The Old and the New

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acquaintances, deeper values, fate, friends, Jesus, kingdom of heaven, new, old, parable, separate, snap judgment, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Interestingly, for no apparent reason yesterday, a rhyming ditty from my childhood came wafting up from my past. “Make new friends but keep the old; one is silver and the other gold.” I heard it and smiled and then it was gone. I think it was one of the learnings of Girl Scout meetings. It came back to me this morning as I read the parable of the Kingdom of heaven being compared first to a net cast into the sea that collects every kind of fish. Upon return to shore, the fishermen separate out what is good and throw away what is bad.

After explaining that it will be so at “the end of the age” when angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous, Jesus gives a rather harrowing description of the fate of the wicked. He asks his disciples if they understand what he’s saying but when they say they do he proceeds to offer another image. I would have thought he was so happy that they got something he was talking about that he would have stopped there. But no. “The kingdom of heaven,” he continues, “is like the head of a household who brings forth from his storeroom both the new and the old.”

While I’m not trying do a serious analysis of Scripture here (I leave that to the theologians) I am interested that Jesus seems this time to be comparing new and old without judging them good or bad. You can’t know without opening the bottle and tasting the wine whether it is fine or turned to vinegar. I go back to the fishermen and see them grabbing fish and throwing them back or into a bucket, perhaps counting on their experience to help them make a quick decision about good or bad. Sometimes, though, it takes time to assess what is worthy or not.

So I guess my singsong memory is relevant after all. No snap judgments of friends who are getting older or newer acquaintances who have yet to show their true colors. Just looking for the deeper values that come to light with time and patience.

 

 

 

 

 

Would It Help?

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Cold War, fate, hope in God, house of the Lord, light, psalm 27, refuge, salvation, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, whom should I fear

In the movie, Bridge of Spies, each time Tom Hanks (the lawyer) asked his client, (the Russian spy) for different reasons whether he was distressed or afraid, he replied very calmly, “Would it help?” He had obviously reached a place of equanimity about the possible consequences of his actions and the life he had lived. I have thought about that response and was reminded of it again by the first line from this morning’s reading of Psalm 27. “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear?”

Obviously those two questions result from vastly different lifestyle choices. The spy was totally close-mouthed about his motivations, but there were intimations in the film indicating that his life was not all violence and intrigue. Perhaps (and here I cringe at the possibility of reactions…) he was a man doing his job as he saw it in service to his country during the Cold War. Whatever his beliefs, he was resigned to his fate. The psalmist, on the contrary, is all about hope in God and in the possibility of living more and more deeply into God’s light for eternity.

There are many reasons to fear in the world of today and the tensions all around us can cause us to give in to distress. I am thinking that a good morning practice might be the recitation of Psalm 27. Waking up to these words might give us a head start on the day. Try it; you might like it!

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The Lord is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid? One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his temple.