Let's leave a few things behind in the 20th century

The 20th century witnessed more change than all previous centuries combined.

It's hard to imagine that the last 100 years have produced the automobile, airplane, computers, television, central heat and air conditioning, supermarkets and super highways, penicillin and anti-depressants, polio vaccine and genetic engineering.  The last century began with travel limited to short distances from home.  It closed with astronauts traveling into space to repair a telescope that explores planets undiscovered 100 years ago.

There is much for which to give thanks as we enter a new century.  We are the beneficiaries of unparalleled progress in medicine, food production, labor-saving devices, travel and communication.  Many of the advances we gladly take into the new millennium.  No doubt change will accelerate and the next 100 years will bring great advances in medicine, technology and science.

God has made available resources to relieve much of the world's needless suffering. We now have the means to prevent almost all childhood diseases.   It is now possible to produce enough food to feed every person in the world. Of all the generations in human history, ours is the first with the ability to eliminate hunger, poverty and most deaths among children.

So, we can leave behind such obstacles to God's purposes as hunger, poverty, premature death of little children, and much suffering that plagues the human family.  What is needed is a clear vision of a healed creation and a community of justice and peace where all are welcome at God's table of abundance.

We can also leave behind old prejudices that consider any persons as less than children of God.  Labels that stereotype and categorize people as enemies should be left behind, including those we too frequently use in the church to polarize God's people.  Liberal, conservative and fundamentalist are 20th century labels that have little if any meaning in the 21st century and are best left behind.

The church would also do well to leave behind these 20th century developments:  a dichotomy between personal faith and social concern; separation of evangelism from mission and social action; worship designed to attract the masses more than celebrate God's reality; a rationalism that discounts experience and experience that ignores reason; reliance on legislation to resolve differences that can only be addressed through honest dialogue and faithful prayer; ignoring Scripture's authority and mistaking one's own interpretation as authoritative.

You will have your own list of things to take into the new century and things to leave behind. God grant us all the grace "to press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ."  (Philippians 3:14)

Commentaries provided by United Methodist News Service do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of UMNS or the United Methodist Church, of the General Board of Global Ministries.

*  Carder is bishop of the Nashville Area of the United Methodist Church, which includes the Tennessee and Memphis Annual Conferences.