On God's Love and Our Resolutions

From my sermon for this First Sunday of Christmas

This time of year, there's a lot of talk about New Year's resolutions.

Something about the changing calendar inspires us, at least for a few weeks, to imagine doing something different than the past year—getting into shape, learning a new language, writing a book, working on financial health, or healing a relationship. Maybe we hope to be less angry or impatient, more loving, more giving, or not make as many mistakes.

Any of these, and more, are great resolutions and goals.

Our resolutions are often ways to help us feel better about ourselves, to get the approval we’ve always longed for or ease feelings of shame. We don’t feel we are measuring up to an internal or external standard, so we resolve to do better.

Or we are afraid. There is nothing like a doctor saying that you have to change your life or there will be serious consequences.

We start from a place of scarcity, shame or fear, longing for a different life if we could only get a handle on this one area, do this one thing, achieve this one goal, life would be better. And this may work. The ache and longing are strong enough to move us and a resolution leads to transformation for a time.

We also know that these resolutions often don’t work. At the end of January, there will be empty gyms and unused gym memberships across the country.

This is one way to make a resolution.

Today, I invite you to start from a different place.

Let's begin with a simple yet profound truth: You are beautiful. Yes, you.

If you are reading this near someone, turn to them and say, "You are beautiful." Furry or feathered friends count, though I have no doubt my cat, Minerva, is fully aware of her beauty.

Maybe this feels a bit uncomfortable. Maybe if you said it to someone, there were giggles and smiles. Men, this word may feel unfamiliar to you. While I am sure you are handsome, hearing that you are beautiful may hit you differently.

Now, I invite you to say about yourself, out loud: I am beautiful.

How audacious! Maybe it even feels wrong to say it. Our culture has taken the word beautiful and filled it to bursting with so many meanings and expectations. For many of us, when we look into the mirror each morning, we say things to ourselves that are far from kind, and "I am beautiful" is not one of them. Negative experiences, memories, and others' opinions are so much louder.

Our own Christian tradition has a history of both celebrating beauty and failing to celebrate awareness of our own beauty as God’s masterpieces. Knowing our beauty is often seen as vain, prideful, or dangerous.

Maybe we need to take another look and see our beauty through God's eyes.

Beauty has long been seen as a powerful, motivating influence. The Greek philosophers saw the power of true beauty to draw people to love what is good and true. They also saw that chasing after superficial beauty, beauty that was only skin deep, drew people away from the good and true. We know these stories, in life and in fiction—the Sirens, the Precious, the Dark Side.

Beauty beckons. False beauty beckons us to disbelieve and betray who we were created to be. True beauty is like a guiding star, beckoning us to our God-given selves and to Life.

God's Word in scripture for this first Sunday after Christmas has a lot to say about the beauty God gives us. In Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Isaiah writes, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God." This is just a poetic way of saying that Isaiah is happy to know God and enjoys God's presence in his life. Why is Isaiah so joyful? "God has clothed me with garments of salvation, God has covered me with a robe of righteousness."

These aren't clothes from the local department store. God is giving him the garments of a wedding. The bridegroom decks himself with garland, the bride sparkles with jewels. I went to the Nutcracker this past weekend, and it was captivating. The dancing, the costumes, the music. The costumes especially were glorious—sparkly and shimmering, so full of light and color. I was drawn into the story by the beauty. Isaiah is also drawing us into a Story—a story of Love, a wedding, a covenant relationship. The clothes that God gives are beautiful and they mean more than new wardrobe.

In the movie, Ever After, a retelling of the Cinderella story, Cinderella puts on a beautiful dress to pretend to be a lady at court so she can get a friend released from debtors' prison. Her transformation is striking, but she still says: "I'm just a servant in a pretty dress." After years of her stepmother's demeaning comments, Cinderella doesn’t know her own outer and inner beauty—a beauty that is willing to take risks for those she loves.

There is something hopeful in putting on beautiful or handsome clothes. We hope we will be transformed inside just because we are wearing them.

This is often how we approach resolutions: we make a goal, something new we want to "put on" that will make us happier. We craft an image of ourselves we want to change into, leaving behind our old outfit. This beauty is on the outside; we don’t believe it in our heart. The transformation that God gives us is not just external, but internal. When God gives us wedding garments, we experience a change on the inside.

Rather than becoming someone else, God is reminding us who we were created to be, God’s own beautiful child.

Isaiah’s next image points to this. The earth is full of new life, from the inside. The seeds planted in the earth will sprout and bring forth a harvest. What is sprouting? Salvation, righteousness, praise. Said more simply: Healing, restored relationships, thankfulness. God promises Isaiah and his people that they will be healed, restored to loving relationships, crowned with beauty, and made part of God’s royal household.

God wants to restore His family.

Our reading from Galatians 4:4-7 and the Gospel of John 1:1-18 celebrates our own adoption into God’s household. This isn’t just about putting on the clothing and crown of royalty, as if that would make us God’s child. No, God restores us at the core of our identity.

"You are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir."

This is legal language. God loves us so much that God has adopted us as God’s own sons, daughters, children. We can truly say we are sons and daughters of the King. Not only has everything been created through Jesus, the Word, including us, we are restored to our inheritance as God’s children because of His life, death, and resurrection.

You are beautiful. You are a child of God. You are a member and heir in God’s family. God loves you. That is how God sees you. Already.

No matter what resolutions you make or how successful you are in keeping them. When we know our beauty in God, when we know we are already loved and part of God’s family, it shines through us into the world, like a guiding star! Our beauty in God beckons others to come and see, and to be reminded of their own unique beauty given by God at the creation of all things.

If you make a resolution this year, resolve to know your own beauty in God.

If you have any thoughts or reflections, feel free to share them with me. Until next time, may you be surrounded by God's love and grace.