He Could Do No Deed of Power

I was home from college and decided to go with my sister to mass. After mass, the priest was shocked to see me. “Well, where have you been?” he asked.

“College. I’m attending Ohio University.”

“Oh… you weren’t supposed to go to college” Was the reply.

Jesus came to his hometown to teach. “Where did this man get all this?” was the response. And he could do no deeds of power there… and he was amazed at the people’s unbelief.

Now I have no idea what it’s like to grow up in Medina. I have no idea what it’s like to grow up and have the Vietnam War on a black-and-white TV. This is all history book stuff for me. I only know stories of how it used to be, I have never experienced it.

I was raised not just by my mom, but also my grandparents. They told me all sorts of stories. I have an affinity for those types of stories. I love history, and I believe that the present is simply what the past is doing now and the future is what the past will be doing later. Our histories are always with us.

Yet many of my peers do not have this view. They are after the new. They like the latest. Many of my friends were early adopters of smart phones while Kate and I still had a home phone or a flip phone. Now some sociologists say that we have the biggest generational divide since rock-and-roll. It’s bigger than rock and roll. It’s analog vs. digital.

The Rev. Otis Moss III talks about analog vs digital. Here’s how to tell if you’re one or the other. If you’ve ever owned a 78, 45 or a 33, you’re analog.  If you’ve ever purchased an 8-track, you’re analog. If you’ve mailed a handwritten letter in the last two months, you’re analog. If you’ve looked up a number in a printed phonebook, analog. Yet if you pay your bills online, digital. If losing your cell means you wouldn’t know your best friend’s phone number, then you’re digital.[1]

The digital age is so fast. Technology is doubling every 18 months or so. I think I’m so hip because I have 27 gigs of music on my computer. Then these streaming services like Spotify come out and everything is in the cloud, not on my computer.

We have this generational divide and it’s not helping matters. The old complain about the young and the young don’t care to listen to the old. This erodes community.

Jesus came to teach and could do nothing because the old couldn’t see the new. “Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon and aren’t those his sisters?” And the old dismissed the young, saying derogatory things about them and fearing for the future. Just like the priest who couldn’t believe I had gone to college. Where are the youth getting all this? Who put the idea in my head to go to college when all my high school could brag about was their 99% graduation rate and their 90% of those grads going to college. Well, who raised me? Who told me all of this stuff?

I was raised with values. I was told that I could be anything and to follow my dreams and pursue my passion. Yet when many of us do just those things, we get the reaction, “Where did you get all that?” From the people who raised me!

Look, today’s generation is making 20% less than a generation before at the same age. We have higher student debt coming out of college as well. People born in the 1950s had a 79% chance of making more than their parents did, but people born in 1980 only have a 50% chance.

I feel as journalist Nina Biagini feels when she writes, “Baby boomer, I do not minimize your struggle. Many of you were the first one in your family to attend college, paving the way for your children – your millennials. You have provided for us and taught us. The only problem is as we fluttered out of the nest to test our wings, we found the world slightly different than the one you prepared us for.”[2]

Where did Jesus get all of this stuff? Who raised him? Who taught him the stories of his ancestors of the flight from Egypt into the wilderness, of the rule of David, the Wisdom of Solomon, the voices of the prophets calling out for justice and a return to values and God’s mission. Who taught him of the exile, and of the Law?

Jesus was amazed at their unbelief and went on to do his work elsewhere. Sometimes waiting can become a way of life and people become passive. Yet Jesus believed the stories he was taught in his Saturday School (not Sunday school Jesus was Jewish after all) and believed that the Kingdom of God had come near. He taught his 12 this, and they listened. They saw the deeds of power. They saw the world he described, they yearned for the world to be as Jesus taught them it can be. Then he called them and sent them out two-by-two. He ordered them to take nothing but a staff; no bread, no money, just sandals and a jacket (not two jackets) to work and to show how God has come near. The waiting was over.

Tell of a new way of life, and if they can’t hear you, shake and walk on. No need to argue. Some people have only been taught to disbelieve. Some people cannot and choose not to learn new things and live into the fullness of God. They cannot believe a new world is possible.

But I do. I believe that the wisdom of the generations can teach new generations and prepare them. I believe that my life is fuller and richer by knowing history and gaining insight from those who teach from their life experience. I know that I learn best when I have someone who helps me do things in my own way, and then helps me reflect afterward.

Wouldn’t it be great to be such a place? A place where the generations mix and learn from one another. Where they seek to understand one another. Where the old teach the young and the young teach the old. What deeds of power we could do! Loneliness can be driven back. Purpose can be found. Friendships can be forged. Hope can be birthed!

I would love for the Baby Boomers to see the issues facing the new generations, how the world has changed. It’s not for a lack of hard work, often. It’s that our starting line has been moved. Yet for millennials and new generations, we need to know that social media is a tool, it’s not an end into itself. If we want to change the world, we have to roll up our sleeves and get to work in real life. No one is going to do it for us. The older generations can remind us of the value of dedication, of showing up and having face-to-face interactions. We can compromise and find solutions to the problems that face us. Often this work doesn’t look dramatic or sexy, it looks like sitting around a table and taking minutes and talking in a committee to get something off the ground… but there’s no greater joy in life than to turn an idea into a reality.

My neighbor Marie is a great neighbor. She’s of the Baby Boomer generation, a recent widow. She’s part of a computer club that’s been meeting for 10 years. She likes learning about technology. They were meeting at the library but space has become limited so she’s asked to use our church every second Tuesday at 7 p.m. in our new library. So if you’re analog and want to learn some new ways, here’s a group for you.

And if you’re digital and looking to learn some of the old ways, you’re in the right spot. If you’re looking to change the world, you can do that from here. And we have a whole host of resources for you to collaborate with that will help you bend the world toward blessing!

Let’s not be like the people Nazareth, so stuck in thinking that the world is the way it is that we can’t believe it could be any different. Let’s not look to the past and say, “What could the carpenter’s boy possibly know?” Instead… and I’ve heard this before somewhere.. Let’s be about preserving the past and forging the future. Isn’t that a great slogan?

Wouldn’t be great to live in a city that has such a slogan?

Well… you do.

Bibliography

Chautauqua Daily Articles:

Charles Murray, https://chqdaily.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/murray-analyzes-happiness-through-lenses-of-family-vocation-community-faith/

Robert Putnam: https://chqdaily.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/putnam-strongest-predictors-of-happiness-are-social-relationships/

Putnam, Robert. Bowling Alone; The collapse and revival of American community.

Works Cited 

Otis Moss III Blue Note Preaching in a Post-Soul World, page 50.

 https://www.sapling.com/40940/a-letter-to-the-baby-boomers-from-a-struggling-positive-millennial

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