Christ Lutheran Church: Welcome

Fresh Start - September 9, 2007

Fresh Start

Genesis 1:3, John 1:1-5, Col 1:13-17

September 9, 2007

Rev. Dave. R. Garwick

"Oh boy, here we go again - back in the rat race with all the schedules and night meetings."
"It's so good to hear the choir back again."
"Now that Confirmation's back, I s'pose I'll have to go to church ever week again."
"I can hardly wait to do the youth group things again like Valley Fair today!"
"Now we have to get to church a half hour earlier than we did in the summer."
"And church will get over a whole hour later than it did in the summer."
"But now that it's Fall again, well get to choose early or late services."
"Here we go again:  have to get the kids here for this, there for that, always three places at the same time..."
"It will be so nice to hear the hand bells and the Cherub Choir again."
"Gee, it's good to be back!  Is GARWICK still the pastor?!"

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...and so is Rally Day.  There are pleasant things about the beginning of a new year and there are also all the hassles of getting back to things.  all kinds of first things to attend to.

In the beginning of new thins, there are two types of first things.  There are those things that need to be done first - like getting back to school supplies and clothes, like parent conferences and student orientations.  At church it's things like teachers getting oriented to new curricula, like parents registering their kids for Sunday School and kids meeting new teachers in new rooms, like choir members getting oriented to new worship schedules and new music, like the youth group going on its first outing to Valley Fair this afternoon.

In the world, the very first thing that had to be done was what we heard in the Bible Focus:  "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  Theses are first things that have to be taken care of first.  Theses kinds of first things simply get things off the ground:  the world comes into being, Sunday School starts, classes begin.

But there is an even more important kind of first thing:  these are the things that you put first in your life.  In the Bible Focus, we are told that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  And how did He do it?  With His Word.  He simply SAID, "Let there be light."  And there it was!

In the Gospel Lesson, we see that the Gospel of John begins in a very similar way:  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  And then a little later it goes on to say, "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us."

So, the Word was the very first of all the first things, the very fist thing that had to be since everything else was created through that Word.  But when that same Word because the person of Jesus Christ, the ball now bounced into YOUR court as to whether that same Word made flesh will be the first thing in your life.  He WAS the first thing in the creation of the world, but now He lets YOU choose whether He will be the first thing in YOUR world.

When we start up a new year like this with all the opportunities and all of the hassles of things that have to be accomplished first, we also get a fresh start:  projects that had lost steam can now get new energy, we can turn over a new leaf at school, we can try new ways of doing things.  Sometimes in some ways you can almost start over.  A fresh start.

When you allow Christ to be the first thing in your life, He is all about fresh starts.  In the Epistle Lesson, the apostle Paul is writing a letter that a runaway slave is to carry back to the master to whom he is being returned.  Paul would not have the slave live a false freedom.  This slave had run away and had stolen some things to finance his escape.  The master would have every right to execute the slave upon his return.  But Paul asks the master to receive the slave as a brother in Christ.  And then Paul writes this:  "If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me."

What Paul was doing was REDEEMING the slave by paying the debt himself.  You know what?  History has it that the master did forgive the slave, and then gave the slave his freedom.  That slave one day became a bishop.

Because Paul paid off the slave's debts, that slave was given a fresh start.  And it was all because that slave had made Jesus the first thing in his life, which is why he had run to Paul.

In this life, in order to make the team, the first thing you have to do is this.  In order to get that promotion, you first have to do all kinds of thins.  In order to be popular you first have to do that.  In order to cover up a mistake, you first have to do something else, and then something else, and then something else.  That is what a senator in Idaho is doing.  Our lives are filled with these kinds of first things.

Bur when you make Jesus the first thing in your life, and allow His sacrifice on the Cross to pay the penalty for your failings, when you make Jesus the first thing in your life and allow HIM to determine your worth, then you can afford to come clean, and you can be the former slave with a fresh start, not just at the beginning of a new year, but every single day that is the beginning of the rest of your life.

Amen.  May it be so.