一件新事

逗留印尼Malang已有三天多．除了開會，我沒有特別任何寫作．雖然手上還有一大堆未完成工作，但總想在晚上可以無無聊聊地過，不想太有目的生活．事實上，間中無聊卻可以為生活帶來創造性，因為它製造空間，而空間就容許有創造的可能．

開會期間，我負責一次晚禱．除了詩歌和禱文外，我有一篇３分鐘的分享．

Since Christian concept of creation out of nothing is mostly understood in a material sense, the newness of that 'I (God) am about to do a new thing' (Isa 43:19) is nothing related to the previous or the past. It is a completely new. Also with the deep influence of capitalism, the newness is more identified with replacement of the old, for the old has to go in order that the mechanism of capitalism can smoothly function. However,I am afraid of that this understanding can be very un-ecological.

The awareness of the ecological consciousness in the last 40 years reminds us that the newness is more appropriate to be understood in the light of renewal, rebirth or regeneration of the old. The ecologica linterpretation tells us that the old would not be thrown away or destroyed due to the emergence of the new, but rather the new is a kind of continuity and discontinuity of the old. In fact, this is also the biblical message. The new covenant symbolized by the gospel is not to replace the old symbolized by the law, but the new regenerates the old. Likewise, circumcision practiced in the old covenant is not replaced by the baptism practiced in the new, but the old is not understood exclusively. Resurrection of the body is new, not in a sense of against the body, but in relation to the body in a sense of discontinuity and continuity.

When the Lord said, 'I am about to do a new thing', it is not about destruction. Neither is it about the replacement. Rather the newness requests us to have the courage to allow changes, and at the same time, to believe that the old has future .