Friday July 30th - Faith in motion
Today's reflections are by Paul Harcourt
Go to an art gallery and you’ll normally find wonderful pieces from many centuries past. The pieces on display remind us that it isn’t always the latest thing that’s the greatest. Yet the gallery also shows that there has been a process of development over the years. Artists have built on what has gone before, but have often taken things in a surprising or creative new direction. As Winston Churchill said, “Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.”
In some respects, that is also true of the faith of God’s people. The more glorious the past, greater is the temptation for preservation to become fossilisation. Paul clearly understood how glorious God’s history with the Jewish people was, but until he encountered Jesus that tradition was holding him back.
The “good thing” that we cling onto can sometimes prevent us from responding to God when He is doing a “new thing”. I suppose that the ultimate point of the past is what it reveals about God in the present, because He alone never changes. “Methods are many, principles are few, methods may change, but principles never do”. The traditions we value aren’t a hammock into which we can comfortably relax, but are meant to be a springboard into the future that God has for us.
Father, help me properly value what previous generations have learnt so I can faithfully and creatively follow You in this generation. Amen.