(Originally written for The Baldwin Bulletin: Pastor's Column October 21, 2020)
A
generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever …What
has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and
there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, “See,
this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no
remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things
yet to be among those who come after. (Ecclesiastes 1:4, 9-11)
A
thought that frequently came to mind when I was a teenager was, “They just
don’t understand.” Usually it was about my parents, who I saw as being
unnecessarily strict and out of touch. They just didn’t get how things were for
a young man in the 2000s. It had been 25 years since they were my age. They
couldn’t possibly know what life was like. Looking back, my teenage self had
some growing up to do and, now that I have my own children, I understand a bit
more where they were coming from.
The
author of Ecclesiastes talks about how time continues to race by, people grow
old, new generations are born, but what’s happening today likely has happened
before. He’s not referring to computers and smartphones—that there was an
earlier time when those existed. we just haven’t found out about yet. No, he’s
talking about human nature, what people value, what they work for, what they
struggle with and what they enjoy. “…There is nothing new under the sun…”
As
we near what’s known as Reformation Day, which is the same day Halloween is
celebrated, Christians do well to remember the truth founded in Scripture that
there’s nothing new about the gospel. The Protestant Reformation brought about
major change in Europe throughout the 16th century that spread and
impacted what we know of Christian denominations, traditions, congregations,
and theology today. Yet that movement wasn’t about changing God’s word, it was
about returning to it.
…All
flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass
withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the
people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God
will stand forever.
(Isaiah 40:6-8) Peter roughly quotes those words in 1 Peter 1:24, explaining
those who are born again, have been so by the “imperishable seed” that is the
living and abiding word of God. In our day, all who claim to be Christians,
wherever they may be on earth, need to hold onto that. There’s nothing that
needs to be revised about God’s word. There’s nothing that needs to be added.
The source of the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ and the truth of God
that calls for repentance and faith is the same today as it was in 1517 as it
was for the early church.
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