Every pastor, on occasion, feels the need to remind a congregation that we need not fear things that are new. Indeed, the apostle Paul declared that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation ... things that are new ought to be things in which we feel free to take part. Once, the chair of a denominational committee on worship, when speaking of new things and strong opposition to them by congregations, shared a story about a friend of his in ministry. This pastor wanted his congregation to recite the Apostles' Creed on a given Sunday. Strange as it may seem to some, reciting a creed together was new experience for this congregation, and especially for the church secretary, whose own beliefs were strongly opposed to the congregational recitation of creeds in worship. Leaving nothing to chance, the pastor opened his Book of Worship to the specific page and instructed the secretary to type it exactly as she found it. Now, in some worship resources — including the one the pastor used — the phrase "descended into hell" in the Apostles' Creed was marked with an asterisk, which referenced a note at the bottom of the page suggesting that "this phrase may be omitted if desired."
When Sunday morning came, the congregation, never having read the Apostles' Creed in worship together before, launched into it bravely. When they reached the phrase which declares that Christ "descended into hell" their eyes descended to the bottom of the page because the secretary, as instructed, had dutifully typed the creed exactly, including the asterisk next to that line about hell where she had found it in the book the pastor gave her. However, she had failed to type in the associated footnote from his book. Instead, when the worshipers read "he descended into hell," their eyes descended to an asterisk at the bottom of the page by which they found the unsettling declaration that "Here latecomers may be seated."
Worship renewal suffered a serious setback that day, in at least one congregation.
The late Eric Routley, one of our generation's foremost authorities on hymns and music in the church, once declared at a conference that the best method for pastors and musicians to help congregations enjoy singing a new hymn is simply to stand before the congregation and say, "Today we are going to learn a new hymn. You aren't going to like it, but we will learn it anyway." Then after you have sung it through, the members of the congregation will take advantage of the opportunity to say, "I did like it; see, our pastor is wrong again!"
Sir Francis Bacon once declared, "It is singularly amazing how long the rotten can hold together." People cling to false hopes, go through empty rituals, and celebrate the past to such an extent that often it has no bearing on the present. There comes a time when the old is no longer sufficient and the new must take its place. There is a time when the rotten no longer holds together and must be replaced by something new. That is when we are due for renewal.
Jesus spoke of the coming kingdom of God and the new covenant between God and Israel that would emerge as the kingdom advanced. In our passage from Mark, Jesus answered the people's question about fasting by declaring that when one considers God is at work in the present time establishing a new relationship with God's people, the only appropriate response must be joy. Fasting and maintaining a long face is as alien to the spirit of the new kingdom of God as is weeping at a wedding feast.
Jesus continued with more domestic wisdom. No one sews a new piece of unwashed denim to patch an old pair of jeans. Anyone who does the wash knows that the new piece of cloth will shrink away from the old material after the first wash, and there will be an even bigger hole. The time comes when the old is no longer sufficient, when the rotten no longer holds together.
No one puts freshly squeezed grape juice into an old container with a tight lid. Winemakers will tell us that the juice will ferment into wine and wreck the old container, whether it's an old bottle or an old wineskin. Put new wine in old skins and you'll lose both wine and skins. The elasticity of new wineskins is right for new wine. Times come when the old is no longer sufficient, when the rotten no longer holds together.
While this may sound as though we are referencing a story that celebrates what is new at the expense of the old, we need to recall that Jesus seems at least as concerned for the old as for the new. He doesn't want the old material to be torn or the old wineskins ruptured. In human terms, he is speaking of transformation, renewal. Jesus meant to transform us so that when we looked at our old selves, we wouldn't recognize who we had been. The prophets spoke of a turning toward God, a 180-degree about-face to go in a new direction. That involves taking the old and making something new. And it occurs when we are due for renewal.
I remember the boy in Sunday school who was asked by his teacher what we have to do before we can obtain forgiveness. His simple reply: "We have to sin." He only had half the story — after that we have to be renewed, to return to God — we have to shift our lives toward life in the kingdom.
A half-century ago, many churches in America recognized a need to turn toward what was new, to step out of complacency and advocate an end to racial discrimination. Doing this, religious people helped transform a nation. The late Clinton Marsh, an African American and leader in the old United Presbyterian Church, once wrote movingly about the church's so-called meddling in social issues. He recalled times when driving with his family in the Old South, they had to make careful preparations for their trip; especially, they needed to be sure to pack food, since no restaurant would serve them, and also identify the handful of places on their route where restrooms would be available to persons of color. Declaring that he "never wanted to go back to those ‘good old days,' " he found that today Southerners bask in the advantages of living in the "New South" with openness in housing, accommodations, services, education, and even churches. White Southerners also have enjoyed liberation from oppression along with their black brothers and sisters. But the road to the "New South" has been anything but bump-free. Some feel like the vacationer, looking at a beautiful Jamaican town after a horrible night's cruise, who says, "If only we hadn't had to get here!" There comes a time when — even when it causes pain and displacement — the old must be renewed, the new must be affirmed, the rotten can no longer hold together.
In a famous and much-quoted letter addressed to Colonel William Smith, John Adams' son-in-law, Thomas Jefferson wrote in reference to a recent rebellion in Massachusetts: "God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion ... We have had thirteen states independent for eleven years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance?"1
Considering the ongoing turbulence on the American scene — from the struggle for rights for all people in the 1960s and '70s, to questions about the justifiability of the war in Iraq and issues about availability of healthcare and adequate food for all people in our nation today, I think Mr. Jefferson can rest assured that the people have preserved the spirit of resistance. There are times in the life of a nation, as well as in the life of a person, when the old needs to be altered and the new must be welcomed. This is renewal. In all likelihood, as a people of God and as a people of this nation, we face in the future more change, not less. What will be called for in the years to come is an openness on the part of God's people to hearing and speaking his word in new ways. Erich Fromm once said, "To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime."2
Being true to our faith in Jesus Christ and his promise has often meant — and will continue to mean — that the old has passed away and the new has come. In the New Testament, Jesus' hearers recognized in his ministry a "new teaching;" the new age that dawns with his ministry is the new world; those who are in Christ Jesus are a new creation; through new birth in Christ we receive and are able to apprehend the new commandment to love. Amen.
1. Adrienne Koch and William Peden, editors, The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Toronto: Modern Library, 1944), p. 436.
2. http://www.best-quotes-poems.com/Erich-Fromm.html.