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Psalm 131
November 25, 2012
O Lord,
my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not
occupy myself with things too great
and too marvelous for me.
But I have
calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is
with me.
O Israel,
hope in the Lord
from this time on and forevermore.
I was thinking about our topic for today on trends and
decided to do a little bit of research. So I spent time looking back at
clothing and car fashion from the 1950s to the 1990s. I’ve put my results on
the last page. Take a look at how things have changed.
Looking at these fashion trends, the thing that becomes
really clear whenever you trace any kind of trend—fashion, cars, movies, books,
home decorations, ideas—is that to be human is to be trendy. We are humanicus trendicus. I made that term
up, but it sounds good.
We humans are always looking for something new. I realize
that some people resist everything new, but the thrust of human progress is
always towards the new, whether it’s in fashion, cars, ideas, or political and
religious beliefs. Seeking “the new” isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s led to
the many, many areas of real progress, whether it’s to warmer and more
comfortable clothing, the eradication of slavery, Civil Rights, giving women
the right to vote and become pastors, the invention of new technology, and so
much more. But embracing the new brings with it a lot of problems, especially
on the spiritual level.
The main problem with spiritual and religious trends is
that they tend to lead us to do one of two things: First, they cause people to give
up traditions that give depth to life and connect us to deeper wisdom. This is
a really, really important thing in my mind. We are always too quick to think
that people of ancient times were ignorant and naïve, and that we, in our
times, are so wise and sophisticated. You can see this really clearly among
those who declare themselves to be “spiritual but not religious.” They are
quick to kick out the ancient and the old, especially religious rituals and
worship, seeing them as archaic, anachronistic, and just plain too old to teach
us anything. What they do is treat all religions like a Sunday brunch.
Think about the last time you went to a big ole Sunday
brunch, perhaps down at the Sheraton in Cranberry. What was there? Eggs,
sausage, pancakes, Belgian waffles, danishes, doughnuts, brownies, salad,
beans, ham and roast beef, rolls, butter, and so much more. Now, what did you
eat? My guess is that you didn’t eat the salad, green beans, and ham. You
probably loaded up on the tasty stuff. That’s the way those who often reject
religion act. They pick and choose from different religions, putting on their
plates the stuff that they find tasty, while ignoring the stuff that may be
more nourishing. The result is that it can lead the spiritual but not religious
to become ironically shallow, even as they think it leads them to become deep.
You can see a similar problem in churches that get rid of
the past to only embrace the present and future. Many contemporary churches are
like this. I don’t want to be too critical because they do a lot of good, but
often they are so focused on following cultural trends in music and performance
that they become shallow.
There’s a great video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys4Nx0rNlAM)
that was put our by a contemporary church associated with Andy Stanley’s NorthPointe
church in Atlanta. The video pokes fun at how shallow contemporary worship can
be if the focus is only on entertainment and performance. In its satire, it
does hit the point home. I encourage you to follow the link and watch the
video. Ultimately it shows that we Christians can be just as guilty of
following trends as non-Christians, and that there are a tremendous number of
Christian trends that can lead us to shallowness.
A second thing that trends can do is to lead people to
dig in their heals, even against trends that are good and lead to significant
progress. Throughout history people have dug in their heals against what feels
to them like trends, but were actually something that was leading the world to
a better way of living. Religious people dug in their heals against
Christianity at first, believing it was just a trendy new religion. Roman
Catholics dug in their heals against the Reformation, even if it was trying to
lead people back to a deeper relationship with Christ. Many Christians dug in
their heals against the abolition of slavery, the granting of Civil Rights,
giving women a equal place in society, and so much more. A wariness of trends
can actually lead people to stubbornly resist what God is doing, and what God is
moving us toward.
When it comes to spirituality, faith, and religion, what
leads to growth is keeping a foot both in the past and in the future. We grow, not
by chasing or resisting religious trends, but by balancing ancient wisdom with
contemporary insight. This is very much in keeping with the Presbyterian tradition.
Presbyterians believe in something that John Calvin triumphed: reformata semper reformanda. This means
“reformed, always reforming.” This means that the church was transformed and
reformed in the 1500s during the Reformation, but it continues to seek God’s
voice and guidance to engage in ongoing reformation. We always have to be
renewed in the face of a changing culture, but we do so by also remembering
where we have come from and holding onto that which is good.
At Calvin Church, we’ve always tried to maintain
both our past reformation and the future need to be ever reformed according to
God’s guidance. Our approach here is to try to keep a foot in the past and in
the future
The essential question is when do we change and when do
we remain the same? I think that part of the answer comes from Psalm 131:
I do not
occupy myself with things too great
and too marvelous for me.
But I have
calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is
with me.
The key is not getting caught up in trends or in
defending the status quo. It’s in resisting the need to either be a vanguard
for the past or a warrior for the future. It’s in keeping a balance, and making
changes from a place of calm, quiet, and humility. We change because we’re
called to do so, not so that we can keep up with others. We stay the same not
because we have to do what we’ve always done, but because we know that some
traditions are really important and nourishing for the soul. We stay calm, with
a quiet soul, so that we can follow what God wants.
Ultimately this is what it all comes down to: being in a
place where we can hear and follow the call of Christ.
Amen.
