Take Stock of Your Antiquated Faith
The South, especially Charleston, has a fascination with the past. Charleston is an historic city and, at one time in our nation’s history, was the third-largest city in America. We can claim pirates, slaves, battles, victories, and defeats. A quick drive downtown reminds us that brick and mortar from 200 years ago lasts longer than wood and nails only 50 years old. An extended trip downtown reveals an ancient Charleston with stories of ghosts and artifacts that date back to the 1700s.
Something about the past excites us. We want to know where our families came from. We want to know what our ancestors looked like. We walk through our parents or grandparents houses making a mental list of the antique chairs we want or the pictures that would look great in our family rooms or figuring a way to acquire the old hutch. We want to connect with the past and one way we can do that is through the stuff we have used over the years.
Antiques take us back to a simpler time of life. Granted, many of us cannot remember a time without television or air-conditioning, we look fondly back on the days of hand-cranked telephone calls, feather beds, and one-room school houses. Nostalgia overwhelms us as we ponder what it would be like to live “back then.”
But, time moves on. Things change. The hand-cranked telephone that would connect us to an operator who would connect us to the party we were calling, has been replaced by a tiny device that not only calls people, but also takes pictures, sends written messages, and connects to the Internet. Feather beds have turned into space-age memory foam used by the scientists at NASA The one-room school house is now a multi-million dollar facility capable of holding three thousand students.
Unfortunately, many of us are so enamored with antiques that we fail to see the value in something new. And, many of us are so caught up with the latest gadget or gizmo that we forget the importance of what came before. Somewhere we need to find a healthy balance.
One of those places we need to find that healthy balance is with our faith. Jesus understood this dilemma between the old and the new. When he preached the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, he laid out the old understanding of the law and presented the new interpretation of a way to live. He said, “Do no think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” (Matt 5:17) He acknowledged the old, but set a course for the new.
Six times he used the words, “You have heard it said…” and he goes on to explain the original law. Then he interprets the law, “But I say to you…” Jesus did not get stuck admiring the old and living in the past. He took what was given and kept it alive for today. The “antiques” he spoke of could still be useful. He pulled them out of the attic, dusted them off, and gave them new meaning for life.
Think about the antiquated parts of your faith. What have you learned and what do you know that you need to go back and examine again? It might be that all you need to do is dust off a childhood lesson. It could be that you have grown to understand parts or scripture in a totally different way. Take the time to go through your faith storehouse. Open up the boxes and take the dust covers off the furniture.
“You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:43-48