Jeremiah 30:12-22
John 12:35-43
Today’s texts speak of
changing times and conflict. Psalm 105 reminds us to praise God for all of
God’s many deeds and recalls that God’s promises are reliable. God saw the pain
of God’s people. God brought them out of slavery before so there is no reason
to doubt that God can and will do it again. From Jeremiah we hear of a people
who have forgotten to walk with God and are in the midst of the punishing
Babylonian exile. Yet God’s intent is for the people to rebuild their holy city
and their relationship with God.
Jesus calls us to believe in
the light, saying he is the Light of the World, while we have it. It will be
easier to believe now than it might be later. Yet even though the people have
witnessed the acts of his ministry: little things, like the raising of Lazarus
from the dead, not to mention sight restored to the blind, water changed into
wine, the healing of a cripple, and a few other minor things, they still find
it difficult to believe. There is no getting around it, changing the way we
think and live is hard.
We look back to the 1600’s
when Galileo published that the earth was not the center of the universe, and
we laugh at the Church’s unwillingness to accept it. After all, we now believe
that the sun is the center of our solar system, and that it is only one of many
solar systems, right? Yet, we continue to talk of the four corners of the
earth. Many of us still read our horoscopes. We talk about the sun rising and the
moon setting. These are all statements and beliefs that are determined by a
flat earth at the center of the universe. Change is difficult and challenging.
We find ourselves in the
midst of changing times today, and we are tempted to withdraw and disconnect
from this rapidly changing world. There is no other time in history that has
changed so fast. This, however, is the time we live in, and these changing
times challenge us in our lives, ethically and faithfully.
To live in constant change is
frustrating. One never knows from day to day what is reliable. It used to be
that cable TV was nice, but if your budget was tight, you used the antenna and
put up with a little snow and maybe even ghost images. Even that has gotten
more difficult. Today we live with satellite dishes, hi-def, and high-speed
internet. We stream, we tweet, and we Google everything. Everything is in flux.
Because of all of this change, many psychologists claim that there is a
stronger natural desire for nostalgic reminiscence than in previous
generations. And though it is a natural desire, unless we want to intentionally
separate ourselves from our culture and our world, we need to fight to stay
abreast of the change.
An article from a year or so
ago said that if we want to speak to our children, we have to learn the ways of
their changing world. And this was the hard part for me.
Children don’t know any other
way, and so they accept the world as it is with all of the possibilities that
technology offers. People who are 18 to 35 develop and learn the new
technologies. Thirty-five to fifty-five year olds pick and choose areas of
change they want to keep up with. Fifty-six year olds and older depend on what
they have learned to live into the future, learning only what they have to in
order to get by.
This article concerns me
because the largest percentage of people worshipping in main line churches (some
statistics show greater than 70%) today are over the age of fifty. Yet greater
than 40% of the American population is under the age of thirty. These
statistics leave little room for that 31 to 49 years age group. If you happen
to live there, thank you for being here because your age group is the barometer
for how much change is likely to take place in any given group.
With this in mind, I
sometimes wonder, can the church continue to proclaim the gospel to those who
come after us in a world that continues to advance at such a rapid rate? Or,
are we fading into the darkness? Can we proclaim God’s living word without
fully participating in this technologically changing world? Or is technology
not part of Christ’s way of light? How can and should we involve ourselves in
this technology faithfully? What do these questions mean for us and the way we
do worship and honor the sacred in our lives?
There was a time when
community beliefs were unchallenged within the community itself, but with so
much information instantly at our fingertips, will the center hold?
Shortly after 9/11, Stanley
Hauerwas was asked, how he thought we would live now that the world was forever
changed by the destruction of the trade towers? His response continues to give
me hope. He said, “First we have to understand that the world was forever
changed 2000 years ago on Easter Sunday. Our task today is to consider how that
change effects our reaction to these events.”
If we can remember to keep
the life changing event of the cross and empty tomb before us, then our
continued challenge to walk together, learning from one another those things
that will proclaim the good news of God’s living word among us will be made
easier. If that event that changed the world can continually be the center of
how we react to the changes around us, then considering how to use this
technology for the glory of God instead of personal frustration shifts our
reasons for learning and development. Then our walk together in faith will be
in the light with a clear vision of where we are going and not stumblings in
the darkness. Can you tweet that?
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