Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Is there any basis for the "new and fresh" Christ being bandied about in our hymns? As compared to what, pray tell? Certainly we loved the idea. But where did this new and fresh Christ come from?
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I will never hear the end of it. "There goes OBW again."
But "fresh and new" is appealing. But it is not promised. There is the verse that is included in a popular chorus that says "His mercies never come to an end . . . they are new every morning." But is "new" necessarily "bubbly" or outwardly "joyous"? Our living and responding to Christ/God/the Father/the Spirit should be new each day. But that does not mean bubbly or "fresh." It means current.
Like manna. Manna was old stuff. They ate it every day. ("Every day we say our prayer, with they change the bill of fare, all we ever get is gruel") They got upset about it because it was the same every day. But yesterday's manna was useless. You had to get new manna each day. After a while, it became "second verse, same as the first." Yet today's manna was not yesterday's manna despite the sameness of it.
Not too exciting or "fresh." Or was it? Maybe it was just as fresh as was needed. A new batch of the same stuff we had yesterday. And on and on for 40 years. Yes, manna gave way to variety when they got to plant their own crops. Wheat, barley, oats. And have more livestock. Goats, cattle, pigs (oops, no pigs) sheep, chickens (??). Given the vast food industry there, I bet they never ate the same thing more than once a . . . month. No maybe week. No maybe more like every couple or three days.
But we like new and fresh and think that those who are getting their "same" new every day are pathetic, or at least not joyous, or not "experiencing Christ" (at least not enough).
We still critique Christianity on Lee's terms and may not want the old stuff back as bad as Indiana does, but still somewhat.