© By the Rev. Edward Chinn, D.Min.

http://www.allsaintstorresdale.org

In the 1940s, eighty percent of all watches sold were made in Switzerland by watch companies that employed 80,000 persons. Today, those figures have changed dramatically. Now those Swiss watch companies employ only 18,000 and make only twenty percent of the watches sold. What made the difference? They failed to face the need to change. In the 1950s, a man presented something new to those companies-the digital watch. They rejected it. This man then sold his digital watch idea to Seiko. The Swiss companies failed to see the need to change. As Bruce Barton said, "Keep changing. When you're through changing, you're through."

We face the need to change in physical matters. Whether it is the food we eat, the alcohol we drink, the cigarettes we smoke, or the exercise we get (or don't get), we know we need to change. In the Wisdom literature of Israel are these words: "Drunkards and gluttons will be reduced to poverty. If all you do is eat and sleep, you will soon be wearing rags" (Proverbs 23:21). Those ancient sages knew we sometimes have to change the emotional atmosphere in which we eat: "Better to eat a dry crust of bread with peace of mind than have a banquet in a house full of trouble" (Proverbs 17:1).

We face the need to change in mental matters. Twelve days after the World Trade Center was destroyed (September 11, 2001), religious leaders held an interfaith prayer service in Yankee Stadium. A pastor from the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) took part in this service. He has now been suspended by his denomination as president of the Atlantic District. His "crime" was joining in prayer "with pagan clerics in Yankee Stadium" (New York Times, July 10, 2002). We need to change our minds about making a blanket condemnation of world religions, whether Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, or Christianity.

We face the need to change in spiritual matters. A half century after Jesus' lifetime, the author of Matthew wrote his gospel account. He recalled Jesus' story about the wheat and the weeds growing alongside one another (Matthew 13:24-30). While some in Matthew's time wanted to weed out the evil from the Christian community, Matthew argued against premature judgment in matters of church discipline. The servants in the story ask, "Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?" The owner said, "No, because as you gather the weeds you might pull up some of the wheat along with them" (Matthew 13:29). When we try to purge the church of heretics and hypocrites, we can do more harm than good.