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Easter Focus - All Things New
The world is changing, as if you haven't noticed.
A friend who lived in Africa and who hadn't been back for ten years recently went back for a visit. How was her trip?
"Everything has changed," she said. "They have paved roads now and even a store with soap and toothpaste."
She thought a minute.
"I guess that's a good thing. If I still lived there I'd probably appreciate the convenience."
Probably.
The world is changing and change is hard. But then, the world has been changing for thousands of years. When was the last time you used your stone ax to cut down that tree for the firewood upon which you would roast your mastodon for dinner?
The problem is that in recent generations the rate of change has increased to the point that we notice. We recognize the changes from one generation to the next. Often from one decade to the next. Sometimes from year to year.
Before you start to kvetch about all the change remember the hope of the book of the Revelation to John:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven had passed away, and the first earth had passed away. . . .And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." What if the rate of change we are experiencing is a sign of God's creative and dynamic hand at work in the transformation of the world? This passage makes a fairly obvious point. There can be no new heaven, there can be no new earth, if the first heaven and the first earth do not pass away.
Eddie Gibbs is an Episcopal priest with over 40 years of experience in the church. His ministry has carried him from working-class tenement houses in England, to the slums of Santiago, Chile, to the absurdly fantastical, Beverly Hills, California. He has seen a lot of change in a lot of different context through the years.
He recently made the observation that churches (meaning local parishes) tend to respond to change in different ways.
Some resist change. Some parishes live in denial about the changes going on around them. Some parish adopt an entrepreneurial spirit and enter freely into the transformation of God's creative Word in a new day.
Sometimes parishes address change as an enemy to be stopped at all costs. These congregations seem to believe God is a god of the past, a god of the dead, a god of what was, a god of the memory.
Because they worship what was, they turn the empty shell of a former life into an idol. The suffer the blindness of all idolaters and inadvertently stand in the way of the in-breaking of God's grace that the Holy Spirit pours out anew in every generation.
"New wine needs new wineskins," Jesus says. They crucified him for saying it.
Other parishes live in denial. They simply do not pay prayerful attention to what is going on around them.
Because these parishes are already insular and self-focused, they become increasingly irrelevant to anyone but themselves. They continue to celebrate an unchanging faith, in what they are determined to believe to be an unchanging world.
The changes "out there" are too much. They seek to escape into an unchanging world. They turn the church into a museum, rather than a vital mission outpost of the kingdom of God. They do the same old things the same old way and fail to see the vitality of their community slowly fade away.
"Not one stone will be left here upon another," Jesus says. "All will be thrown down." And, of course, they crucified him for saying it.
Unfortunately, the transformation of the world does not always begin with the transformation of the church. God sometimes has to plant a witness outside the perceptual field of God's own people. But God is never without a witness.
Thank God, some parishes embrace the Holy entrepreneurial Spirit and move freely into God's creative intent in the emerging world. They remain open to transformation. They trust where Jesus leads. They prayerfully discern and follow.
"The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," Jesus said.
After they crucified Jesus, he was resurrected to lead the world into a whole new reality.
Do you resist the new thing God is doing in this generation? Or are you walking in the resurrection power of Jesus as he makes all things new?
Monthly Focus Archive
2006:
Easter Focus: New Covenant
Lenten Focus: A Covenantal Response to Poverty
February Focus: Moving Forward
2005:
December Focus: Longing
November Focus: The Gift of Years
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Foundations
Summer Focus: The Book of Acts
Easter Focus: Tapestry
Lenten Focus: Rule of Life
January Focus: The Next Wave
2004:
December Focus: Surprising Grace
November Focus: Free Indeed
October Focus: Money Madness
September Focus: The Outrageous Promise
Summer Focus: Into the Fullness
June Focus: Thick Faith
Easter Focus: All Things New
Lent Focus: A Hungry World
February Focus: Commitment
January Focus: Unity
2003:
December Focus: Hope
November Focus: Worship
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Seasons of Faith
Summer Focus: The Gospel of John
May Focus: Faith
April Focus: Resurrection
March Focus: Truth
February Focus: Covenant Groups
January Focus: Sabbath
2002:
December Focus: Shut Up and Sing
November Focus: Spiritual Gifts
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Intentional Faith
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