A New You For A New Year
"A Roman god with no Greek counterpart, Janus was deeply entrenched in the psyche of Rome, born long before the Greek pantheon was adopted by the Romans. Strange and ancient, Janus was depicted with two, sometimes four faces. One face is always looking back, reflecting, analyzing, learning from the past. The other looks forward, eyes filled with hope, to the future. More metaphor than god, Janus presided over doors and gates, and more importantly, what they represented: transitions." https://commonera.com/blogs/the-common-cause/janus-and-the-ritual-of-the-new-year
The new year is a doorway. There are many New Year's traditions that involve doors.
In Scotland and Northern England, the New Year's tradition of first footing is observed. Folk law says that the first person to enter the front door of a home on New Year's Day will bring good fortune. It is often thought that if that 'first foot' is tall, dark, and handsome it is really lucky especially if he is carrying gifts for the home like coal, bread, salt, drinks, and coins.
In the traditional Japanese New Year, the front door of the home is decorated with Kadomatsu. Kadomatsu are decorations of durable pine and bamboo symbolizing that those inside the house will have the strength to overcome any difficulties the year may bring. The decorations are a wishing prayer for blessings.
In Denmark, people collect old plates and dishes throughout the year. On New Year's Eve, the dishes are thrown against the front doors of friends' houses. On the morning of New Year's Day, each household goes outside to see how much crockery is there. The more broken plates outside your door, the more friends you will have for the New Year!
During Chinese New Year the front doors of homes are painted red the color of luck and good fortune. Red and gold decorations are hung around the doors symbolizing good luck and wealth. There are often poems written on the doors pronouncing wishes for good in the New Year.
The beginning of the calendar of the nation of Israel was the night the LORD brought them out of Egypt. Passover is the beginning of months (Exod 12:2). That night, He commanded them to put the blood of a lamb upon the doors of their houses, upon the door posts and lintels. They passed through the door into the first new year of their new life, no longer slaves of the past, through the blood and under the blood!
I like that, no matter what has brought us to where we are today on this first day of 2023... no matter what we've done or has been done to us if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us, and to cleanse us from all iniquity (1 John 1:9). Paul says that Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us! We are standing in the doorway of 2023. Let's leave 2022 under the Blood!
New years are doors to new beginnings.
And as time marches on we have the choice of whether we will remain in the past or move through the doorway offered to us into the future.
"The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are" (J. P. Morgan).
Abraham is the archetype of the life of faith. In our text we find him positioned in the doorway of his tent. He and his children were nomadic shepherds whose lifestyle teaches us that the Christian life is a journey, not a destination. It was somewhere near the beginning of the year for Abraham as he stood in the doorway of his tent. In the previous chapter (Gen 17:21) the LORD had ratified his covenant with Abram, changing his and Sarai's names to Abraham and Sarah, promising that Sarah would bear him a child at a set time within the next year. And so Abraham sits in "the entrance of his tent during the hottest part of the day" (18:1).
He was in a transitional place. He could look back on the struggles and promises of the year behind and look ahead to the fulfillment of the promise of the next year. His tent was at a place he had been before. The oaks of Mamre. It was here that he had built an altar when he began his journey of obedience to the faith (13:18). It will be this piece of property that he will purchase for a place to bury his dead in hope of the future resurrection. It is the place where Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Leah, Jacob, and Joseph's bones are buried. On the land promised to them. It is a place where Abraham always looks forward as he deals with the past and the present. And it is here that the LORD appears to him, in the doorway.
Abraham looked up and saw three men near him, but not close. The drawn-out description of looking and seeing indicates that what he saw was significant. The three men were far enough away that Abraham had to get up and run to them from the doorway of his tent. And when he arrived at their location, he fell down and worshipped. We know that it is the LORD that has appeared to him, but we are not told if he recognizes that it is the LORD at first. He is just doing what Abraham does, showing hospitality.
Hospitality is defined as "the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers."
The writer of Hebrews (13:1-2 NRSV) says, "Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it."
He recognized the stranger's needs and welcomed them.
By welcoming the three men and treating them with lavish hospitality Abraham unwittingly welcomed the LORD.
This is in contrast with Sodom whose hospitality was lacking. Rather than lovingly welcoming strangers into their city they followed their perverted lusts and wanted to exploit and hurt the messengers.
"Because of his [Abraham's] faith and hospitality a son was given to him in his old age..." (1 Clem 12:7).
"Because of his hospitality and godliness Lot was saved from Sodom when the entire region was judged by fire and brimstone..." (1 Clem 11:1).
"Because of her faith and hospitality Rahab the harlot was saved. For when the spies were sent to Jericho by Joshua the son of Nun, the king of the land realized that they had come to spy out their country, and so he sent out men to capture them, intending to put them to death as soon as they were caught. The hospitable Rahab, however, took them in and hid them in an upstairs room under some flax stalks..." (1 Clem 12:1-3).
Her entire household that she welcomed into the house when the time came were saved along with her, and she was given the sign of hanging the scarlet thread in her window "making it clear that through the blood of the Lord redemption will come to all who believe and hope in God" (1 Clem 12:7).
It is not certain that Abraham knew who he was entertaining, but it turned out to be the LORD. A new year, a new you! Who will you welcome into the fellowship this year?
"The highest form of worship is to find the least among you and treat them like Jesus" (Mother Teresa).
The hospitality Abraham showed was lavish:
Three measures of the meal are about 5 gallons of flour.
He prepared an entire calf with trimmings.
Perhaps there was a suspicion in Abraham's mind that these men were no ordinary men.
The reality is that there are no "ordinary" people, each human life has a touch of the divine. To show hospitality to anyone is to show hospitality to God Himself.
Abraham received more than he gave. We can never outgive God.
Luke 6:36-38 (NRSV) "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
Whilst many New Year traditions feature the front door, in Wales it begins with the backdoor. When the clocks strike midnight for the first time on New Year’s Eve, the backdoor of the home is opened. This is thought to usher out the past year and any of the bad luck it brought. The door is then quickly closed again and locked. The locking of the door is thought to shut out the bad luck and keep the good luck in. On the twelfth stroke, the front door is then opened, to welcome in the New Year and all its good fortune.
