Rev. Scott Marrese-Wheeler
March 13, 2016
Isaiah 43:16-21
“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
It was a tough week for Wisconsin Supreme Court appointee and candidate, Rebecca Bradley.
It was revealed this past week, that back in the early 1990’s, Rebecca Bradley wrote several scathing opinion pieces for the Marquette University student newspaper, saying she had “no sympathy for AIDS patients because they had effectively chosen to kill themselves.” She had other choice words drug addicts and any American who voted for Bill Clinton in the 1992 Presidential election, calling them “evil”. Her week did not get any better, when it was also revealed that she had an extramarital affair.
When confronted with her public opinion pieces, she declined to be interviewed, but did apologize in a written statement, saying: “I am horribly embarrassed, and those words in no way reflect the person that I am today.”
I thought about her past words and her recent apology when I read the words of the Prophet Isaiah – “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
A friend of mine shared the article about Rebecca Bradley on Facebook. Another person, who was upset with his doing so, said: “A person can change!”
So let me ask, “Can we as individuals change, leaving our past in the past, and move into a new place in life? Or does the past, remembered or forgotten, still define who we are?”
The Apostle Paul might say, “Yes, we can.” Paul, as you might remember, is the author of many of the Epistles in the New Testament. He is also a major player in expanding the early Christian Church, especially among the Gentiles.
Over the past weeks, we have remembered Paul’s words to the Corinthians, noting his more “excellent way” to live together as one in Christ.
Last Sunday, we heard Paul remind the Corinthians, that “In Christ, the old is dead and gone, all people are made a new creation.” But is the “old” really “dead and gone” in our lives or are we forever haunted by our past relationships and actions?
Before he was Paul, you might remember he was called, Saul, a Jewish Rabbi, a strict legal justice of the Jewish courts, whose job was to persecute and have killed, followers of Jesus.
Listen to these words that are used to describe Saul: “With Old Testament imagery for anger–snorting through distended nostrils…Luke builds up the picture of Saul as a rampaging wild beast in his hateful opposition to the disciples of the Lord.” (Bible Gateway)
Can someone like Saul change his worldview, seeing those he disdained, persecuted and killed, as Christ’s “new creation”? Of course we know Saul can. Saul has a conversion on the Syrian road to Damascus. In an encounter with the Risen Christ, “whole spiritual world will be turned upside down…” (Bible Gateway)
Saul, who takes on a new name, becomes Paul the Apostle. He himself is a “new creation in Christ”.
In his letters to the early churches, he has a lot of explaining to do. He doesn’t just say he was embarrassed and no longer holds to that particular view of others. Throughout his writings, he tells of his conversion experience in Christ, acknowledges his transgressions, pens powerful words of healing and hope in Christ, and most importantly, to build the trust of those he once persecuted and had killed, he interacts with them, visiting their small communities. Both his actions and words reflect his new life Christ.
Can a person change, leaving their past behind them, and seeing people they once slandered, persecuted, spoke ill of, hated, in a new way?
There is a great scene in the movie – “The Shawshank Redemption”. Morgan Freeman plays a man, “Red”, who is serving a life sentence for a crime he committed when he was a young man. Throughout the movie, as the years go by, he is brought before the parole board and asked if he is “rehabilitated?” For years, he answers with words he knows they want to hear. Each time he is denied parole. Finally, now an old man, he finds himself once again before the Parole Board.
When asked if he felt “rehabilitated”, and ready to rejoin society, Red answers: “Rehabilitated? Well, now let me see. You know, I don’t have any idea what that means… I know what you think it means, sonny. To me, it’s just a made up word. A politician’s word, so young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie, and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?…There’s not a day goes by I don’t feel regret. Not because I’m in here, because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try to talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can’t. That kid’s long gone, and this old man is all that’s left. I got to live with that….”
It is a powerful scene, but seriously, it is just a script written for a movie. Can a person really let go of who they were in the past, and see things in a new way? If we so, what experiences or people changed us?
And if we have changed, how do we respond when those things from our past are remembered, often at the worst moment, confronting us, and dragging us back, while continuing to define our future?
Let me open up my personal closet, and bring out something I wish I didn’t have to remember, and actually have tried to forget, but feel I want to share with you.
I was a bully. I did and said some very mean things to a classmate when I was in high school. Her name is Aline. Today, she is a registered nurse, an educator and a professional church musician. I remember her being smart, funny, and attractive. Unfortunately, I also remember a name several of my friends and I use to call her, and it was not an affectionate one. It was a cruel name, one we used to make fun of her on a daily basis.
Each day during lunch, my friends and I would sit on the steps near the water fountain Each day, Aline would walk by on her way to the lunchroom. Each time we would tease her, calling her by our “special” name for her. She hated it and reacted to it, yelling at us to stop. We didn’t stop. We pushed things even further and had tee-shirts made that said “We Hate (Insert Cruel Name Here)” We thought we were being so “cool” wearing those shirts. Little did I know the negative impact our name calling was having on her.
A few years ago, when I signed up for Facebook, I started sending “Friend” requests to my high school classmates. I sent one to Aline. She responded, wondering why I would want to be her “Friend” after all the pain I had caused her in high school. She told me about the lingering effects my “name-calling” had on her life. How she had considered leaving our school, had struggled with depression, and contemplated suicide, because our cruelty. At the end of her very pointed note, she asked me to consider how I would feel if I had a daughter who was treated the way my friends and I had treated her?
It would be too easy to beg her forgiveness saying, I was just a teenager who did not know how much power there is in a name, especially in a name used to tease a young high school girl. Maybe I thought of my actions as just harmless teasing, but they were not. They had caused her great pain.
Here is the thing, after she shared her pain and anger with me, about my past words and behavior, I apologized, telling her I would never want my son or any person to experience or inflict the kind of emotional pain on others by our words, especially the names we used to taunt and harass her.
I told her about how over the years, I had become an advocate for students and other people, who like her, had experienced such horrible treatment by others. How I had become an advisor for our schools Gay-Straight Alliance. How I had worked in my ministry, counseling people just like her, helping them to heal from their past. I felt I was being honest and sincere, when I told her I was sorry and that I had “changed”.
Her response cut me to the quick. She told me that she believed I had not changed and that people could never change.
“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old….” How could I forget my past, now that I knew she would always painfully cling to her memory of me, my words and actions based on how they had shaped her school days and her life?
Can we, as God’s people, individually or collectively, change our worldview, forgiving our past, repenting of our words and actions, and move into a new future or are we to ever remember the past, letting our past lives, mistakes, action, words – continue to define us as we move forward in life?
I hope, I have changed. I hope Rebecca Bradley has also changed. I hope we all have forgiven our former selves, letting go of the old, and allowing ourselves to be raised into the new life in Christ. I hope this is so. But ultimately, God only knows.
“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
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