A New Year’s Examination

It is our tradition in this church, as well as many others, to share the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper on the first Sunday of the month. Paul’s admonition to the Corinthian Christians is especially appropriate as one begins a new year: “Let a man examine himself.” Being that this is the first Sunday of the new year, I want to weave a message that works the spiritual aspect of Holy Communion with our starting a new year in relation to Jesus Christ.

Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.

But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

1 Corinthians 11:27-32

A new year is upon us, and some of us wondered if we would even make it through the previous year. But thanks to God’s mercy He has trusted us into a new year, and we should look at that as a blessing because we are allowed to make course corrections in our life, corrections that we may have attempted last year, mainly those related to our relationship with Jesus Christ. Have you ghosted Him? Have you friend zoned Him? Or do you have a loving relationship with Him? So, I am going to start by putting these questions in the perspective of time. Are you spending zero timed with Jesus (ghosted)? Are you coming to Him only when you feel the need (friend zoned)? Or do you try to spend as much time as you can to grow your relationship with Him (loving relationship)? I’m going to give you some numbers for the purpose of reflecting on what time is available for us to grow or ignore a relationship with Jesus.

This year contains 366 days, 8,784 hours, 527,040 minutes, 31, 622,400 seconds. 2,928 of those hours are spent sleeping, assuming you get eight hours of sleep. So, then that is 244 days, 5,856 hours, 351,360 minutes, 21,081,600 seconds that you have being productive, because let’s face it, every moment is important in trying to have a good walk with Jesus. We spend our time as certainly as we spend our money-even to a greater degree. We might save our money, but we cannot save our time.

There is a true story from a prison chaplain who happened upon a prisoner doing something different than the others he saw on his rounds.

Most of the death row inmates at Mississippi’s Parchman Prison were in their bunks, wrapped in blankets and staring blankly at little black-and-white TV screens, killing time. But in one cell a man was sitting on his bunk reading. As I approached, he looked up and showed me his book — an instruction manual on Episcopal liturgy.

John Irving, who had been on death row for more than fifteen years, was studying for the priesthood. Irving told me he was allowed out of his cell for one hour each day. The rest of the time, he studied.

Seeing that Irving had nothing in his cell but a few books, I thought, God has blessed me so much, the least I can do is provide something for this brother. “Would you like a TV if I could arrange it?” I asked.

“Thanks,” Irving said with a smile, “but no thanks. You can waste an awful lot of time with those things.” Irving had determined not to waste the one commodity he had to give to the Lord — his time.

Admittingly this is an extreme case for showing how we should be using our time, but it should cause us to have a new year’s examination of ourselves and see if we are using our time wisely. Don’t get me wrong in thinking that a lot of our time is wasted doing nothing, because God does want us to spend quality time with friends and family, to go to work and make a living, and yes have some downtime, but the question is, are we putting any time for Jesus?

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.