What Words Are To Describe the Real New Year?
Good Morning Friends,
Often our reality is limited to the words we can use to describe it… one really must experience it. For example, many cultures at one point in their history did not have a word for green. Blue sufficed. In fact, some questioned whether people could see the color until the word identifying it became part of the culture. The point is that we too might be lacking some sight for a lack of a word to describe what we need to see. Certainly, words can help in ordering our thoughts anew around what we experience. New words or perhaps old words rarely used might us to imagine the world in new ways. What Words Are To Describe the Real New Year?
Scripture: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1 (NIV)
Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
John 9:40 (NIV)
And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
Genesis 11:6 (NRSV)
Yet Jesus tells us to love as he did: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
John 13:34 (ESV)
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Acts 2:1-4 (NRSV)
On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. It is a day for you to blow the trumpets, and you shall offer a burnt offering, a pleasing odor to the Lord: one young bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish.
Numbers 29:1-2 (NRSV)
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NRSV)
And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Revelation 21:5 (NRSV)
Message: Let’s face it, our celebration of the New Year secularly and spiritually is rarely unified. In fact, the January 1 date is really a bit of bad news for Jews historically even though it is eight days after Christmas and I suppose might be linked to a celebration of the circumcision of Jesus. Regardless, the ancient Romans originally dedicated New Year’s Day to Janus, the god of gates, doors and beginnings for whom the first month of the year, January, is named. Janus had two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward. This is credited as being the source for the custom to make an accounting of the past year and to make resolutions for the coming one. But in this celebration of cycle of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun and the circle of life converging in it, I would suggest that it is best not to be two faced. Interestingly the Hebrews had multiple New Year Days just as the world has, but not on January 1. They kept a lunar calendar, so the feast day dates changed if one was keeping track of the number of days and not weeks. Interestingly Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year is also a day of judgment, and a time at which it is thought that God determines our future in the year to come. It all makes one wonder why if Christ the King Sunday, is the culmination of the liturgical year and Advent is the beginning of the New Year for the church, why we continue to celebrate this pagan holiday of January 1. Perhaps we need to see it and have a better word for it to unify the seeing of this day with the experience of our faith. Over sixty times in the New Testament we read the words “Jesus saw.” Most often these words refer not only to physical sight, but a perceiving with the mind or understanding. As for us we have limits of seeing constrained by the language we use but things are changing. Travel among groups who speak different languages has been difficult over history but now, we live in a world where we can board a plane at Southwest Florida Regional and land in China hours later and still hear English spoken. In a global world, there can be a benefit to speaking the same language… a noble cause for unity. Some groups have advocated that a universal language be adopted, but it would be difficult to find any group willing to give up their own language if only because so much culture and history becomes embedded within it over time. Attempts to create a universal second language have failed as well, but thanks to the Internet’s influence, language has evolved so rapidly that it is almost unimaginable that we would ever speak just one. But today’s scripture obliges us to contemplate the possibility of communicating clearly no matter what native tongue we speak and no matter when we celebrate the new year. And that brings us to today’s question as we look at one thing, the beginning of a new year and perhaps see another thing all together. And it is a bit of an analogy that can spin our heads. The King, The Potter, The Builder, The Cultivator, the Spout, The Storekeeper, The Clothier, The Shepherd, The Way are all analogies in the Bible. We start with one image and end up with something completely different. Good communication helps us to see that which we have missed before. Of course, our native tongue is especially important, but also program and professional languages influence our minds in ways that may not be so evident. It is not because of what the language allows us to think but rather because of what it habitually obliges us to think about. For example, the reality is that egocentric coordinates completely dominate our speech when we describe small-scale spaces. It feels so much easier and more natural for after all, we always know where “behind” or “in front of” us is. We don’t need a map or a compass to work it out, we just feel it, because the egocentric coordinates are based directly on our own bodies and our immediate visual fields. But then there is a remote Australian aboriginal tongue that does not conform to this reality. Their language forces them to be very aware of their surroundings. They know North, East, South and West with their eyes closed. Their language doesn’t make any use of egocentric coordinates at all. They rely on cardinal directions and do not use words like “left” or “right,” “in front of” or “behind,” to describe the position of objects. They see things from a bird’s eye view. Now consider another example. Suppose I say to you in English that “I love my neighbor.” You may well wonder whether the person was male or female, but I have the right to tell you politely that it’s none of your business. But if we were speaking French or German, I wouldn’t have the privilege to equivocate in this way, because I would be obliged by the grammar of language to give the person a sex. Likewise if I want to tell you in English about our dinner with a neighbor, I may not have to mention the neighbor’s sex, but I do have to tell you something about the timing of the event: I have to decide whether we dined, have been dining, are dining, will be dining and so on. Chinese, on the other hand, does not oblige its speakers to specify the exact time of the action in this way, because the same verb form can be used for past, present or future actions. Again, this does not mean that the Chinese are unable to understand the concept of time. But it does mean they are not obliged to think about timing whenever they describe an action. These examples give insight into how language can shift our ability to perceive reality and the challenge for us to think Hebrew. Perhaps now it is beginning to become clearer why communication is so darn difficult in this world and perhaps even give us insight into a better New Year’s resolution. So here is the thing, the right word at the right time can help us to see things that we normally would not see. But sometimes finding the right words can be difficult. Genesis 1 shows us that God is a communicating Being, that he communicates verbally, and that he does so in an effective manner. All God had to do was speak and the words effected the practical purpose that was in his mind. “And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). It is as if thought, word and deed were absolutely one…. a foundational reality and an enduring link between the word and what is perceived. In biblical Hebrew, the word davar literally means both word and thing. We perceive everyday reality by distinguishing something from its background, by giving it a name, and by calling it by a word. This process of naming things is not only how we bring things into focus, it is how we create reality. Still it is a uniquely human ability to interpret a single object in multiple ways. Habits of speech cultivated from the earliest age, can settle into habits of mind affecting our experiences, perceptions, associations, feelings, memories and orientation in the world. Maybe that is why God is so keen on us doing this together with Him, of seeing though the eyes of Jesus…of seeing through the eyes of love. Friends the only single language that all people can understand is love. Have a Happy New Year whenever you might begin the celebration but also share a word of love so that the communication might be clear.
Pray for clearer communication between sectors and tribes and dialects and people groups. Pray we use the creative power of speech to discover how to re-cast words that nudge our lives into greater harmony with God. Pray we realize that God’s Word is never void and that when it is used correctly has an extraordinary power to transform us. Pray we realize that words can inspire nations, heal broken hearts, make love, denounce injustice, or calm a crying child. Pray the words we use help us not only to define but also, by God’s grace, to join with God in helping to create an extraordinary existence. Pray we experience the miracle of sight, sound and speech in a spiritual way. Pray we communicate with the heart in the language of love. Pray we not think we can reach heaven on our own merits and abilities. Pray we realize that God loves us just the way we are, but also enough to refuse to leave us unchanged. Pray the things we see and the words we speak and write help others to have a Happy New Year!
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 