The Family Pickle and the God Who Makes All Things New

Happy New Year to all of you! Just like that we are in 2007 and already halfway through January. It was just seven years ago that we were led to believe that the world was going to grind to a shuddering stop as computers turned over the electronic digits of a new millennium. Alas, that didn’t happen and the sun still rises every morning, and sets every evening. Some things never change.
But praise God other things do! It’s about this time every year that millions of us will make covenants of change with ourselves or others—commonly called New Years Resolutions. We will take on a diet to change our weight, or take on a cancer to change the near term outcome of our lives, or resolve to spend more time with our children to change the reality of our disconnected families. You get the picture.
Our world is changing. Like or not, everything has changed, will change, or needs to change. Death is in a real sense the ceasing of change; the termination of interaction and communication with an environment and a failure to respond appropriately. So the long and the short of it is this: we need change. Without it we die.
We need it. And we resist it. We are nostalgic for the familiar—wanting to be connected to those things that bring the comfort of regular life rhythms and patterns. This could be the bed we sleep in, or the chair we watch TV in, or our favorite beer cozy, or Grandma’s china.
In my family there is an amicable argument over a pickle. It’s a special pickle really; nothing ordinary about it. It’s special because it’s 150 years old. A great-grandparent grew the cucumber inside the narrow mouthed jar, broke off the plant when the fruit filled the jar in a completely unnatural way, filled it with preservative, and then sealed it with a glass stopper and wax. It hasn’t been opened since.
When I was a child, I remember seeing it sitting on my grandmother’s organ. It seemed a strange and odd thing to keep on an organ, but there it was.
My grandparents are now in their mid-70’s and have begun their end-of-life estate planning. Because of this they have been having conversation with their children and grandchildren about the things of value they’ve accumulated over time, figuring out who will get what.
There has been more argumentation over that pickle. Like I indicated before, it’s congenial. But that yellow pickle, sitting in that old glass jar, filled with suspiciously yellow water, always comes up in conversation. “Who do you think the pickle is going to now?” “Well I’ve told them I expect that pickle...” and on and on.
I think I’m the black sheep in the family. I’m the only one I know of who isn't that interested in that pickle.
But I’ve often wondered why THEY all are? And this is the conclusion that I’ve come to: it connects my family to its history. An ancestor who lived 6 generations ago produced this odd organ sitting anomaly, and it has family historic value.
I get that. Our histories are important. They connect us to our forebears and to their traditions, beliefs, and values, even if those same things have changed for us.
Churches, especially established ones like ours, have significant histories. St. Mark’s represents at least five generations of faith here in the Bloomfield community. Hence our museum artifacts, the artifacts of our history stored in a large locked glass case of the Nave.
But we as the church live in a dynamic tension. It’s one of change. Time marches on. Human society changes. And our Holy Scriptures tell us that God isn’t done creating yet: the Holy Spirit is continuing to create faith and the Kingdom in our broken world.
It is Jesus who says, “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21). And that is good news. Jesus PROMISES to change us, to bring reconciliation to hard and angry hearts, and forgiveness to our forsaken souls. He promises to bring sight to the blind, and to release the captives. And that folks is change no matter how you slice it. It’s change that saves!
Faithful churches are changing churches. They are faithful and changing because they are willing to follow Jesus into the mission field (Bill Easum). They are willing to learn new faith languages and new ways of being to reach the nations for Jesus Christ.
The reality is, we’ll get to the nations. But out there, wherever you are, all you need to do to begin following Jesus into the mission field is to simply reach your community. The mission field isn’t any further away than our pews or coffee shops, co-ops, schools, or homes.
Here’s to the Lord of creation who creates us, not from our pasts, but from his glorious and life giving changed future!
Grace and peace to all of you on the front lines of faithfulness!