One thing that doesn’t change is that every generation struggles with change! And the church is no pauper in this experience. Contemporary vs. traditional, progressive vs. conservative, new vs. old.  What was once new, freedom encouraging and refreshing to a new generation becomes old, conservative, traditional to the next.

Read A.B. Bruce’s take on this phenomena (first published in 1871). Commenting on Jesus’ teaching about putting new wine into old wineskins or sewing new cloth onto an old garment, he observes:

“The old cloth and old bottles in these metaphors represent old ascetic fashions in religion; the new cloth and the new wine represent the new joyful life in Christ, not possessed by those who tenaciously adhered to the old fashions. The parables were applied primarily to Christ’s own age, but they admit of application to all transition epochs; indeed, they find new illustration in almost every generation.

The force of these homely parables as arguments in vindication of departure from current usage in matters of religion may be evaded in either of two ways. First, their relevancy may be denied; i.e., it may be denied that religious beliefs are of such a nature as to demand congenial modes of expression, under penalties if the demand is not complied with. This position is usually assumed virtually or openly by the patrons of use and wont. Conservative minds have for the most part a very inadequate conception of the vital force of belief. Their own belief, their spiritual life altogether, is often a feeble thing, and they imagine tameness or pliancy must be an attribute of other men’s faith also. Nothing but dire experience will convince them that they are mistaken; and when the proof comes in the shape of an irrepressible revolutionary outburst, they are stupefied with amazement.

Such men learn nothing from the history of previous generations; for they persist in thinking that their own case will be an exception. Hence the vis inertiæ of established custom evermore insists on adherence to what is old, till the new wine proves its power by producing an explosion needlessly wasteful, by which both wine and bottles often perish, and energies which might have quietly wrought out a beneficent reformation are perverted into blind powers of indiscriminate destruction.
Or, in the second place, the relevancy of these metaphors being admitted in general terms, it may be denied that a new wine (to borrow the form of expression from the second, more suggestive metaphor) has come into existence. This was virtually the attitude assumed by the Pharisees towards Christ. “What have you brought?” they asked Him in effect, “to your disciples, that they cannot live as others do, but must needs invent new religious habits for themselves? This new life of which you boast is either a vain pretence, or an illegitimate, spurious thing, not worthy of toleration, and the waste of which would be no matter for regret.”

Similar was the attitude assumed towards [Martin] Luther by the opponents of the Reformation. They said to him in effect: “If this new revelation of yours, that sinners are justified by faith alone, were true, we admit that it would involve very considerable modification in religious opinion, and many alterations in religious practice. But we deny the truth of your doctrine, we regard the peace and comfort you find in it as a hallucination; and therefore we insist that you return to the time-honored faith, and then you will have no difficulty in acquiescing in the long-established practice.” The same thing happens to a greater or less extent every generation; for new wine is always in course of being produced by the eternal vine of truth, demanding in some particulars of belief and practice new bottles for its preservation, and receiving for answer an order to be content with the old ones.

Without going the length of denunciation or direct attempt at suppression, those who stand by the old often oppose the new by the milder method of disparagement. They eulogize the venerable past, and contrast it with the present, to the disadvantage of the latter.” The old wine is vastly superior to the new: how mellow, mild, fragrant, wholesome, the one! how harsh and fiery the other!” Those who say so are not the worst of men: they are often the best,—the men of taste and feeling, the gentle, the reverent, and the good, who are themselves excellent samples of the old vintage. Their opposition forms by far the most formidable obstacle to the public recognition and toleration of what is new in religious life; for it naturally creates a strong prejudice against any cause when the saintly disapprove of it.

Observe, then, how Christ answers the honest admirers of the old wine. He concedes the point: He admits that their preference is natural. Luke represents Him as saying, in the conclusion of His reply to the disciples of the Baptist: “No man also, having drunk old wine, desireth the new; for he saith, The old is good.” This striking sentiment exhibits rare candor in stating the case of opponents, and not less rare modesty and tact in stating the case of friends. It is as if Jesus had said: “I do not wonder that you love the old wine of Jewish piety, fruit of a very ancient vintage; or even that you dote upon the very bottles which contain it, covered over with the dust and cobwebs of ages. But what then? Do men object to the existence of new wine, or refuse to have it in their possession, because the old is superior in flavor? No: they drink the old, but they carefully preserve the new, knowing that the old will get exhausted, and that the new, however harsh, will mend with age, and may ultimately be superior even in flavor to that which is in present use. Even so should you behave towards the new wine of my kingdom. You may not straightway desire it, because it is strange and novel; but surely you might deal more wisely with it than merely to spurn it, or spill and destroy it!”

Too seldom for the church’s good have lovers of old ways understood Christ’s wisdom, and lovers of new ways sympathized with His charity. A celebrated historian has remarked: “It must make a man wretched, if, when on the threshold of old age, he looks on the rising generation with uneasiness, and does not rather rejoice in beholding it; and yet this is very common with old men. Fabius would rather have seen Hannibal unconquered than see his own fame obscured by Scipio.”  There are always too many Fabii in the world, who are annoyed because things will not remain stationary, and because new ways and new men are ever rising up to take the place of the old. Not less rare, on the other hand, is Christ’s charity among the advocates of progress. Those who affect freedom despise the stricter sort as fanatics and bigots, and drive on changes without regard to their scruples, and without any appreciation of the excellent qualities of the “old wine.” When will young men and old men, liberals and conservatives, broad Christians and narrow, learn to bear with one another; yea, to recognize each in the other the necessary complement of his own one-sidedness?”

Bruce, A. B. (1995 – reprint from origin publication of 1871). The Training of the Twelve or, Passages out of the Gospels, Exhibiting the Twelve Disciples of Jesus Under Discipline for the Apostleship (76–78). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

What a difference 10 years has made. Then – there was panic hovering just below the surface, fearing that major computer systems around the nation (world) would bog down due to outmoded computer code that stored year dates as 2 digit numbers (for example 99 and 00) rather than 4 digits (1999 and 2000).  Ancient history now, but everyone was on alert, anxiously awaiting the stroke of midnight and the possibility of utilities shutting down, banking systems grinding to a halt and planes falling out of the air (for the more paranoid). Some people did profit quite handsomely from the scare, namely those who knew the older programming languages –they were in high demand for a high price!

For those of us who lived through it, 2000 arrived with nary a whimper. While that “tragedy” never came to past, an unexpected one arrived about nine months later – the infamous 9/11 which has branded itself into our shared history. For older people, they know well where they were when they first heard the news of … Kennedy’s death, the first man to walk on the moon, Richard Nixon’s resignation. But, for all alive, the memory of 9/11 is the new “where were you …” reference point in time.

But, the greatest historical event, the one of personal epic proportions, lies in none of these things. For the Christian, that is. The dividing line of history is found on the day when one solitary life is transformed through faith in the simple, gracious act – Christ’s dying on a wooden, Roman cross—that day is the pivot point, the threshold between before and after, the true A.D. and B.C. of a person’s life. Is there any more profound day in all of your history. Spiritual death gave way to life, guilt was replaced by forgiveness, condemnation eclipsed by justification. The old consumed by the New. Thank God! Praise God!

May this new year, 2010, this new decade, find you drawing closer to the Lord Jesus Christ, your Master and the Lover of your soul!

“We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is ‘good,’ because is it good, if ‘bad’ because it works in us patience, humility, and the contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country” C. S. Lewis

“You say, ‘If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.’ You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.” C H Spurgeon

Have a great Thanksgiving Day!

Ephesians 4:12-13 “…to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.”

I was struck by the phrase, “… attain to the unity of the faith.” The most common critique I hear from believers about the church is the lack of unity. But this verse suggests that unity is a marker of maturity rather than a means to it. Unity is something that is attained as believers grow. Perhaps God doesn’t not expect immature believers to exhibit a true degree of unity.

In context of Chapter 2, unity between dissimilar groups IS the mysterious plan of His will. It is the THING. That is true. But, this verse made me think that a fully expressed unity isn’t something a believer perfects in “Following Jesus 101.” Unity comes out of a fuller understanding of the Love of Christ (to us and through us). That fuller understanding of His love is one of Paul’s prayers…. hence it is something that we must be grown into, and matured into.

I find myself a little grated when believers blankly critique the church for divisiveness. As if that would be an easily solvable problem. As if the whole of church history has gotten it wrong, and been a complete failure, and we now know how to fix it. To be unified – if only all the denominations would just drop their “petty” issues. I have a problem with that on a number of levels. I don’t think “denominations,” per say, are wrong or inherently problematic. I think they are to some degree inevitable, given humanity (although I’m not sure if God thinks that). But I do think the Lord left sufficient amounts of nebulousity — for the exercise of grace. That grace could be exercised in 2 ways. 1) Total cohesive, apparent unity; no different churches or denominations. No distinctive gatherings based on beliefs or ethnicity etc. We would just group geographically, I suppose, for worship services, or 2) Choosing to adhere to what we believe are important beliefs, even if it causes us to set up a separate camp (for effective ministry that is not fraught with disagreement over semi-central issues) and THEN exercising grace in working with, worshiping with, and rejoicing with those other camps. I suppose this is the realists perspective.

The church is God’s main project, His main tool in this world. I can’t imagine that when He weighs the successes and failures of His church, historically He deems it has been a failure. I think He sees differently than us. I think He appreciates (more than we do) the sinful bunch He has to work with. I think His analysis is more complex than ours. Sure the church is sinful – it was when He created it. A bunch of saved sinners. Sure the church makes mistakes – we are a growing bunch.

Unity is something that more mature believers exhibit. If that is true, it is not a surprise that the church in America is not generally exhibiting unity. Then I would say, unity is not the root problem. Maturity is. And the mature don’t go around criticizing the church—they live out the “unity of the faith” in grace.

By Shannon Gianotti

I just read today (somewhere in the Gospel of Luke) that the kingdom of heaven is a like a small seed that grows into a large tree and becomes home to the birds. This made me appreciate the local church of God in these difficult times. In our small church we have a number of people unemployed due to the economy, several with difficult marriages and others with debilitating physical difficulties. On Sunday mornings we all come together, and as one body we worship the Lord Jesus as he asked us to do by breaking of bread. This odd tradition He left for us is meant, among other things, to give us a sense of family, the kind that gets together regularly for a “sit-down” meal (fewer and fewer families, I am told, have a daily sit down together kind of meal, much less once a week). The family of God, comes to dinner weekly, so to speak, with a single focus in mind – the glory of the Lord. What a way to begin the week that we all face with such differing struggles of life—getting refocused on what is important and essential.

Then various members of the body kick into gear serving others, whether it is teaching Sunday School, providing praise music, working on setup and takedown (we meet in rented facilities), serving refreshments, preaching the word, greeting visitors, serving in nursery, stacking song books, cleaning up someone else’s mess, etc. Most of us get time to take part in the praise time and the teaching time. The body is working together for the glory of the Father and the building up of each other.

Then, our church is a bit weird, people like to stay afterward and just “be” together, sometimes up to a hour after the service is ended. Sipping on a hot or cold drink, munching on donuts or bagels and talking or watching, sometimes talking about the recent sports games, sometimes the economy, sometimes about spiritual thinks, sometimes praying for or encouraging one another concerning some heavy matter in our lives. You know, the kind of stuff that true fellowship is made up of.

Sometimes an older person and a younger person are engaged. Often married people and singles mix, people of different social or economic classes find no barrier to being together—in this environment it simply just doesn’t matter when it comes to fellowship. Jeans, t-shirts, ties, slacks, dresses, you name it. Kids play “kill the man with the ball” in the gym while younger children get scooped up to safety by concerned parents. Laughing, crying, deep discussions, chit-chat—you name it.

These are the kind of things Jesus had in mind when he spoke of the church being a family, all are accepted and each building up the other. When so many struggle with dysfunctional or broken families, the church is a family that provides a wonderful respite from the cares of the world. It may not seem like much to outsiders (like a small seed) and we may blue jays seem to argue at times, but we birds of a feather like to flock together in the tree of God’s kingdom, and we stick up for each other.

For some people this replaces their dysfunctional family of birth and provides an example of what a real family should be like like. More than just providing an example, though, the local church is a real family, a functional one. Praise God for the church!

Date line February 18, 2009, McClatchy Newspapers, Miami: “Maimi bank exec gives $60M to his employees.” After cashing in on his 83 percent shares in City National Bancshares last November, Leonard Abess, Jr. distributed $60 million to tellers, bookkeepers, clerks and everyone else on the payroll. Some received more than $100,000 and most up to tens of thousands of dollars. Even retired employees got a share of the take. He said, “I sure as heck don’t need the money” and later mused “I wonder if I did enough.”

I’d love to have musings of that scale, wouldn’t you? Yet, maybe I can. I am often reminded in Scripture that our Lord “… though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). As Christians we have a wealth that is far more valuable than tens of thousands of dollars. Whatever the situation, “God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19).His supply abounds and overflows so much that in our abundance God also blesses those around us. Kind of like on a hot summer day, filling up the glass of cool drink to such an overflow that it splashes on to others. And their super-abundance splashes over on to us.

Oh, that we would believe it to be so, every moment of the day. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saint” (Eph 1:18).

We Christians lack nothing for living a purposeful, satisfying life, filled with joy in the Lord, “… seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3).

It is left simply for us of meager financial means to have an audacious faith that dares to walk as those who are immensely weathy. “But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position” (James 1:9a). And for those of much earthly wealth to rejoice that God continually reminds them how fleeting their material possession really are, “… the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away” (James 1:9b).

From time to time I help out others, give a hand here and there. So do you. But, like the banker in Miami, do I who am rich beyond all measure in the things that really count–do I say, “I wonder if I did enough”?

No one is doubting anymore that the world is in a financial recession. The US congress and president are trying to hammer out an economic stimulus plan that would pour billions upon billions of dollars into the economy with the hopes of blunting the effects of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Maybe we’ll have some interesting stories to tell our grand- and great-grand children about the hardships we went through back in the old days, during the Great Recession of ’08 and ’09.

My grandparents never talked much of the difficult days of the 1930’s. I guess they saw it as a fact of life and you just lived through it without much sweat. But, then again, they were make-do kind of people. Life was an adventure. Grandpa could turn his hand to just about anything. At various times in his working career he was an aviator in World War I, a fireman, raised mink, had a hobby farm, owned a Harley Davidson dealership and did just about anything else that was required to make a living. My grandmother was a school teacher and quite athletic. In high school she starred for her girls basketball team. She once chased a bear banging a pot and ladle and rode some of those Harley’s Grandpa sold! I can’t get the picture out of my mind of a short, grey-haired elderly school marm, wizzing by on a chopper (Harley). (Disclaimer, she was actually much younger during her motorcycle days but I only knew her as a kindly, gentle grandmotherly woman –and she was the consummate grandmother who baked cookies, canned fruit and vegetables and made blue berry pies – we thought the world of her).

Their yearly vacation time included spending a week or two in the wilderness canoeing and camping in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. Such continued into their 70’s, they were of hardy stock. The day after Gramps was released from hospital after a heart attack, he was jacking up the side of his house so he could fix the foundation. He wasn’t about to spend the rest of his days in a rocking chair, he says. He died at 96 years old. Grams sometime in her 80’s. They lived a full life.

This recession in some ways will test our mettle, it will see which of us are “make-do” kind of people. For most, life consists of going to work, picking up paycheck (or having it direct deposited), come home, play video games or watch TV or work on the budget, then get up in the morning the next day and repeat. Life goes on as normal. Doesn’t take much faith or anything. And there’s no gusto to life.

So money is tight, eh? Job security is precarious? Retirement savings down by 35%? But, our God still reigns! And if you know Christ as Savior and Lord you have been given life and that life is abundant (John 10:10). Don’t let that new life in Christ stagnate. The economy is no excuse. Why not go for broke (no pun intended) and become a make-do kind of person, living on the wild side. How about a short term missions trip! Spend two weeks on a work team or outreach team. How about volunteering at a city mission or soup kitchen? Plan to spend a week or two at a Christian summer camp? Or take a group of kids on a camping trip. If you have never done it before, take a turn or two in the church nursery—now that will be cutting edge for some of you. Or help out with the junior youth group. You just may see God work in an abundant way.

Maybe this year will be the one you tell your grandchildren about. “Yep, that was an interesting year, the Great Recession of ’09. I saw God work in some huge ways. Let me tell you what happened …”

John 10:10 “… I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ”. (Gal 3:26-27 NIV)

It has been said, though not without some dissention, that “clothes make a man.” I know this to be somewhat true for me in terms of how I act. Jeans, t-shirt and tennis shoes effect an enjoyment of a more casual, laid back experience of life. A coat and tie encourage a more upright, professional demeanor. When taking my wife on a romantic date, out come the more “fashionable” things that communicate specialness for the occasion. Clothes, indeed, help set (or at least complement) the tenor of my behavior.

Do you know that as a believer in Christ, you are wearing a new set of clothes? It’s true! As today’s scripture says, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ”. Through faith, you have been placed “into” Christ (this is what baptism here means), and by analogy you “wear” Christ, like a set of clothes. Unlike earthly clothes which need to be changed, washed and stored away until needed, our “Christ” garment is permanently on us, never needing to be cleaned and certainly not to be stored away.

The Christian does well to remember this picture, for it helps in living a holy lifestyle: “Clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Romans 13:14). Seeing yourself as clothed in this manner will foster change in your behavior. Yes, clothes make a spiritual man.

Have you “put on Christ” (KJV) today? I don’t mean just wearing a WWJD bracelet. I mean walking through this day with the conscious knowledge that you are “in Christ”? All that He is, is yours. You are His child, forgiven, redeemed and a new creature in Christ. When you see who you are in Christ, then you will begin to put on the character of Christ, wear His heart on your sleeve (so to speak), and seek to emulate Him in actions and thoughts toward others. You are a child of the King! Now rise to the standard of the clothes you are wearing.

Now that is a set of clothes worth admiring!

Prayer: Father help me to wear my clothes in such a way you will be proud of me. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!