s events and forward to the future year - the first month of the year became associated with the notion of resolutions.

A survey of 300,000 people determined the 5 Most Popular New Year Resolu-tions to be: 1) Weight loss/Get in Shape, 2) Stick to a budget, 3) Debt reduction, 4) Enjoy more quality time with family and friends, and 5) Find a spouse. Also in the top ten were: “Volunteer/Serve people” and “Get more organized.”

Research, though, found that when it comes to making and keeping these resolutions:
- 40-45% of American adults make one or more resolutions each year
- after one week, 3/4 of the resolutions have been kept, which drops to 2/3 after one month, and a little less than 1/2 after six months.
- those making a New Year’s resolution are 10 times more likely to attain their goal than someone who does not make a resolution.
- Persistence is the key. Only 40% of people succeed on the first attempt. The rest try and try again with 17% succeeding only after 6+ attempts.

There are some things we can do to improve our chances of keeping the resolutions we make. It’s better to:
- Have a strong commitment to change. Spontaneous, half-hearted resolutions tend to be broken.
- Set up coping strategies to deal with the setbacks that will challenge resolutions. Confession, repentance and accepting grace are good.
- Keep track of progress in a journal or by telling friends. The more monitoring one does, the better chance for success. Accountability and community.
- If a resolution involves stopping one behavior, couple it with a replacement behavior. Put off the old, put on the new.

Most of us want some sort of change in our life – change for the better - whether we make resolutions or not. Don’t you suppose God wants that change as well? Isn’t that what the gospel is about - changed lives? Jesus embraced changed lives and resolutions. He encouraged those wanting to improve their lives. So, New Year’s resolutions can remind us God wants to be the solution, God wants to give us new life.

What change in life are you in need of today that God can give life to in this new year? Jesus didn’t come just to save us. Jesus came to establish a kingdom on earth brought about by changed lives. Jesus came as the solution.

But what happens if we turn the concept “resolution” on its head and think of it as re-solution?
In today’s text Paul addresses an Ephesian church that had some problems in need of solutions. The church is torn apart by the question of “who-is-in.”

Paul tells them a mystery: The Gentiles have become equal co-heirs with the Jews in the family of God. The ‘re-solution’ he offers for their unity now is the same ‘solution’ he preached on his first two visits - the gospel of Jesus.

Whether then or now, Paul says, the gospel of Jesus Christ is about radical inclusion and unity in the family of God. It’s a “you are accepted here just as you are,” despite your sense of unworthiness. It’s a solution of grace.

The same gospel is also a re-solution. Grace and forgiveness go with us every time we fall short of God’s hopes for our lives. We can’t do it on our own. Our motivation to fix our lives or to win God’s approval always falls short. The gospel is to be our resolution – and our re-solution. Our motivation is to be grace and forgiveness and our response love as we resolve to live the gospel that re-solves us time and time again.

The solution becomes the re-solution. Isn’t mercy new every morning? “Morning by morning new mercies I see,” as the hymn writer puts it. Isn’t receiving grace a process and an event? Sure it is!

That’s because the gospel isn’t merely a one-time solution for our broken-ness and separation from God. It’s a re-solution. We are always in need of grace — yesterday, today, and tomorrow - and Jesus always remains God’s re-solution.

If the research shows that 25 percent of resolutions are busted by January 8, then we don’t need just a solution. We need a re-solution.

In creating a New Year’s resolution, everyone is in essence saying, “I’m going to re-solution this. The old solutions certainly haven’t worked. Time to re-solution my life.” God echoes that sentiment, and the gospel provides the means to extend it to people — through forgiveness, grace, prayer, community and the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

Despite how tragic or dark a person’s life seems, and despite how many times people have failed in an area of life and regardless of everything that needs fixing, a re-solution is always right at hand in the gospel of grace.

Part of the divine mystery of grace and forgiveness found in the gospel is that no matter how many steps we have walked, or run, away from God, we need only one step to return to him.
I don’t know where you are today. Perhaps it’s to enter a relationship with Christ for the first time. Maybe there’s a need to recommit your life and priorities to God. Or, as faithful followers, to recognize one or two areas where growth is still needed. Wherever you are… pray, today and this week, that the Holy Spirit lead you in seeking God as your re-solution. And then come back next Sunday ready to reaffirm the baptismal vows made by you or in your behalf.

Let us pray…