October 17, 2004
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Is What We'll Do
Transformation is all around us. We see it in a new kind of energy and interest in the life of the congregation. Our thinking is new and clearer and our attitudes are positive and forward looking. Worship has taken on a new vitality, people are volunteering, as God stirs up gifts in them, to use those gifts among us. Our relationships with God are growing stronger so that we lose neither heart nor faith in days of grief and disappointment; nor do we become arrogant and feel entitled in days of joy and success. What shall we do with this newness – does it mean that everything old is useless, good for nothing more than throwing out? No. We know that we cannot really forget what has come before, nor are we are asked to; not the good stuff, and not the bad stuff. Maya Angelou wrote in her poem “On The Pulse of Morning”, “history despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage need not be lived again” (“On the Pulse of Morning” read January 20,1993 at the first inauguration of William Jefferson Clinton). We cannot forget the pain and disappointment, nor should we, indeed we can learn about our faith and character in difficult times. It is no less true of the best that we know: the birth or adoption of a child, a marriage or true partnership made in heaven and lived gloriously on earth, the opportunity to grow up in a loving supportive household, each is a sign of hope and renewal for us, and they each make us new. There are models among us. In too many instances to count, the Bible uses the word new to talk about what God will do and what we can do as God acts in our lives. We know that the Hebrews in Egypt were in trouble and that they had lost the protection they had known in Joseph and the Pharaoh and they would need God as never before when we read, “Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1.8). We are called to worship God with renewed hearts and words we have not used before, “Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, God’s praise in the assembly of the faithful” (Psalm 149.1) When Jesus wanted to tell his followers about the need for renewal and transformation, he said, “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed” (Luke 5.37). In a time not unlike our own, when there were divisions in society and divisions among members of the church, the apostle Paul called the church to remember that we are made new when we give ourselves to Christ with all that we have, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away, see everything has become new” (II Corinthians 5.17). And there is the ultimate in newness, the eternal undying newness that is ours by faith, it is in the vision of John, and it is ours to claim as we hope, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; see, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21.1a, 5b). By God’s mercy and grace new moments will come to, us and if we will grab them and make good use of them, transformation will happen in our lives. That is the promise made to Jeremiah and it is the charge given to Timothy. The people of Judah and Israel had languished in exile, but now God has put in the prophet’s spirit a message of hope to a generation in despair. A day of restoration is coming. God will bring a new day to people who had let the bright lights and flash of the world seize them so much that they forgot all about the God who had brought their ancestors out of slavery in Egypt. They abandoned the faith of parents and failed to tell the stories of their liberation and redemption to their children. A generation grew up that barely knew about Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Esau, Ruth and Naomi, Esther, Nehemiah, and Ezekiel. For their abandonment they were uprooted, broken down, overthrown, and destroyed. “You want a life without me”, God says, “Here it is”. Then it was as they were stripped of their security and carried away into exile. Eventually, they began to hear again that God loved them and offered to protect them again. Do any of you here know what it is to mess up really badly, only to be given a second chance? Have you been so truly forgiven that what you did is not ever used against you? Have you had the opportunity to fix it so that the generation following you comes to know God in a way that changes that generation and leads them to change the next? God promises to bring about a time when the sins of one generation will not be paid for by the next. The saying is, “the parents have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (Jeremiah 31.29). When children are condemned to inadequate housing, education, health care, and safety because of choices their parents and caretakers make, a generation is damned for what those who came before them did. The old thinking is that people are condemned to move in endless circles of dysfunction, despair, and dejection. The new thinking is this; those days are gone. It remains true that as parents and adults who care about children, we have an obligation to be positive, helpful role models for them, but they will no longer cursed by our failings. All will be responsible in their own generation. Still too much racism among us? Do not blame George Wallace and Lester Maddox and his ax handle; they are both long dead and buried. Don’t blame whoever the head racist was in Columbus. Instead, declare today, with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) that we will not buy into racist attitudes, but will instead say publicly that we are an anti-racist church and pro-reconciliation community that welcomes everyone who seeks a place with us. Tired of marriage being used as a political tool to divide and deny rights to people who want more security for their families? Don’t blame them, whoever them is; instead write your congress member, or your state representative, your senator, or governor, or President today. Let them know how you feel. Do you want this church to grow? Let go of what it looked like when every seat in every pew was filled. That was a good day, but it was yesterday. Start with who is here and let’s build up the church now. We are here and that is a pretty good place to begin. God will start over with us. God will set with us and make a new covenant with us, and it will transform and make us new. What can we do? We can renew the covenant we made with God. The agreement was this, God would provide for the people, and the people would be faithful to God. “Let’s start again”, God says. “This time it will be different. You will still have the written record of the agreements between me and you. You can read them in sacred scripture any time. But this time I will write the covenant on your heart”. What is on our hearts drives our strongest commitments and our deepest passions. The heart is where lifeblood flows, where we place our emotions and our most intimate feelings. It is from the heart that we say, “I love you with all my heart, I am heart broken, you give me joy, I have given my life to Jesus Christ, and I have never felt better in my life! The heart is where the promise of God to be our God resides. Can you feel it? The covenant with God is not about knowing about God, it is about knowing God for yourself. It is about having love and hope, peace and joy and justice written indelibly on our hearts. We can know that from the oldest to the youngest, the greatest to the least among us that God is the one who gives us life, makes us whole, and by the grace of Jesus sets us free and if we are free in Christ, we are free indeed (John 8.36). We are free to live as a forgiven people who know and are known by God. It is that covenant that brings us here and it is the covenant that calls us to continue to hear this charge, this bit of sacred instruction from God. We can study the promises God makes in scripture. Paul tells Timothy that all scripture is useful. It is useful to in Paul’s words, “to convince, rebuke, and encourage”. We can use it to argue with those who disagree with us about matters theological and political. We can use it to not only to argue but to hurt people with its words, as if to say, “my God is bigger than your God, or my favorite verse is more meaningful than yours”. We are pretty good at arguing and judgment. We know too much about how to use the Bible to beat people down. Such misuse of scripture is wrong and will not advance the cause of Christ. So, let’s do this: let’s read and study and use this great book to encourage others. Let’s use it to help people discover the new thing God wants to do in their lives. When they want to follow the latest self-help TV personality, tell them good things can happen there, but there is a better story. It is a life-changing, eternal story of renewal and transformation. It is the story of comfort found in the 23rd Psalm. It is the story of justice told in the prophets like Amos whose plea for justice and righteousness (5. 24), is as fresh now as it was thousands of years ago. Let’s tell them and remind ourselves of the call to a relationship with God and humanity (Micah 6.8), and about how caring for others, the sick, imprisoned, hungry, thirsty, lonely is to care for Christ himself (Matthew 25…). It is to know that we are loved and accepted by God (John 3.16ff). Tell them that a new covenant waits for us. A new covenant, offered by Jeremiah claimed by the people and sealed by Jesus himself that night he sat with his disciples and once they had eaten, poured the wine again and said, “this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22.20). When we receive a new covenant and a new change on our lives, we can do great things. We can use the gift of covenant, the gift of scripture, the gift of love, we can do what we are called to do; we can engage in ministry, seriously, bearing what we have to in order to be faithful to God. So it was Jeremiah, so it was for Timothy, so it is for us as we study, we pray, we dream, we act as we go and we are we being transformed. May God just keep on doing great things in us. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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