2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:The old has gone, the new is here!
My grandmother was the original owner of this table. It isn’t the fanciest table anyone has ever seen. In fact it is a very simple table, but it does its job masterfully. In my grandmother’s kitchen it was stained a dark brown and was really shiny. I remember eating her homemade bread at this table as a small child, and poking fun at my Mamo when she would hurry us along as we ate so we wouldn’t miss watching Walker: Texas Ranger.
This table didn’t stay at Grandma’s house for its whole life. I grew up around this table in my parent’s house. When it was in my parent’s house it was refinished in a cream color. I remember sharing family meals around this table. I remember doing homework at this table all through Junior High and High School. Now it is in my house and is in the middle of being refinished once again. This is an old thing that is constantly being made new.
As I look at this table I can’t help but reflect how hard it is for those of us who strive to follow Christ to be made new. I am not by nature a hellfire and brimstone style preacher, but repentance is a real thing. Many times the greatest struggles I have in my own faith boil down to the fact that I don’t always want to be made new as much as I want to hang on to my old sins and vices.
Today in our nation we are in desperate need of being made new. Hatred, violence, and evil abound and it seems like there is no end in sight. The mainline news media is saturated with pundits playing the blame game, while our political leaders are using this tragic loss of life and outpouring of evil as nothing more than another political tool. We need to be made new.
The events that transpired in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend were attrocious. On Sunday I was convicted to preach a sermon I hoped I never would have to. I felt that it was necessary to bluntly and defiantly decry and denounce white supremacy and neo-nazi ideologies. These are issues I have spoken about before, but never thought would have to be once again confirmed as evil. I was naive, and I was wrong.
This issue of racism is old, senseless, and in desperate need of being removed from our society. It is time for us to be made new, and I believe that it needs to start in our churches. It is time for us as Christians to embody the call to action that Jesus placed on us in the great commission. Jesus didn’t say go forth and make disciples of those who are just like us. Jesus said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28: 19-20). That wasn’t an exclusionary or segregated call to action. It was a call for us to love each other. We have failed to be an obedient church. It is time we were made new.
As I look at my kitchen table I am resolved to be better. This table gives me hope. It has seen generations of folks grow up, move out, move on, and here it still stands once again being made new again. It gives me hope that I can be made new, and that we as the church can be made new. I am willing to bet that I am not alone in this desire for renewal. I am willing to bet I am one of billions. It is time we were made new.
David