"New Beginnings"

Photo by Jordan McDonald on Unsplash

Humans love to celebrate new beginnings, especially marked by a new year. The earliest known example of a new year’s celebration goes back to about 2000 BCE in Babylon – that’s 4000 years ago. This time was marked by the spring equinox which occurs in our March – the day of equal light and equal darkness. The celebration was called “Akitu” and was marked by various religious rituals, singing, dancing, and feasting. The holiday even included a ritual whereby the king was humiliated in front of the Babylonian god Marduk.

The Roman New Year also began on the spring equinox but that changed when Julius Ceasar introduced the Julian calendar which began the new year on January 1st. The first month of the new year was called January in honor of Janus, the two-faced god of doorways, beginnings, and endings – a god that looked toward the future. This event, like nearly all new year’s celebrations, included wild parties with drinking and feasting, and rabble rousing.

Curiously, the pilgrims in America didn’t use the name of the month “January” because it was named after a pagan god. They call the January – “the first month,” and you can be sure there was no partying in pilgrim homes!

Many cultures celebrated the “Lunar New Year” which today is the Chinese New Year. This may have begun with the Shang Dynasty some 3000 years ago. This celebration follows the lunar New Year and is held in late January or early February on the second new moon after the winter solstice. The new moon is when the moon is not visible. Chinese new year’s include personal and public celebrations, festivals and parties.

The Muslim new year is based on the first month of the lunar Islamic calendar which is shorter than our calendar – which is the Gregorian calendar adopted in 1582. The Muslim calendar begins in the summer at the time Muhammed left with his followers to escape Mecca and settle in Medina. Because it is based on the lunar calendar, the date shifts through the months and seasons. Because of the religious focus of the Muslim new year, an emphasis is placed on personal reflection and prayer rather than festivals and feasting.

To summarize – human beings throughout history have picked a time of year that begins a new year and have celebrated the moment with festivals, parties and sometimes wild merry making activities. To be sure, new years’ moments have also been a time for reflection on the preceding year and thoughts and hopes about the new year just arrived. A lot of times people are glad the last year is over. Possibly, it has been a year of hardship, illness, loss of a loved one or some other calamity. The new year offers hope for a better year, a time to put behind the difficulties of the previous year, and perhaps a time to reinvent oneself.

There are, of course, people who acknowledge the new year but don’t particularly like to engage in wild partying or celebrating the new year with lots of people. I am one of those people. For starters, I really don’t like crowds of people, and New Year’s Eve parties often include meeting with lots of people, staying up until midnight and watching the ball drop in New York City.

I can remember one year when a very good friend of mine was in a terrible state approaching New Year’s. His fiancé had just left him and he was totally depressed. In an effort to get him out of his funk, I asked him what he wanted to do for New Year’s Eve. He told me he wanted to take the train into New York City and watch the ball drop. I was aghast at the prospect, but I agreed to do it. I can tell you – never, never, never again. The crowds were beyond belief and packed together like sardines with drunk people all around. Everyone was simply wild. People were following the time-honored tradition of New Year’s Eve celebration in New York City, but I wondered just how many of them actually made resolutions to improve themselves and the world around them?

I may not want to join huge crowds on New Year’s Eve celebrations, but I do really think there is value in the moment of taking time to reflect on the previous year and making plans to change oneself for the better in the New Year. It is possible for nearly everyone to do this.

While making New Year's resolutions is consistent with the history of closing the door on the past year and looking ahead to peace and prosperity, it is certainly true that many, if not most, people make New Year's resolutions that are promptly broken, abandoned, or forgotten, often before the end of January.

While New Year’s Day may be a kind of “make believe moment” and New Year’s Eve celebrations are really not marking any kind of intrinsic reality, I think there is still important symbolism in marking the “ending of one year and the beginning of another.” Equally important are New Year’s resolutions. This is because considering and adopting New Year’s resolutions, frankly, has the potential to make each of us a better person particularly if this is the focus of our New Year’s resolutions.

We have all met and perhaps known people who have no interest in changing their habits or personality to become a better person. We hear these people say, “I am what I am – take it or leave it, but I am not going to change.” There are also people who even refuse to consider their faults and failures and refuse to change these. Such people are often selfish, often arrogant people, and they are certainly not growing, introspective, or spiritual people.

In some forms of Buddhism, a spiritual warrior is a person who bravely battles with the universal enemy which is self-ignorance. It is believed self-ignorance is the ultimate source of suffering according to philosophies imbedded in many Buddhist religious and metaphysical writings. There are self-described spiritual warriors who fight their own spiritual self-ignorance. The spiritual warrior is a kind of archetype character who is on a journey of self-discovery to benefit others.

Different from other paths, which focus on individual salvation, the spiritual warrior's only complete and right practice is to become a deeply compassionate person who helps other beings with his or her wisdom. This is the Bodhisattva ideal (the so-called "Buddha-in-waiting"). The spiritual warrior is one who truly understands who they are, and how they should improve on their faults and habits in order to be able to help other people.

In Islam, we hear the term, “Jihad,” and because of the times we live in, we think, almost immediately, of the proclamation of a “Holy War.” There are actually two types of Jihad – the Greater Jihad and the Lessor Jihad. The Lessor Jihad can be a physical holy war. We hear this term in the news all the time. It is often used by Muslims who don’t even understand their own religion. The meaning of Jihad is to “struggle” – the Greater Jihad is a spiritual battle with oneself.

In the Qur’an, the word “Jihad” is used 41 times, but modern Islamic scholars claim it is never used in the context of war or fighting. "The goal of true jihad, according to these scholars, is to attain a harmony within oneself between Islam (submission), iman (faith), and ihsan (righteous living). It has also been described as the “struggle to establish a just moral order within oneself and in society at large.” In other words, “Jihad” is a personal struggle to become a better person, a better Muslim, and a better servant of God. (There are, of course, examples too numerous to mention where the meaning of Jihad has been twisted to support some kind of heinous act against people – but this is not the true meaning of the word Jihad.)

A common denominator in all religions, including secular religions such as Confucianism, is a call to become a better person, a call to frequently examine who we are, to acknowledge our faults and shortcomings, and to take action to become a better person. This is really the basis of New Year’s resolutions, and this is why they are valuable and important to make.

If we are to become a better person, we need to make New Year’s resolutions not just on one day of the year but frequently throughout the year. There really is no one way to change for the better. In sports, athletes constantly evaluate their performance. To become better at their sport, they must accept criticism. They must repeatedly review their performance. They must practice, practice, and practice to become better in their sport. To become a better person, we must do the same – over and over and over again.

An athlete who refuses to practice or to accept criticism cannot become a better athlete nor can a person become better at anything without doing the same. This is the meaning of the “way of the warrior.” And – it is so important to do this. Even in our relationships with those we love, we must always seek to become better people. If we are unwilling to acknowledge our faults and seek to change them, we put at risk our relationships - including those in our professional life and those in our personal relationships with the people we love.

Those who are generous and constantly try to become better people and who continually strive to help others stand out against those who do not. Charity and compassion, generosity and loving others are all linked together.

I am often intrigued with historical stories of the rich and famous; how they lived their life and what type of people they were. As many of you know, a good portion of the North Shore of Long Island was once referred to as the “Gold Coast” because it was where the country homes of the rich and famous of New York were located. In fact, at its height in the 1930’s, there were some 700 gold coast mansions, many of which were located on hundreds, if not more than a thousand acres. Some had staffs numbering in the hundreds. Then there are the incredible mansions of the Gilded Age in Newport – owned by many of the same people as on Long Island.

Like today, some of these wealthy people of the Gold Coast were highly generous and gave of their time and money to help others. A very good example was John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil, who lived to the age of ninety-seven. He died in 1937. To be sure, Rockefeller was a controversial person and an aggressive, if not unsavory businessperson. By his early fifties, Rockefeller had amassed a fortune of more than $600 billion dollars in today’s dollars. He is still considered one of the wealthiest people in history but, later in life, Rockefeller also became one of the most generous people in history.

He was responsible for funding hundreds of institutions around the United States and the world including colleges and universities, medical institutions, scientific organizations. The Rockefeller Foundation, today, continues to fund countless charities and nonprofits around the world. Each of us has been touched by the generosity of John D. Rockefeller whether we realize it or not. Was Rockefeller atoning for his previous greed and unscrupulous behavior? Perhaps, but he did change. He did consciously make a decision to become a better person.

The contrast with Rockefeller are numerous wealthy people who gave virtually nothing to help others. There are frankly too many examples to mention of these types of people. (Barbard Hutton Woolworth.) There are too many billionaires today who do nothing for others.

It may be easy to dismiss all of this by saying – “Well if I were as rich as these people, I’d be very generous.” But – generosity is a relative thing. It may sound good that a multi-billionaire has funded some worthy project or institution with millions of dollars, but if this represents only a tiny fraction of their worth then this is not particularly generous. Similarly, if we give only a tiny fraction of our worth to others, then this isn’t particularly noteworthy.

And - money is not the only way to be generous. Time given to helping others can be equally important. As we consider New Year’s resolutions, we should think about our performance in giving of ourselves to others both with our time and with our money if this is possible. We may be people of modest means and people with little time on our hands, but all of us can give something, if only our kindness to others.

One way of thinking about this is to consider what you would want people to say about you after you die? What would you like written about you? If you would like people to remember you as a kind and generous person, then ask yourself the question: are you living your life in such a way that people will remember this? Or – if you don’t like the answer, you give yourself, should you take actions to become a more compassionate person? New Year’s resolutions are a way to do this.

I have mentioned to you before, my work as a chaplain in the cardiac care and oncology units of a Washington DC hospital, I came across a lot of dying people who expressed a lot of regrets about their life. Some told me that they wished they had done more to help others, to make a difference in the world. Some told me they wished they had taken more time to be with a particular person - a son, a daughter, their family, a husband or a wife. Some told me they wished they had apologized for some transgression or taken the time to mend a broken relationship. Some told me they wished they had done more with their life.

But lying on a deathbed is not the time to think about these things because there is little that can be done. It is not impossible, but there are more timely ways to do it. New Year’s resolutions are a way to begin this, to take stock of who we are and who we want to become.

It is also especially important to be realistic about New Year’s resolutions. People often break their resolutions because they try to reach for goals that are just too difficult to quickly achieve. If, for example, a person is short tempered, and they make a resolution not to lose their temper ever again, this is not a particularly realistic resolution. They are likely to abandon such an effort fairly quickly.

However – it such a person resolves to try to control their tendency to quickly lose their temper, they are likely to have better success. They can continue to make efforts to remain calm when they might otherwise lose their temper and forgive themselves when they cannot. Improving one’s personality can only be done slowly over time with continual resolve. It can be done, but it takes perseverance.

I remember someone I knew many years ago who, at the time, was a bitter and angry young man; a person prone to fits of anger and demands when he did not get his way. The story behind this was that this person – who was an only child – was raised by terrible parents who abused him physically and mentally throughout his childhood and young adult life. He was never good enough in their eyes.

As luck would have it, he met a woman he fell deeply in love with and, in time, they married. Much to the horror and fear of his wife, his anger and bitterness would leak out at times when he was unhappy. He knew this was wrong, but he didn’t really try to change. Then he and his wife had kids. Once this happened, this man resolved to raise his children with love and compassion. He never wanted to treat them the way he had been treated.

I am not sure if this was a New Year’s resolution, but it was a resolution and over time, and with some help in therapy, he became a very different person. This didn’t happen overnight. It took him a lot of time and energy to change, but he did. He and his family greatly benefit from the type of person he has become.

Spiritual journeys begin with resolutions – even New Year’s resolutions. The Buddha – Siddhartha Gautama – was a wealthy young prince who had a lifestyle that was the envy of everyone in his father’s kingdom. But Siddhartha was restless. Something was missing and he did not know what it was.

When he left the confines of the family’s great palace he saw, for the first time, the poverty, sickness, sadness, and death that were part of reality. With this revelation, he determined to understand the meaning of life. This was a resolution and one that required a great deal of perseverance over a very long time. Siddhartha was not instantly enlightened by his resolution to understand the meaning of life. It took him years of searching and practice and spiritual commitment. Along the way, he had many successes and many failures, but he ultimately succeeded.

We don’t know what happened during the early decades of the life of Jesus, but there can be little doubt that Jesus, at some point in his early life, made a resolution to seek God, to help the downtrodden and dispossessed, to heal the sick and nurture those who were wounded in heart and mind. We can be sure that Jesus did not become the charismatic healer that he was overnight. It most likely took him many years of searching, praying, and preaching to become who he was.

Similarly, we know that Muhammad did not instantly receive his revelations that were transcribed as the Qur’an. It took Muhammad many years of praying, fasting, and meditating to discover the spiritual messages that ultimately were written down in the Qur’an and created Islam.

Simply put – resolutions, for becoming a better more compassionate person, resolutions for changing our behavior and spiritual resolutions all take time, patience, perseverance and continual effort. This includes considering and making successful New Year’s resolutions. The successful athlete pursues resolutions that require time, energy, commitment, resolve, and continual work. The spiritual warrior does the same.

If you have not yet made New Year’s resolutions for yourself for this New Year, it is not too late. Take some time today or tonight and look at yourself in a mirror. Ask yourself the questions: Who am I? Am I happy with the way I am? What can I do to become a better person? What can I do to contribute to others? How can I become more compassionate to others and to the world around me?

All of us can benefit from resolutions because all of us can grow and change and in so doing, become better people in ways that can and will make a difference in our life and in the lives of those we touch.

May all of you be blessed with a happy, healthy, and successful New Year. May sacred wisdom and tranquility surround you and the light of truth shine upon you throughout the year ahead.

Reverend Christopher McMahon

UU Chatham

January 4, 2026