Open to a New Thing?

If you're lost you can look, and you will find me, time after time. If you fall I will catch you, I'll be waiting, time after time. -Cyndi Lauper

A friend of mine asked me to work on some music with him. It’s not for a worship service or even planned for inside the church building, but for the sheer joy of playing for other people in other settings. On our dream set list (still in progress), you won’t find a single hymn or praise song, but you will find The Police, Cyndi Lauper, and a number of very eclectic things that are new to me.

“What? No God songs?” some of you may query. Some may gasp, “Isn’t that leaving God behind?” Granted, many years ago, I set a “Christian music only” rule in my house for a while because I felt like the smarmy lyrics just didn’t benefit my daughter and me. In the years since, I’ve recognized that I can be selective about lyrics, without cutting myself off from good music with great lyrics. I’ve had youth tell me about a great “Jesus” song that merely repeated the name somewhere, and have heard hymns that were so archaic that the meaning once understood by past generations flew past me. So, can God take something old or secular and make it new? Can He take something from the today's world and use it to talk about hope, joy, peace, and the fullness of His love for us?

Jesus came to make things new. At the last supper, he sat down with His disciples for a Passover meal, a celebration that had been passed down through generations. When I say “passed down”, I mean each little detail of it, all those words, gestures, and acts which made a Passover meal, a Passover meal. Everyone knew what to expect. Everyone knew each prayer that would be said and when and how each item of food would be eaten. Traditions that one just doesn’t stray from… until…

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. -Jesus (John 13:34)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! -Paul, the Apostle (2 Corinthians 5:17)

...Jesus interrupted the flow of things by saying something that was not written in the script. He said to them, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me” and "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” I can almost hear them gasp. “What? No traditional Passover prayer? Aren’t you deviating from what God said we are to do right here?”

Ahhh, but God’s plan was right on track. They didn’t understand that then. Some of us today barely understand it now. I won’t go into the cultural or theological stances on that right now (i.e., the Middle Eastern customs of sharing a meal, or Christ’s atonement, both of which are highly relevant in this discussion) but I want to take note of how Jesus stepped beyond the accepted description of a Passover meal. That celebration was never just about the format and details of the meal itself. What about the freedom from slavery to Pharaoh that God was providing Moses and the Israelites, and the freedom from slavery to sin and death that Christ offers us. The idea of freedom was taken past being a story, and into a hopeful present and future.

Jesus wasn’t ignoring God during the Passover meal that night, just because he was doing something new and different. Jesus was obeying God and telling us about God’s deep love for all of us. Just because one listens to 80’s rock or has friends outside the church, or spends time doing things that some wouldn’t label “ministry”, doesn’t mean that God is not involved. If you are seeking to love God with all that you are, and then love people the way He loves you, then chances are you don’t tend to ask God to have a seat and wait while you do “secular” things. The labels of “church” and “secular” become less important, because your relationship with Christ is constant. You want to go where He goes, wherever that is. The labels we put on proper prayer or a worship service becomes less of the focus, and the question of discovering or rediscovering Spirit-led worship becomes the central theme. In the midst of it all, something new can happen which honors God and renews His people.

The truth is that we all have struggles and issues. I know that the only way I make it through them is because I believe the Christ goes with through it with me. I feel his real presence, comfort, strength and unconditional love. Time after time, when I’m lost, falling and need to be caught, He is always there. Time after time, He waits on me, pursues me, renews me and makes things new, time after time, after time, after time…