The Rev. Ann R. Lougee

January 1, 2006

New Year’s Resolutions

Luke 2:22-40

Today's gospel reading tells about the presentation at the temple of the baby Jesus. But don't ask when it took place. In those days, the Jewish people did not mark time with exact dates, as we do. Rather, they related specific events to the reign of a ruler. Thus, Luke tells us that John the Baptist began his preaching in "the fifteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius;" and that Jesus was born while Quirinius was governor of Syria. (Luke 3:1-3; 2:2.)

The Romans kept track of cumulative time by counting the years since the establishment of their great city on the Tiber. Their way of dating spread throughout the known world along with the dominance of the Roman Empire.

We owe our present method of dating events from the birth of Christ to a 6^th century Greek monk named Dionysius Exiguus. He determined that the date of the incarnation, according to the Roman calendar, was March 25, 754.

He made that Year One of the Christian calendar. As Western culture gained predominance in the world, our calendar prevailed, even among cultures that have kept their own calendars alongside it.

Most New Testament scholars now agree, however, that old Dionysius got it wrong. It’s now commonly accepted that Jesus was about four years old in what Dionysius considered the Year of our Lord or Anno Domini.

That's one reason why scholars have changed their usage from AD for Anno Domini to CE for Common Era and from BC for Before Christ to BCE for Before the Common Era. Another reason, of course, is out of respect for non-Christians – sort of like wishing people Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas when you don’t know their faith.

Accurate or not, though, we celebrate today the beginning of the two thousand and sixth year since the birth of Christ. Many of us mark the event with New Year's resolutions. That’s really a very Christian thing to do, for the Christian faith holds out to all people the continual possibility of redemption. In fact, a more traditional worship service format than we usually use includes confession of sin, assurance of pardon and intention of changed behavior.

In resolving on New Year's Day to be better and do better, we may not be aware that we are recapitulating a traditionally Christian rite. But that may be due to the kinds of resolutions we make, which are really goals we set, often involving social graces or physical fitness.

Goal making is a valuable skill; it involves envisioning a future outcome in the world or in your behavior, then planning, applying discipline, and working hard to achieve it. You organize your time and energy based on your goals; they help provide direction for your life. Committing to and visualizing those goals may assist you in your efforts, and that in itself can be very valuable.

But goals involve living in an imagined future and are not concerned with what is happening to you in the present moment. With goals, the future is always the focus: Are you going to reach the goal? Will you be happy when you do? What if you don’t? What's next?

So I’d like us to focus this morning, if we can, on something more akin to the Buddhist concept of setting intention, which is quite different than goal making. It is not oriented toward a future outcome. Instead, your attention is on the ever-present "now" in the constantly changing flow of life. You set your intentions based on understanding what matters most to you and make a commitment to align your worldly actions with your inner values. These intentions are our over-arching set of values which then dictate what our goals will be.

Goals help us make our place in the world and be effective persons. But being grounded in intention is what provides integrity and unity in our life. Through the skillful cultivation of intention, we learn to make wise goals and then to work hard toward achieving them without getting caught in attachment to outcome.

Only by remembering our intentions can we reconnect with ourselves during emotional storms that cause us to lose touch with ourselves. This remembering is a blessing, because it provides a sense of meaning in life that is independent of whether you achieve certain goals or not.

What would it be like if you didn't measure the success of your life just by what you get and don't get, but gave equal or greater priority to how aligned you are with your deepest values? Goals never fulfill you in an ongoing way; if you meet one it begets another goal and if you don’t meet one it just collapses. Intention is what consistently provides you with self-respect and peace of mind.

Cultivating right intention does not mean you abandon goals. You continue to use them, but they exist within a larger context of meaning. In choosing to live with right intention, you are not giving up your desire for achievement or a better life, but you are committing to living each moment with the intentions that are in line with your core values.

For example if you hold the intention of not causing harm with your actions and words, you are connecting to your own values of kindness and recognition of each person’s dignity. Standing on this ground of intention, you are then able to participate as you choose in life's contests, until you outgrow them.

Naturally, sometimes things go well for you and other times not, but your happiness comes from the strength of your internal experience of intention. You become one of those fortunate human beings who know who they are and can be independent of our culture's obsession with winning.

You will still feel sadness, loss, lust, and fear, all the feelings you now experience, but you will have a means for directly relating to all of these difficult emotions. Therefore, your happiness and peace of mind will not be dependent on how things are at any given moment.

Right intention is like muscle—you develop it over time by exercising it. When you lose it, you just start over again. There's no need to judge yourself or quit when you fail to live by your intentions.

What’s important is that you are developing the habit of right intention so that it becomes an unconscious way of living--an automatic response to all situations. As you gain insight through meditation, wise reflection, and moral living, your ability to act from your intentions blossoms. It is called a practice because it is an ever-renewing process. You don't just set your intentions and then forget about them; you live them every day.

So today, let’s spend a little time on our New Year’s resolutions, but let’s move past specific goals, which may or may not be possible to materialize, and let’s focus on setting intentions. We may find we need to delve a littler deeper to discover the motivation behind our intentions.

Let’s take advantage of this time to reflect on what our core values are personally. Let’s think quietly for a few minutes about those things and people that really matter the most to us... Now let’s think about how to release anything that no longer serves us well as we prepare to welcome healthful change into our lives.... May we live our lives more fully and more in line with what’s really important to us in 2006. Amen.

Some words from the Dalai lama on life:

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three R’s: Respect for self, respect for others and responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship

7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go some place you've never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.