Mustangs

The screensaver on my office computer currently has a picture of an apple red 1970 Ford Mustang Mach I with a vintage WWII P-51 Mustang in the background. What a picture! What a pair!

In 1975 I bought an apple red 1970 Ford Mustang Mach I with a 351 Cleveland and it would flat out fly. The Chief of Police in the town where I grew up was a friend of mine and when I showed him my 'new' acquisition, he walked around it, smiled and said, "Don't ever make me chase you, because I won't be able to catch you . . . but my Motorola will." Message duly noted. I never gave him a reason to chase me and his Motorola never had to catch me but, golly, that car was absolutely one fun, fine ride.

I sold it to another friend of mine in 1979, just a few months before our oldest son was born, because we needed to buy another car which was more 'child friendly'. To this day I wish I would have kept it and just went a little deeper in debt purchasing the second car, but then, 'If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.' Today, that car is worth more than I can afford to invest, so I look at one just like it on my screensaver . . . remembering the way things used to be when I had a full head of hair . . . and a Mach I to drive.

Looking at the pictures and fondly remembering that rock-solid ride somehow allows me to forget that the 351 Cleveland engine in that particular Mach I only got 9 miles to the gallon of gas around town. On the road, 'opened up' on the Interstate, the best mileage recorded was 18 miles to the gallon. But, oh did it purr!

Looking at a congregation the way folks often do, remembering the way things used to be, the way the Christian education ministries used to be full of kids, the way people always used to flock to fellowship dinners, the way worship used to be done, is a lot like me looking at a picture of the Mach I on my screensaver: I remember what I want and conveniently overlook what I don't care to remember. A lot of people want to drive the Mach I, but not at current gas prices. A lot of people remember how deeply the throb of a 351 Cleveland sounded going through an overpass, but few want to pay the current additional tax for driving a 'gas guzzler' in today's 'green economy'. A number of people love the feel of a muscle car motoring around a curve and holding the pavement as the miles tick quickly away under the high performance tires, but few really remember the work and expense of keeping the 'high performance' high and the muscle car 'motoring' in the 1970's, when current technology wasn't available and cars seldom 'rolled over' the odometers into the hundreds of thousands of miles. The Mustang Mach I of the 1960's and 70's is an icon of an age and, though a number of people are trying to reclaim their youth by purchasing Ford's retro cars on the current market, at best they buy a dim image of what their hearts really remember about the originals.

And so it is with the church: you can buy want you want to get what you remember but, at best, you will most often have only a dim image of what your heart clings to of the past. We are called to live and proclaim the gospel in a new age - and the church is called to be with people today as Christ is with people of every age. Jesus did not call people to bow under the burden of a bygone era, He called people to live into the Kingdom of God in their current age. The Church of Jesus Christ would be well served to do the same.

Too often the Bible is being used to enslave people to ideologies that, at best, preserve the past. Jesus, the living Gospel among us, opens the current age to God's ongoing work of salvation in this time and place. It is a hard balance to keep up with, but then, it wasn't so easy for Jesus either.

I would love to have my Mach I back, but only as a show car, to remember what once was so much fun to drive - but I am unwilling to go back to it for everyday driving at the expense of my children's and grandchildren's future upon this planet and in God's kingdom. That is simply counter-cultural and counter-productive. God calls us to move forward in faith and steward the resources and gifts of our journey so, for now, I will look at the 1970 Mach I upon my screensaver and remember . . . as I live forward towards God's Gift of Love for all people in the presence and power of God's Son, the Christ of us all, Jesus. He is the Church who offers salvation for all in the future God intends and that is where I want to be.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Don