Making way for the new

"I will look with favor upon you and make you fruitful and multiply you; and I will maintain my covenant with you. You shall eat old grain long stored, and you shall have to clear out the old to make way for the new. I will place my dwelling in your midst, and I shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people." Leviticus 26:9-12 NRSV

I am intrigued by the text, " . . . you shall have to clear out the old to make way for the new." I hear Jesus' teaching that we don't put new wine in old skins or sew a new patch on old material. Both suggest that there are points in our lives when we have to put the old aside and embrace the new.

Sandi and I have been doing a lot of that the last year or so. We put aside the old and moved to Baltimore. Last week we put aside the old by closing on our home of 12 years and put an offer on a new home. We are embracing the newness of Mikaela being married, the even newer news of Beth's engagement and preparing for Samantha's graduation. There's a whole lot Sandi and I are clearing out and even more of the new we are preparing to embrace.

Clearing out the old and making way for the new is something I relish intellectually. I relish the thought of trekking the mountains of Peru to see Machu Picchu, of visiting Easter Island and doing a three month clergy exchange in Australia. Yet I tend to live in the rhythms of my life and forget to schedule time for vacation, much less my dreams. At worst, I am absorbed by pernicious minutiae and lose contact with friends, family, and parishioners.

And sometimes, clearing out the old and making way for the new is circling back and reengaging with the parts of my life that were once cherished but misplaced along the way: playing the guitar, running, theater.

So how do we live this out? I believe we celebrate God's marvelous gift of who we are embracing the unique talents, relationships and circumstances God has given us. Yet while we are embracing the gifts God has given us, we are invited to remain open to hear God proclaim "I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" (Is 43: 19 NRSV)

A new thing -- that might be an old thing -- that is a blessing from God. Shall we open our hearts, minds, and hands for God's new thing?