What Will the New Year Bring?

            The predictions for the New Year are coming in.  The papers are full of pundits who have an outline for us about what 2015 will be all about.  With a congress controlled by the Republicans and a lot of people trying to be the next president in 2016, there ought to be no shortage of fireworks and stupidity.  Not that we haven’t seen this before.  Sometimes I think that people try very hard to get in the other person’s face.  I think of Fox News, who never seems to shut up about the wrong that our President has done and how he ought to be impeached and what a terrible mess he has made of this country.  This, even in the wake of a burgeoning economy, remarkable job growth and the way that the war in Afghanistan has been wound down almost to zero. 

            Certainly, there are problems.  We still have ISIS running amok in Syria and in Iraq, and somehow we seem compelled to do something about this.  There is a constant mess in Africa, with Ebola and uprisings that won’t quit and we are discovering that we don’t really have the resources to combat all of it. 

            There are those in political leadership who fancy the United States of America as the savior of the World.  That is our responsibility to make everything right.  That we ought to be using our oversized military to bring peace and hope to all of the world.  When I look at our record since World War II, it seems to me that we have had only a series of bad wars that probably ought not to have been fought, certainly Korea was a morass, and Viet Nam was a disaster.  We didn’t do very well in Iraq, and it seems to me that Afghanistan has been the graveyard of empires forever.  Alexander didn’t do well there, neither did the British or the Russians.  And in the wake of the tragedy of 9/11, we sent troops into that country to ferret out Al Quida and bring justice to Osama bin Laden, yet we succeeded only in killing bin Laden and the rest of our supposed mission seemed to vanish with the lives of the soldiers who were killed in the process of trying to do the impossible. 

            In this Christmas season, we are again looking forward to a world where justice and peace are the norm, not the exception.  In protection of the baby Jesus, Joseph is warned in a dream to take his family to Egypt because Herod is plotting to kill the baby.  Joseph does so, and later is told in another dream that the man who was plotting the death of the child is dead, and it is safe to return to Israel.  Another dream tells them to go and to make their home in Nazareth, which has been evermore known as Jesus’ home.  It seems to me that God was working things out for Joseph, Mary and Jesus at the birth of our Messiah and was not going to let human frailty enter in to the plans.  I know that God has the best interest of humanity in his constant purview.  That we, who were created by God, have also been restored by our God, as the collect for this day says so eloquently.  I know that in our working in the world, putting our trust in our God to lead us in the way of peace and freedom is the course that we need to set.  Certainly the Israelis and the Palestinians worship the same God, as do the rest of humanity.  We call that God by different names, but we have all been created and restored in the same way.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could simply look humbly at that fact and accept each other the way that our God has accepted us.  I know that sounds a bit naïve, but working toward it seems to me to be the best way to use the resources that we have for the betterment of those around us and for God’s world.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could take the trillions of dollars that has been spent on military adventures and use that money to take care of the people in this world who suffer from poverty and loss.  It really would only take the resolve of some of the people who preach the loudest to make this happen.  God would certainly bless us as we tried.