Do you remember when your office got its first computer?

I was working in a TV newsroom where the pushback was dramatic, “What happens if the power goes out? Who’s going to fix it? I’m much faster on a typewriter…”

Technological change always generates this kind of repulse.

eBooks don’t let me get ink on my fingers.

Tweeting is for twits who could never write anything timeless.

YouTube is for those too lazy to read.

Wikipedia is for amateurs with no interest in serious scholarship.

This Sunday we hear Jesus talking with someone who is just as indignant in the face of change. When Jesus worked a miracle on the Sabbath his religious critic could only criticize. He did not say, ‘Please explain this,’ or ‘What’s that all about?’ Nope. Harsh rebellion at the prospect of change was all he could muster.

He did not know what you and I know: denigrating something new doesn’t hurt what’s new – it reveals something about a person’s willingness to learn.

And a willingness to learn is at the heart of the Christian life.

We are called to be transformed. Not once. But continually.

This calls for openness and imagination - a default setting not of criticism, but of wise consideration.

So the next time change comes our way, a reasoned hesitancy can take us much farther than vigorous criticism.

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Reading

Gulliver’s Travels - Jonathan Swift

Failure of Nerve – Edwin Friedman

Free – Mark Scandrette