Newness All Around
2 Corinthians 5:6-17
Randy L. Quinn

It's been hard to watch television this week without hearing about two issues: Timothy McVeigh's trial and Paul Allen's proposal to the voters. One or the other or both of these issues comes up constantly throughout the day, no matter which program you are watching, no matter what time of day you have your television on.

The same could be said for the radio, I suppose, though I only listen to the radio while I'm in the car and so I don't notice it as much.

Now, I grant you that McVeigh's trial is being handled much better than O.J. Simpson's last year, and the stadium vote has produced a more focused campaign than most other elections. But still I wonder why it is that they have to be so much in our lives right now.

Whatever passion we may have for either of these issues is dissipated by the constant bombardment of the images in our lives. We tend to listen less carefully. We tend to shut our ears, our eyes, and even our minds in the din of noise created by the mass media attention.

Even my bringing it up this morning has probably already caused some of you to 'tune out' whatever I may say. Apathy has struck us.

But apathy can be deadly.

The other day, in fact, apathy almost cost my life.

I was at the stop light on Highway 20 at the Farmhouse Inn. I was gazing at the sky when the car next to me started to move across the intersection. So I took my foot off the brake and started across as well.

Then I noticed a car turning directly in front of me and I slammed on my brakes.

The two cars moving across the intersection were in the left hand turn lanes and the green arrows had come on. My light was still red.

I had become apathetic. I had quit paying attention to the primary task of driving my car.

Apathy is a lack of passion. A lack of concern. Sometimes we don't recognize our own apathy. Sometimes we call it boredom. Sometimes we are too busy to be bored, but we feel empty inside. There are both expressions of our apathy.

We become apathetic when we are in a regular pattern of living or when we become inundated with stimuli.

We can allow ourselves to become apathetic in our spiritual lives as well.
We may start with some excitement and enthusiasm.
We may have a conversion experience that changes the way we relate to our family, our neighbors, our co-workers.
We may start a habit of reading our Bibles.
We may find ways to share our faith with others.
We may become active in the church.
We may jump in and participate in a variety of projects.
We may bring food for a bake sale or buy something that someone else has brought.
We may show up and offer to help at a church work party.
We may worship regularly.
We may even serve on a committee or two.

But after a while, we lose energy. We either forget why we are here or we stop looking for ways to serve Christ by serving our neighbor. We 'tune out' the call of God because we hear so many pleas for help or we become so involved in our routine that we fail to heed the voice of God in our midst.

There always seems to be more to do and so we become apathetic -- much like we no longer pay attention to Timothy McVeigh or Paul Allen.

Or we become apathetic because coming to church begins to seem so routine that we stop seeing what else God is calling us to do -- much like I failed to respond to the green light on Highway 20.

And our apathy can be just as deadly.

Deadly for each of us as individuals.
Deadly for all of us as a congregation.
Deadly for the church universal.

So the obvious question becomes, how can we stop our own apathy? How can we begin to find our passion again? What can we do to extend and commit ourselves in new and fresh ways?

I think Paul gives us some clues in our text for today.

Paul has been trying to answer questions and accusations about his ministry. Some of the concerns were raised because of the apparent contradiction between his message of God's victory and the continuing persecution of Christians. Ultimately, he says, it's a matter of seeing the world from God's perspective, not ours. And from God's perspective, everything is new.

Turn in your hymnal to page 876 for a minute. (Page 876 is where you can find An Order for Morning Praise and Prayer.) I use this order for prayer every Thursday. And as I use it each week, I'm beginning to be affected by it. I want you to specifically look at the prayer on the top of page 877, the Prayer of Thanksgiving.

New every morning is your love, great God of light, and all day long you are working for good in the world. Stir up in us desire to serve you, to live peacefully with our neighbors, and to devote each day to your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.

"New every morning is your love." Every day is a new day, every day brings new gifts, every day brings new blessings. And praying this prayer every week has helped me become more aware of the newness all around me.

The power of suggestion is really amazing.

If every Sunday I asked you to pray for the children in your lives, you would begin to notice the children more. It may not happen the first week. But after a year of it, you may begin to see children you hadn't even noticed before. You may begin to realize how often you can make a difference in their lives.

This prayer that I pray every week is beginning to affect the way I see the world. As Paul says it, "there is a new creation, everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (v 17).

It's interesting, because rather than causing me to get lost in the rhythm and routine, I'm beginning to see new things in old patterns. I'm beginning to see God at work in the little things all around me.

But Paul says that whether I can see it or not, God has created each day as a new day. Whether you can see it or not, God has created each day as a new day. Whether we recognize it or not, God is working to bring good into the world, into my life, into your life. Every day brings with it new opportunities to serve Christ by loving others. Every day brings with it new possibilities.

On those days when I remember the wonderful gift of a new day that God has given us, I find that I am less apathetic. I not only begin to lose my apathy, but I also begin to experience passion, a passion for life, a passion for God, a passion for others.

That passion has allowed me to listen again to the story of Timothy McVeigh with a growing sense of compassion. I don't know whether the jury is right about what he did or not. I don't know because I haven't seen the evidence they saw. Nor do I know if there is other evidence that was not presented. But I must either trust their judgment or challenge our court system entirely.

But I do know that Timothy McVeigh is still a child of God. He is loved by God. And God calls me to love him, too.

Paul says, Christ "died for all" (even Timothy McVeigh). "From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view." (v 15-16)

The sense of newness every morning has also caused me to listen to Paul Allen and his opponents with what I consider to be a clear mind even though I voted over a week ago.

Like you, I watched with horror earlier this spring as the floods destroyed homes and neighborhoods in Rapid City, South Dakota.

I know that folks are beginning to move back into those areas. And I also know that their lives will never be the same. They may rebuild, but it won't be the same. Everything has changed. It may look the same, but it isn't.

I've seen what a house looks like after it's been filled with mud. Floods came through the small town in Kansas where I was living before I met Ronda. A member of our church had just finished remodelling their house when the floods brought 6 inches of mud into their home. The water came up to the windows of every room in the house.

And while they were able to clean up the mess, they knew the house would never be the same.

The last time we were in Kansas, I noticed that they had raised the foundation on their home. The memory of the flood was enough to make them nervous about living there without making some drastic changes.

And every time someone comes up the steps to their home, they are reminded of the flood in 1986. Everything has changed because of the water that came into their home.

Paul says that when we recognize what Christ has done for us, we are no longer the same, either. We may look the same. But the whole world is different. Because now we see it from God's perspective. Now we see how amazing is God's love for us.

Christ died for us.

He died so that we might have life, so that we might live, so that we might have joy, so that we might live our lives for him, so that we might give our lives for others.

We can become overwhelmed by that and ignore it. We can become complacent about it and continue living the way we have always lived. But from God's perspective, everything has changed. "Everything has become new."

"New every morning is your love, great God of Light."

Thanks be to God. Amen.