On Tuesday I did a bit of eavesdropping, on the
CWF. When they gather in the
chapel for their monthly meeting I usually slip in and sit on the back row and
listen. They had a great crowd on
Tuesday and I didn’t want to interrupt them, so I sat just outside the door and
listened to them. They were
sharing some of their memories of the CWF in past years and I enjoyed listening
to them talk about people, some of whom I did not have the opportunity to know,
and I could hear in their voices that wistfulness that we often have when we
talk about the past. We talk about
the past with a sense of the changes that have taken place, and that means the
past always seems simpler and more attractive than the present, doesn’t
it? That’s one of the reasons why
we often long for the past and the way
things used to be, because our minds filter out enough of the difficulties
and challenges and stresses that existed back then to give us a very idealized
image of the past. But it’s also
because we are reminded of those whom we have lost to eternity.
In thinking about change, I will read two
passages of Scripture; one from Matthew’s gospel and the other from the book of
Hebrews.
Matthew 9:10-17
and Hebrews 13:8 –
10 While Jesus was having dinner at
Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his
disciples. 11 When
the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat
with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not
the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I
desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but
sinners.”
14 Then John’s disciples came and asked
him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not
fast?”
15 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of
the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom
will be taken from them; then they will fast.
16 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth
on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the
tear worse. 17 Neither
do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst;
the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine
into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and
today and forever.
Change happens all around us, and to us, every
day. There is no escaping change,
and that is not all bad. We all
have things in our lives that we would like to change; something as small,
perhaps, as an annoying habit, or something as large and significant as our
vocation.
It is interesting to note then, that when we
talk about change we often put it in a negative context. I
wish things would stop changing we exclaim. Or, why can’t we leave
things alone? Why does everything
have to change? It’s not that
things have to change; it’s simply
that things do change. Almost all change is inevitable, and
much of that change is for the good.
This morning, I want to come at this topic by
asking three questions, because I like structure that is offered by an outline. I like to have a framework from which
to work, and I believe that makes it easier for it to stick in your mind. While I was on vacation earlier this
year we attended church and heard a good sermon, but when the service was over
I couldn’t put my finger on what the message was or what the points were. I need some structure, and I assume it
is helpful to you as well. I also
like to move into the very personal.
These verses of Scripture have some very deep meanings, and it’s easy to
dig very deep into them, but I believe sermons are not the same as a Bible
study, so I don’t generally dig down into the depths of interpretation. Sermons are more of a bird’s eye view, looking at a theme or a
passage in a more generalized and thematic manner.
I will ask you three questions this morning,
with each question moving out in concentric circles, further out from our own
lives.
1. What does God
need to change in your life?
Last weekend I had the opportunity to catch up
with my college roommate. The last
time we saw each other was in 1989.
Needless to say, we had both changed a good deal in appearance since we
graduated from college and since our last meeting. Back in those days we both had a lot more hair. Now, there is less hair and what
remains of it is quite gray. We
spent a lot of time, of course, laughing about things we’d done years ago and
about how much we’d changed. We
also talked about how quickly the years had passed, how fast our children had
grown, and marveled at all the things that have become commonplace since we
were in college – the advent of personal computing, cell phones, the internet,
and the rise of all things tech.
And we wondered, after considering the rapid passage of time, about how
fast the remainder of our lives would pass. I mentioned to him that I was still thinking about a few
changes for my life that I was thinking about and talking about when we were in
school in the 70s. Imagine –
decades later, and I’m still talking about it.
Now, notice what I did not ask in this question
– I did not ask what do you need or want to
change in your life, but what does
God need to change in your life?
Those are not the same questions, and they represent very different
perspectives. I understand,
certainly, that we cannot put ourselves into the mind of God and know what God
is thinking, but to ask the question from a perspective of the divine causes us
to look at the question differently.
In the passage from Matthew’s gospel Jesus
referenced the placing of a patch of new cloth on an old garment. To follow the analogy, all of us have
some holes in our lives that need to be covered, holes that need some patching. What are the holes with which we need
to deal? What kind of patch can
cover those holes? Where do the
patches need to go in your life?
The wear and tear of life leaves us a bit tattered – sometimes more than
just a bit – and we can have enough patches to make us look like a quilt.
I am looking forward to getting started with
the Stephen Ministry training. I
look forward to it because, to be honest, I’ve long felt inadequate when it
comes to counseling people. One of
the toughest parts of counseling is getting below the surface, because people
generally like to stay on the surface, because it is less threatening; you can
talk and talk and not really have to deal with the real issues.
God, however, is in the business of
transformation and wants to bring needed change in our lives. C. S. Lewis uses the illustration of a
living house, as he writes imagine
yourself as a living house. God
comes into rebuild that house. At
first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the
roof and so on: you knew that
those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way
that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that He is building
quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing
here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making
courtyards. You thought you were
going to be made into a decent little cottage: but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.
(Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis, page
174).
We certainly want some changes to come to our
lives. We need some changes to
come to our lives. So what stands
in the way of that change?
2. How can God use
you to bring change to the life of another?
The difficulty, of course, is that we are so bound up in what is
happening in our own lives that it seems next to impossible to move into the
life of another person and help them.
And, to be honest, it can be a very tricky endeavor to step into the
life of another person. People put
up walls and all manner of resistance.
We can see it in this morning’s passage with the Pharisees, for example. They were always attacking Jesus,
finding fault, offering criticisms, and part of it was not only their
resistance to needed change, not only was it because of their rigid legalism;
part of it was due to the fact, I believe, that they were trying to keep the
attention off of themselves.
Attacking Jesus was not just because they disagreed with him; it is an
age-old way of deflecting attention from one’s self so you don’t have to deal
with what you need to deal with.
Psychologists tell us this is a common practice in people who do not
want to deal with the issues in their life that need to change. Any time they sense someone might offer
help or constructive criticism, they begin deflecting, which generally involves
a personal attack on the person.
As I mentioned that we need some patches in our lives, we must
remember that others have some tears and some fraying that needs patching as
well. It might be someone very
close to you who needs you to step forward and help to bring change to their
life. It is not easy, I can assure
you, but it is very worthwhile.
But always step into the life of another with grace, kindness, and with
love. Those qualities really do
make a difference. If people know
that we generally care about them, most of the time – maybe not always – but
most of the time, they will respond.
Where can you mend a new patch onto the life of
another?
3. How can God use
you to bring change to the world?
That’s a rather big statement, isn’t it? There you go – go on out there and
change the world!
We want some changes to come to our world,
don’t we? And we need those
changes. But will you or I change
the world? Perhaps not the entire
world. Not everyone is a Martin
Luther King, Jr. or a Mother Teresa, the type of individual that comes along
only so often in history. But we
each inhabit a portion of the world where we can effect change.
We must be prepared to face the reality that change
comes easily, even needed and desired change. When Jesus likened change to new wine in old wineskins, or a
patch of new cloth on an old garment, he bore testimony to the often disruptive
and painful nature of change.
Throughout his ministry, Jesus faced the harsh reactions of the
religious leadership as they feared what he had to say, mostly because it
represented a level of change with which they were very uncomfortable. They had vested interests in keeping
things the way they were, and they fought to maintain the status quo. We are not that different, as we fight
against changes that can be both beneficial and needed.
The struggle for democracy around our world,
for instance, has never come easily.
We have engaged in wars in the effort to secure democracy for ourselves
and for other nations. The effort
to bring equality to all people has likewise not been easy. Imagine where we would be, however,
without those who have led, prodded, and pulled us toward those changes. Our world – and the lives of millions
of people – would certainly be the lesser without those efforts.
Don’t
forget – some of those changes are orchestrated by God for your benefit, so let’s
not be afraid to change!
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