“Seasoned Christianity”
Dear church,
Sometimes we avoid using the word “old.” For things we use it quite frequently, for an old shoe, an old refrigerator, even for an old dog (or any other creatures) but God forbid we use it for other people. It’s frowned upon. “Don’t call me old! I know I am getting older but I don’t want you to remind me of the fact!” So, other expressions from the great dictionary of sophisticated words are enlisted to emphasize the more valuable aspects of the same old human reality. The word “mature” comes to mind, or “seasoned,” meaning this person has a wealth of experience from a long career or a long life and has earned our respect. Nice! But even nice words can be perceived as insulting, maybe especially the nicer words. Does mature sound any better when you suspect that people really want to say the “o” word, even as they cover it up nicely? For many people age is a trigger, and here we are talking and singing and smiling about the seasons of life. Because all the seasons of life are valuable and meant to be. Are you ready?
Here is a not-so secret fact: our society is sustained by people with lots of experience. Our church is, for sure. At the same time, there is still a lot of youth worship going on in the broader society, as if there was an ideal age, an ideal season that we would like to maintain against the objections of Father Time - somewhere in our 20’s or early 30’s. To debunk that, just ask some people in their twenties or 30’s. Ask them how it’s going, how they feel. It’s not an easy time for many, in terms of jobs, in terms of family building, housing, connections, friendships. Even health is not a given among young people, including mental health. Good old happiness is often lacking in younger people. The seasons of life, they can’t be too much stereotyped. Each season has its own challenges, its own burdens, its own opportunities and we become who we are through all the seasons of life, not by skipping some of them. Wisdom from the Bible.
Older (oh, excuse me, mature!) people bring more to the table than they give themselves credit for. They often hold families together, and they have a long-reaching memory. The older I get, the more I see that!
We also belong to a faith – and here I use the plain word – that is quite old, 2000 plus years of Christianity. We belong to a denomination that is 500 plus years, older than most trees. Lutherans are old.
And just like that, we are tempted to look at the age of Christianity as a disadvantage: all the historical baggage that comes with it, the sins of the past, not to speak of those in present times: the Crusades, the Inquisition, Martin Luther’s most unfortunate comments about the Jewish people, the involvement of the church in wars, the blessing of weapons, the martyrs burnt at the stake, discrimination against women, people of color and people with different sexual orientations… Shall I continue? The list is endlessly long because frankly, we’ve had so much time to mess up; human sin accumulated over two millennia is like calcium in your coronary arteries. Give us some time and we will find ways to block the bloodstream of the gospel. That’s our human experience. It’s tempting then, to say, ”Let’s start fresh. Let’s join a new church without all the baggage, without all the traditions that no longer seem to fit the world we live in.” We enter the world of non-denominational congregations. Finally free from the past! Or so people think...
We are a seasoned church. We accept the baggage of our forebears as part of the mixed-bag of our Christian heritage. We dare to believe that we can always become new by the grace of God, a new church built on very old foundations, and despite the errors of the past. The baggage we carry along is a valuable reminder of our inherent tendency to misunderstand and pervert the love and grace of God, the gospel of unconditional love; rightly understood, that awareness of our human baggage only expands our appreciation for the very gospel that brings us to God’s table. All of us, I believe, bear some remnants, scars and spiritual DNA from the human sins that have been committed over the centuries. We bring not only our little individual stuff - as if that weren’t enough! – but we also bring our human DNA, our Christian DNA, what the church has sometimes called original sin (easy to misunderstand!) to the table of the Lord to receive holy love, reconciliation, renewal, freedom, grace.
We are a seasoned church. We have been through a lot and we have put God through a lot. We are seasoned. We have members from all seasons of life, and that is a true gift. May God help us, each of us, to accept the season we are in right now and to recognize that it is part of a whole that leads us eventually to a place beyond all seasons, something steady and eternal that has always been deep inside of us, since birth. No, since before birth. God in us. Eternity within us. Have faith!
Amen.
