I was at the gym recently and on the TV screen in front of me was a cricket match being played between England and Australia. I noticed that when a wicket fell, they engaged in the kind of celebration that we often see on the football pitch when a goal is scored.
Now, you know that I am not an avid follower of sport, so hopefully you will be impressed by my using one or two technical terms correctly! But it set a train of thought off in my mind. Do you remember when cricket was played all in white? When it was a very sedate game? When there might be a smattering of applause when a wicket fell, but nothing more? When, unless you knew the game well, it was almost impossible to make out individual players on the pitch, and certainly on TV, almost impossible to see where the ball actually was? Or how about the days before footballers did strange dances to celebrate goals? What are we coming to!
Sometimes people say similar things about church. They think back to the old days with rose tinted spectacles. Wasn’t it lovely when the children (not called kids!) sat in neat rows at the front and didn’t say a word unless they were asked a question? Wasn’t it great when people came into church and sat in silence and prayer before the service began? Isn’t it terrible how people clap when someone is baptised, or to celebrate something God has done?
Well, we change. Society changes. God changes – not in his nature but in what he does with his people. In Isaiah 43.19 God says, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”
Of course, not all change is good, and it behoves us well to weigh new things and discern whether they are godly or not. When we applaud in church, are we encouraging our brother or sister and giving glory to God, or are we engaging in the cult of celebrity? I think most of the time it is the former. When we chatter before the service, is it deepening fellowship and understanding of one another before we come to worship, or is it gossip, or disrespectful to God and those leading worship? Hopefully it is the former! When the children are being noisy and boisterous, is it because they feel welcomed and accepted in God’s presence, or is it because they are trying to disrupt the service, and don’t know how to behave? Again I hope it is the former.
It has been said that the only place where people do not change is the cemetery. Even there, not all is dead, as decay rots away those in the graves. All too sadly, there are some churches where people sing the line from the hymn “Nothing changes here,” and it appears to be true! Only, there again, death and decay causes change, as the congregation dwindles in number, and no new people join. It won’t be long before the final change is the closing of the church building, as there are not enough congregants to sustain it.
Change can be frightening. The world around is changing so rapidly, that some of us want to seek comfort in the church never changing. This is wrong-headed. Our trust and security should not be in the church, which can and must change as it reaches out to each successive generation. Our trust and security must be in God, who does not change, and goes with us into each new thing.
God bless,
Nik
