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Old and New
By Rev. Vincent Coles
The phase “old
and new” is a common phase in our language. It comes up
around weddings and Housewarmings and at the ending of an
old year and the beginning of a new one. This phrase also
surfaces in the reading of God’s Word, the Bible.
When I was much younger, growing up in the church, I was
never really interested in reading the Old Testament. The
words were too hard to pronounce, the stories were
unfamiliar and I did not really understand what was going on
in the stories of the history of the Jewish people. My
knowledge of the Old Testament was limited to the stories of
Adam and Eve and the snake in the garden, Noah’s ark, the
stories of Abraham, Is-sac, and Jacob, Moses and the Red
Sea, Joshua and the battle of Jericho, Ruth and Naomi, Queen
Esther, Job, David and Goliath, David and Bathsheba, the
three Jewish boys and Daniel and the lion’s den. In my
religious training I know that there was a lack of emphasis
on the Old Testament scriptures and an overemphasis of those
in the New Testament. My Sunday school teachers fed me a
healthy portion of New Testament scriptures in the gospels.
They included many stories of John the Baptist, Mary, Joseph
and the baby Jesus, the acts of the apostles, the scribes
and the Pharisees. Most of the early preaching that I
remember revolved around the gospel narratives, the life of
Peter, and the journeys of Paul. Even in seminary, my study
of the Old Testament was limited to courses in systematic
theology and the Hebrew and Greek languages. This year I
have been blessed to teach a survey course of the Book of
Jeremiah in our Wednesday night Bible Study.
Jeremiah, the weeping prophet of the Old Testament has taken
on new meaning for me this year. I have taken a new look at
his calling from God and his mission to God’s people. In
Jeremiah Chapter 7, God tells Jeremiah what He wants him to
say to the people in Jerusalem. The script is quite clear.
Jeremiah is to stand in the doorway of the church and tell
the congregation that they need to repent. He is to tell
them why they need to repent and finally he is to tell them
what will happen if they don’t.
Eugene Peterson’s The Message gives a wonderful translation
of that chapter. If you have the time you should try to read
it for yourself. You can find it in our church library or
on-line. The interesting thing about this passage of
scripture, and so many others, is that the same old message
is presented in the New Testament. It is the same message
that we hear every week from the pulpit. We need to repent!
We need to turn away from our sinful ways and if we don’t
act on what God is saying to us, we will find ourselves
eternally separated from Him.
I have changed some of Mr. Peterson’s words to make a point.
Say, 'Listen, all you people of Mount Carmel who come
through these doors to worship God. God of-the-Angel-Armies,
God of our Fathers, God of the Ages has this to say to you:
Clean up your act— clean up the way you live, clean up the
things you do—so God can make His home with you in this
place.
Don't think for a minute that the words being spoken here,
"This is God's House, God's House, God's House" is going to
save you. That is Total nonsense! Only if you clean up your
act (the way you live, the way you do the things you do),
Only if you do a total spring cleaning on the way you live
and treat your neighbors, Only if you quit exploiting the
street people and orphans and widows, Only if you stop
taking advantage of the innocent people on this very site
and Only if you stop destroying your souls by using this
Church as a front for other gods you are worshipping, Only
then will I move into your neighborhood.
Only then will this country I gave your ancestors be my
permanent home for my Temple. Get smart! Your leaders are
not telling you the whole truth, and you're falling for it!
Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have
sex with the neighborhood wives, tell lies nonstop, worship
the local gods, and then buy every novel religious commodity
on the market, and then march into this Church, that was set
apart for my worship, and say, "We're safe!" because you
think that the church building itself gives you a license to
go on with all this outrageous behavior? You are just a
church full of criminals! Do you think you can turn this
Mount Carmel, which is set apart for my worship, into
something like that? Well, think again. I've got eyes in my
head. I can see what's going on.'" Let me tell you this!
Take a trip down to the place that was once in Shiloh, where
I met my people in the early days. Take a look at the ruins
there, look at what I did to Shiloh because of the evil ways
of my people.
So now, because of the way you have lived and failed to
listen to me, even though time and time again I took you
aside and talked seriously with you, and because you refused
to change your ways when I called you to repent, I'm going
to do to Mount Carmel, this church that is set aside for my
worship, this place that you think is going to keep you safe
no matter what, this place that I gave your ancestors and
you, the same as I did to Shiloh.
And as for you individually, I'm going to get rid of you
(enter your name), the same way that I got rid of your
relatives at Shiloh, in that former kingdom to the north.'
The point I am trying to make is this: God’s word is made up
of old promises that become new everyday.
We need to get familiar with these old promises so that we
can experience them coming true. As we begin a new year in
this life that we have been graciously given by our Lord, I
can only hope that we commit ourselves to reading God’s
Word, both the old and the new, so that we can build up His
Kingdom.
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