ell, the Pandemic is still not over and some days we begin to wonder if it ever will be. Whatever became of Dr. Fauci’s two-week shut down? You probably remember that back in March 2020, Dr. Tony Fauci urged the President of the United States to lock down the entire US economy for two weeks to slow the spread of the coronavirus. It sounded like a bearable plan, of course, until the two weeks turned into as many months as we’ve had since then. Even more devastating, was that several developing countries followed the USA’s lead on that plan. They locked down their struggling economies for the imaginary two weeks. Even more devastating than that is the fact that many, perhaps most, Christian churches went along with the plan. Some are Now some prognosticators want to talk about a thing they call, “The new normal.” Ouch! Sometimes I ask myself if I have lived too long to get used to a “new normal,” what- ever that is and whatever it looks like. I like my old routine. No big surprises! Nothing that makes me feel that I’m not “in control.” Then I realize that there’s just one thing I dread more than a new normal and it’s the “same old, same old.” Same old, same old looks to me like today’s preacher enemy No.1! The treacher- ous enemy facing us today is the dictatorship of the routine, when the routine becomes “lord” in the life of Christ’s church and in our lives. Before you realize it, that becomes a rut. My dear friend Zig Ziglar used to say that a rut is a grave with the ends kicked out. Zig was right!
What is it they say are the seven last words of the dying church? “We’ve never done it this way before!” Under same-old, same-old, programs are organized and the prevailing conditions are accepted as normal. Anyone can predict next Sunday’s worship and what will happen. If there’s one thing that makes me appreciate the Pandemic (wow! I never thought I’d hear myself say that!) it is that the Pandemic has turned a few of the old practices upside-down. This seems to be the deadliest threat in the church today. When we come to the place where everything can be predicted and nobody expects anything unusual from God, we are in a rut. The routine dictates, and we can tell not only what will happen next Sunday, but what will occur next month and, if things do not improve, what will take place next year. Then we have reached the place where what has been determines what is, and what is determines what will be.
Expecting the Same Old, Same Old! W
By Leslie Holmes That might be an okay plan for a
cemetery. Nobody expects a cemetery to do anything but conform to being a cemetery. Everyone and everything in a cemetery has an accepted routine. There’s one thing you can always be sure of when you visit the cemetery; the people buried there are not going to complain and they don’t have any great new ideas. Nobody expects anything out of those buried in the cemetery. I’ve participated in enough burials to know just about how long it takes from when you drive into the cem- etery until when you will drive away again. I cannot remember ever being sur- prised there. But Christ’s church is not a cemetery and was never intended to be. His people expect more from it, because that has been our history for more than 2,000 years now. More important, He ex- pects more from us. Let’s not allow the Pandemic to disappoint Him! The apostle Paul “got it” and wrote, “One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way” (Philip- pians 3:12-15).
Thinking about those words, this has become my daily prayer, “Father, use me today to help some people to really grow in You and grow for You. Please send me to at least one person to whom - agement today, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.” It has helped me to break free from the Pan- demic rut. If you like it, I invite you to join me in a prayer like that where you minis- ter. And, here’s a new life verse for you: “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (Colossians 1:28-29).
A Contributing Editor to Preaching, Leslie Holmes is a former Moderator of the Associate Reformed Presbyte- rian Church and professor of preach- ing. He lives in Augusta, Georgia. You can reach him at rlesholmes@
aol.com
28 The Associate Reformed Presbyterian
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