November is a looking back and looking forward month. Lots of past things to remember – Saints, Guy Fawkes, Pilgrim Fathers and Wars. Then the beginning of advent looking forward to Christmas and a New Year. Caught between what has happened and what will happen, when we’re told we should ‘live in the present’.
It’s good to learn from the past – we promise ourselves that we will, but we rarely do. History has a habit of repeating itself. It’s best not to worry about what may happen in the future although good to prepare and think ahead. All we can really be sure of is the here and now. In the stories leading up to Christmas, the prophecies of the past linked the present to the future and concertinaed time.
Jesus told a parable that went like this: No one tears a patch from a new pair of trousers and sews it onto a new one. If you do, you will have torn the new clothes and the patch from the new material will look much too bright against the faded material of the old.
By trying to stay with the past with contemporary patches do we spoil the present opportunities? Change/moving on is frightening especially if we are reasonably happy and content with our lot. But its healthier to be open and ready for change, especially as Christians. Circumstances around us change; we can’t live in the past. There are always new things to learn from God – we cant hear Him and accept Him and stay the same. That’s why Jesus challenged the Pharisees of His day about their understanding of God – and He does the same for us today. Just as we think we’ve grasped what He is like, we see another side to Him.
‘O God, our help in ages past’ is a hymn often sung in Remembrance services – as we remember with gratitude our nation’s deliverance from war and conflict. But our God is not a God of the past. He doesn’t always do things the same way – in fact, He often does what we least expect. It is useful to know and recognise the old ways and be grateful, but not to try to add on bits of the new to the past which would dilute past achievements and ruin the new. Instead, can we draw on what we have learnt and let that guide us forward?
Jesus cannot simply be ‘patched’ into our lives and shaped round us – our existing prejudices and beliefs. Nor should He be moulded into our hopes and dreams for the future. He is ‘new every morning’ – constant in His message but finding new ways to reveal Himself and for us to experience Him. Old clothes can be comforting – but they also can wear out and get smelly. Something good can be kept for too long and transform from being useful to useless or even harmful. God has perfect plans for us, are we ready to release our grip on the familiar and move forward with Him?