NEW YEAR'S DAY

O Jesus, today in your name we begin another new year of our earthly pilgrimage. In your name, O Jesus! We remember today the spiritual and bodily favors you have permitted us to enjoy in a thousand ways solely by your grace and mercy. Who could number these evidences of your love which we who are so unworthy have come to know! From so many troubles you have delivered us! In so many dangers you have protected us! In so many distresses you have granted us your help! In all our needs you have constantly fed us, given us to drink, clothed, and sheltered us! You have led us Back from,so many erring detours, and with patience and longsuffering you have borne our many follies and sins. How graciously did you particularly hold your protective hand over this beloved congregation! You have put to naught the counsels of Satan which were bent on destroying your Church. With your power and authority you yourself adopted these dearly purchased souls. It is true, O Jesus, that you have chastised us on account of our sins, but you have not removed your grace from us. For this we thank you with humble hearts in these first hours of a newly-given year, and render to your holy name honor and praise, power and glory!

Yet, O Jesus, as you have been with us in the old year, so accompany us in the new with your grace, patience, and blessing. Above all things, do not permit any of us to enter it impenitently, but rather help that in the new year every one of us may begin a new life, and that henceforth every one may walk the way to heaven undaunted in a God-fearing fellowship of zeal, love, and peace. Dear Lord, whereof should we then be afraid? Out of our weakness we shall then become strong. By your grace, even in poverty, we shall be rich through your blessing. Though our future seems dark and perplexing and no man appears ready to help: we should cast all our cafe upon you and be at rest; you will guide us by your counsel and afterward receive us to glory - bring all our affairs to a glorious conclusion. You will put to shame those who would do us harm and nullify the predictions of such as foretell our misfortune. And now, Lord, we trust in you; let us nevermore be confounded. Amen. Amen.

Beloved in the Lord Jesus!

Jesus is to be the Alpha and Omega of all things, the beginning and the end. We are baptized in his holy name; we are therefore no longer our own, but we belong to Jesus; by our baptism we were promised and betrothed to him with everything that we are and have, think and desire, speak and do. Thus we desire in his name to begin, continue, and conclude all things. Not only are we, according

to the witness of God's Word, to pray in Jesus' name, and in his name to assemble ourselves together. St. Paul demands more. In this name he includes all things. He says, "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." Col 3:17. There are no exceptions. In the name of Jesus we are not only to do those things which pertain to eternal life, but also those of the life that now is, not only the works of Christianity and of godliness, but also those of our earthly calling, not only things great and important, but also things small and humble.

But what does it mean: Do everything in the name of Jesus? It means that we are to do nothing according to our own will or opinion, but only those things of which we know for certain that Christ has either commanded or allowed and which are well-pleasing to him. It means furthermore that we are to start nothing in our own strength and wisdom, but rather humbly, without reliance upon ourselves, trusting solely in the support and the blessing of the Lord. For while the tongue declares, God grant it! the heart must also be sure; we must believe confidently that God is in charge of the matter and that he gives success, as St. Peter declares, "If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth." 1 Pet 4:11. To do all in the name of the Lord Jesus means furthermore that the things we do are not to be done for our own advantage or glory, but entirely for the glory of God and the benefit of the neighbor and not at all to gain personal glory, as St. Paul says, "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Cor 10:31. To do all in Jesus' name finally implies that we begin whatever we do with sincere, fervent, and believing prayer to Christ, with continuous supplications and pleas for his grace.

Thus, whoever does things that Christ does not command or permit, or trusting in his own strength and wisdom, even in temporal matters; how much more in heavenly things! - or whoever puts on a performance for his own benefit and glory and not out of genuine love for his fellow man but rather in hatred, bitterness, or enmity, or without prayer to Christ, not standing in his grace, now being led by his Spirit, - such a person does everything in his own name. There is nothing good in his deeds; God regards them not; they are an abomination to him, and he rejects them, no matter how good they may appear, no matter how much labor and toil they may have demanded. But whatever is done by Christ's command, in humble dependence on his help, in denial of self, for the glory of Christ and for our neighbor's welfare, undertaken with earnest prayer and supplication - that will be done in Jesus name, and under his blessing will make good progress, and will be pleasing to God in Christ, - small, humble, and plain though the undertaking may be.

A tremendous task it is which the Christian has! This touchstone confounds the life and work of many. Very few do all in the name of Jesus. To many it may seem impossible to do this. Yet it is not merely possible; the fact is that those who stand in the grace of Christ, in whom Christ lives, and who in turn live in his love, his humility, his gentleness, and under the guidance of his holy Spirit, do not find this difficult at all; rather, according to the new man he cannot do otherwise. He would first have to reject the grace of Christ, faith in him, and his own good conscience, before declining to do all in the name of Jesus. If it should occur that he is overtaken by a weakness, he quickly returns to his Savior weeping and repentant, knocks at the portals of his grace, and does not rest until his conscience has been cleansed.

If we, my dear friends, are to do all in the name of Jesus, how do you suppose we ought to begin the new year? Not in our own name, but in the name of

Jesus. This is pointed out in today's Gospel.

The text. Luke 2:21.

The Gospel we have just read was undoubtedly designated for this day because it was exactly eight days after his birth when Christ was circumcised. In view of the fact that the name 'Jesus' was here for the first time publicly used for Christ, it is unquestionably right for us to be reminded that a Christian beginning of the new year in the name of Jesus is certainly necessary. Therefore, the theme that shall now occupy our thoughts will endeavor to show:

HOW TRUE CHRISTIANS BEGIN THE NEW YEAR IN JESUS' NAME

I. It is Jesus who is Their Comfort as They Recall the Sins of the Past.

II. It is Jesus to whom They Commit Themselves in Their Present Resolves.

III. It is Jesus in whom They Place Their Hopes for the Future.

I.

The celebration of the new year festival, my friends, is of comparatively recent origin. It was introduced into Christendom only about six hundred years ago. During the first centuries of the Christian era this day was no festival day, but a day of mourning, a day on which one prayed, fasted, and wept. On that day the pagans brought tremendous sacrifices to their heathen idols and arranged magnificent feasts, lewd dancing, and bloody dramas. St. Augustine wrote, "On this day we Christians fast and pray for the heathen who on the same day rejoice." From this we see what great sincerity and zeal against sin the early Christians demonstrated. Even when others who were passing them close by sinned, these Christians would address God and repentantly cry to him that he would not permitthem to become partakers of such sins and would not hold them responsible (for what they had heard). They earnestly sought to take with them into the new year no unforgiven sins, but rather to begin it under divine grace and good will.

If the early Christians demonstrated such sternness against the sins of strangers, how much more necessary is it to be stern against the sins that are one's very own!

Indeed dear hearers, if we wish to begin the new year in the name of Jesus, we must, above all, seek to begin it in a state of grace, so that, as we recall the sins of the past, we shall have Christ as our comfort. The real Christian does not try today to sidestep the remembrance of his former sins. He does not imagine that, because they are the transgressions of former days, they have receded into the past of forgetfulness; he does not fancy that time heals the wounds of conscience; he does not seek to forget them or blot them from memory; he does not think that God will forget just because he has forgotten; he does not try to soothe himself in such matters.

Not at all. His sins are the Christian's first anxious concern in the new year. The settlement of his trespasses is the first settlement he makes. This is a matter which he must clear up at once. He wants to begin in the name of Jesus, and he knows that he can do this only if he has obtained grace through him. Thus the first questions directed by the Christian to himself in the new year are such as these: Are my sins forgiven? Have my old sins disappeared with the old year? Have I taken none across the line? Am I in a state of grace? Am I in the faith? Can 1 be sure that God looks upon me with favor as his own dear child? Can I be certain that God today says also to me, "Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest;

I shall never leave thee, nor forsake thee, my child; I will be with thee also in the new year?"

To all these questions the Christian will reply with humility and with joy: Yes, I am sure that you are my Jesus, my Savior, my Redeemer, my Lord, and my Righteousness; I called upon you out of the misery of my sins, and you heard me. You have given me the token of my redemption and my reconciliation, namely, the Spirit, to whom I cry: Abba, dear Father! And so today again I reach out for your righteousness, and by faith I wash my conscience in your blood.

Now, my beloved, have you entered thus into the new year? Were your sins your first thought for the new year this morning? Were you able to answer affirmatively those questions concerning your state of grace, and have you in faith laid hold on Christ? Or did you fail even to think of them? Did you try to forget them? Did you try to forgive them yourself, without perceiving the marks of the true Christian faith in your own person? If so, then you did, not begin the new year in the name of Jesus, but in your own name. But how shall we be rid of sin, if we carry it over from one year to the next? Or if we continue to postpone the work of our conversion? We know not but that this may already be the last year of our life. Shall death overtake us without Christ?

Well, the first day of the new year is not yet gone; today let us go repentantly to Christ. If you today make the beginning by honestly seeking his grace, you will have begun the new year in his name. His grace will rise up to be your companion throughout the year, indeed, throughout your life, until it will lead you by a blessed death to the land of consummation and glory.

II.

But true Christians show, secondly, that they begin the new year in Jesus' name by their resolutions of the present.

It is true that a day such as this generally calls forth good resolutions and promises, even among the heterodox and the children of this world. But such resolutions have neither the proper foundation, nor the right sincerity, nor even the correct content. The new year has not been started in Jesus' name merely because such people made resolutions. The motive of their resolutions lies in their hope that their conscience may be quieted by their promises and that God is to be appeased by the same means. They promise, for example, to lead a new life in the new year, and tomorrow they slip back into the old rut. Their motives are nothing but the stirrings of their natural heart, and they vanish quickly. They do not really know what they want to promise God. They know neither themselves nor the demands of genuine Christianity.

It is altogether different in the case of a true Christian. The motive for his promises and vows on this day is the living impulse of divine grace to become increasingly free of sin and to grow in sanctification, the love of Christ and of his Word and will, and for everything that is good and spiritual and heavenly. The Christian is therefore completely in earnest today with his resolve to consecrate himself fully to Jesus in the new year. He is happy that there has begun for him a new year in which he can offer himself to his Savior. He is glad to be alive in this day of grace to be able to prove to God, in spite of detours into sin and spiritual wanderings and repeated unfaithfulness, that he hates sin and is eager to keep his vows of improvement, and sincerely desires to bring God more and better fruits of his grace.

But the important point with a real Christian is the fact that he does not promise God improvement without knowing in what improvement consists. Not only does he know what pertains to genuine Christianity, he also knows himself. He

knows in what respects he must change. He knows his own weaknesses. He knows his own evil inclinations, and can recognize the things that are most dangerous for his soul. In short, he knows what it means to be tempted.

Thus, when the sincere Christian begins the year today in Jesus' name, he regards whatever, good he may have done in the past as nothing. He considers himself an unfaithful steward and casts aside his entire former life. Today he declares war on all his weaknesses and favorite lusts. He determines that in the new year he will have room for no spiritual dullness or inertia, that he will reject the desires of his flesh forever, that he will eagerly deny the things that are pleasant to the flesh, before they begin to hinder the Spirit's promptings of grace. Henceforth, he will never again spare himself, he will give himself no rest, he will battle against sin unto the death. He earnestly vows to God: No idle word shall pass my lips. Pride shall be banished from, my heart. My self-will shall be suppressed. My trust in flesh shall be abandoned. No earthly pleasures shall turn my heart away from God, and no temporal anxiety shall encumber me.

Rather, in the new year he will seek to adorn the Gospel in every respect. He will resolve that his zeal will never grow cold; that his heart will always be open to the Holy Spirit; that he will guard all the emotions of his heart; that in him the flame of prayer shall constantly burn; that as one of the elect he will cry to God day and night; that the Word of God shall never leave his mouth or his heart; that humility and meekness shall be visible in him at all times; that ha will minimize his own importance, and be a companion of the lowly and the despised; that in quietness he will not exalt himself; that he will seek peace with all men so far as possible; that he will be loving and friendly and without guile toward every one. His earthly goods, too, shall not rule over him; he will give' liberally of them so that the poor may enjoy them also.

Briefly, the real Christian today makes this vow unto the Lord: I shall offer Jesus my body,my soul, my heart, my strength, my time, my thoughts, words, gestures, and works, yes, everything that I am and have; in his image I shall be glorified more and more each day. I shall put off the old man and put on the new. In the new year it shall be said of me: He is a new creature; in him Christ is all and in all. So he prays:

With my burden I begin:

Lord, remove this load of sin;

Let Thy blood, for sinners spilt,

Set. my conscience free from guilt.

Lord, I come to Thee for rest,

Take possession of my breast;

There Thy blood-bought right maintain

And without a rival reign. 459,3,4.*

It is thus that the Christian begins the new year in the name of Jesus.

Now, my hearers, do you presently have such a living impulse of grace in your hearts? Do you have the impulse to commit yourselves anew to Christ? Are you happy to be approaching a new period of your lives, an area where you can demonstrate greater faithfulness, earnestness, and zeal than heretofore? Or do you feel nothing of such an impulse or of such joy? Nothing of such love to

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* This is not the hymn which Walther used but which fits his thought very closely.

Christ and his Word and his will? Do your resolutions merely float on your lips, or do they come from your hearts? If such should be true, then begin at once to seek the grace of God. If you do this, then the most serious and determined resolutions will soon follow.

III.

The third item according to which Christians begin the year in Jesus' name is this: It is Jesus in whom they place their hope for the future.

When the unbeliever looks into the future, it does not invariably look hopeless to him, though it may appear ever so bleak. But he builds his hope on something that is false. To trust in nothing but Christ seems impossible to him. He thinks it would be risking far too much to go forward into the dark and unknown future trusting only in him. The person who is possessed of a faith that is actually death seeks to persuade himself that he trusts in Christ alone, when actually he may place his trust in the gold and silver he may still have. Or he may trust his friends to help and support him if the need arises. Or he may express it like this; Why should I worry? I am well and able to work. I have acquired many skills. A thousand ways are open to me with opportunity for earning my bread. He may say: I am smart enough to find ways to help myself.

What miserable people these folks actually are! What mortal and fragile gods in which to trust! How quickly God can destroy such idols! Most earnestly God declares, "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord." Jer 17 :5. What a sorry and sandy foundation upon which to build their hopes! With deepest seriousness God says, "The hypocrite's hope shall perish; whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web." Job 8:13,14.

But how different it is when the Christian contemplates the new year that lies before him! He does so in the name of Jesus. He does not attempt to conceal the pitiful present situation. He well knows that we have been stripped of all human help. He does not try to hide the fact that our provisions and means for survival are slender and inadequate. In fact, he expects the new year to bring new sorrows, troubles, deficiencies, poverty,. and affliction^. So far as spiritual and ecclesiastical matters are concerned, he expects intensified temptations and testings. Sorrowfully he anticipates new and unfamiliar temptations to apostasy, new offenses, varied disorders and estrangements and perplexed consciences. He knows that wherever the church of Christ has been planted, there a cross has necessarily been planted, too; there Satan takes no vacation. If the Evil Foe cannot conquer by an attack on the right flank, he attacks on the left.

Yet the Christian does not despair even in the face of such dismal prospects. Jesus is his consolation. He knows that "all things must work together for good to them that love God." Rom 8:28. God will not impose greater burdens than his elect can bear; he does not permit them to be tested beyond their capacity to resist. He may tarry, it is true, but not to destroy them; only so that their faith may be purified as gold in the furnace, and in order that he may prove himself a God who is able to help and a Lord who can save even from death. The Christian knows, too, that he who feeds the birds of the air that neither sow nor reap, and who gloriously clothes the lilies of the field that neither labor nor spin, will supply those who are his own with what they need, so that if they have food and raiment they can be therewith content. And why should the Christian be unduly concerned about the dangers that threaten the church of Christ? What can the adversaries' cunning and shrewdness and power accomplish against her? Does she not possess an immovable foundation, a divine

Founder, an almighty Protector who can deliver his own with a mighty hand and maintain the treasure of the Word of God, the unadulterated Sacraments, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the true faith and worship?

At this point Christians are often faced with questions such as these: But are we not sinners? Have we not been unfaithful to our God? In order to punish us for our sins, will not God permitthe enemies to plunge us into temporal and eternal misery? ' Here, too, Jesus is our Consolation; the Christian knows that God punishes no forgiven sins. He says with Paul, "If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is .even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." Rom 8:31-34. And if, in spite of all this, the Christian in his weakness is not fully satisfied, he addresses his feeble soul in the words of David, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." Ps 43:5.

What a confident, divinely-consecrated, and glorious beginning it is to start the new year in Jesus' name! May we all begin it like this! If we do, the year will be a year of divine grace, and if the sunshine of this year should fall on the mound that marks our grave, it would only emphasize the fact that we had been redeemed from all evil and promoted to God's heavenly and eternal kingdom, and that we had entered upon the great new year of the jubilee of the saints elect and perfected.

May this be granted to you by Jesus Christ your Savior. Above all other things, may he bless you with his grace and the forgiveness of your sins, with his Holy Spirit, with his power and his light, with steadfastness and loyalty. May he bless you with comfort in all sorrows and troubles, with peace and joy in all' pain and anxiety, with his help in every need, and with restoration from illness. May he bless you with his Word and the Sacraments I May he bless your church and your school! May he bless your children, your widows and orphans! May he grant his blessing to your fields, your means of livelihood, and your business! May he bless you in the hour of your departure, grant you grace in his presence, and bestow upon you the crown of righteousness. Amen. In Jesus' name, amen.