This blog entry starts with a health update. I am not feeling well. More to the point, I really don’t feel well. It turns out that when I was in the hospital the second week in July, I was prescribed a couple of new prescriptions. Understandable. Doctors rarely wish to leave well enough alone. A week later I had to call an ambulance to the apartment because I was so sick. Back to the hospital. There they discovered that I had been prescribed two different types of antibiotics. The two combined had killed all the bacteria in my system, including the good bacteria which aids in digestion. So they took me off the antibiotics and sent me home. No real improvement for several days. And then, Wednesday night, Ed Fitch and Brian Chamberlain came by to see me. Dr. Brian suggested I eat some yogurt to jump start the digestive bacteria. Sounded like a good idea. He went over to then store and grabbed some. I was so sick I couldn’t eat anything just then, but I ate two containers at 4 AM and I do believe that I feel better. Brian should send a consultant bill into Medicare. I am not feeling the best, but I may be getting better. I know I miss everyone.

          The actual blog portion of this blog entry begins here, but is connected to medical, at least at the beginning. I am currently undergoing various tests and treatments at various doctor’s offices. The other day at Parkview/Huntington, I was sitting in a treatment room and the nurse suddenly looked up with recognition in her eyes. “I know who you are! You’re the new pastor at Urbana! I go to St. Paul’s County Line!” My response was, “Well, I am the pastor at Urbana, but I’ve been there for five years. When does ‘new’ end?”

          To me it is a legitimate question. When does ‘new’ end? In Ohio I had served at a church longer than any other pastor in that church’s 145 year history and one day I struck up a conversation with a man who snapped his fingers and said, “Yeah, sure, you’re the new pastor at Park Street Church!” When does ‘new’ end? I was going through the refrigerator at that same Park Street Church one day with the secretary sorting food that had been left for the Food Pantry. There was a jar of peanut butter that had been in the refrigerator since I had arrived at the church. I took it out, looked it over and told the secretary I was throwing it out. “You can’t throw it out!” “Why not? How long has it been there?” “Not for long.” “We have been using UPC seals for over twenty years. There is no UPC seal on this peanut butter jar.”

          I think the newness of something is dependent on perceptions. If we become used to something’s presence, it really isn’t old. The people who thought of me as the ‘new’ pastor had spent some time with the former pastor and still had him in mind. The pews in the church are old. They really are. But when you wander in and sit down, you do not think that they are old. You have spent considerable time with those pews. They cannot be old. However, pew manufacturers have designated twenty five years as the life span of a good pew. Of course, those are the manufacturers. You would expect that from them because they want to sell pews. Fifty years might be a little closer to the truth. I had asked the question at a previous church and got the answer that the pews were not that old. A little check showed them to be forty eight years old. A month later an entire family, three generations, came in just as we were starting and the pew snapped. Now, honestly, it was funny. Even more so when we found out no one was hurt. But what could have been?

          I think ‘new’ also is viewed by subject matter. Religion. There is the New Age Movement, which is now old. There are the Eastern Religions, which in the 1960s was wild and groovy, but now they are followed by old hippies. The Moonies, the Hare Krishna’s, the Universal Salvationists…..all had their new day, but have all grown old and weary now.

          You can do this with anything. Sports, movies, television, communication, medicine, whatever it might be grows old. It was great at the beginning, but now is outdated. So what is really new?

          I would point you to the Bible. Most would scoff and point out that it covers 4,000 years and the newest part is 2,000 years old. And that is true. But there is ‘new’ in the Bible; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He (God) made Him (Jesus) to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

          But that is old writing! Yes, but it carries a new thought to every generation. Christianity becomes old only when we let it become old. We hold onto the old thoughts as though they, themselves, were sacred. For me, as a child, church was a scary place. The wrath of God was awaiting you if you laughed. I do not remember talk of a ‘new creation’ and a ministry we all are a part of. There was a lot of damnation and hate. It is that thinking that the world sees and rejects. Let’s look at the above passage. We can become a new creation. We all have a ministry of reconciliation, which means we have a job to do of bringing people to Christ so they can be made whole in Him. There is no ‘down time’ in real Christianity. No Sunday Christians and do whatever during the week. But a real joy in service, for our service is to be loving people to Jesus.

          When I was in a very strict Bible college in Tennessee, we had a preacher in chapel tell us that hell was talked about seven times more in the Bible than heaven was, so we needed to make sure people understood their peril. And there is peril. Hell is real. But he told us an absolute lie. Hell is mentioned 54 times in the Bible, either as hell or sheol or hades. Heaven is mentioned over a thousand times, either as heaven or as the Kingdom or in some other fashion.

          So, let’s make the message new. It is all about redemption. Reconciliation. The Good News. In these dark, dark times, we need to show the new light of love.