Soul Snack 8/26 ... Luddite Legacy
'Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation' Gal 6:15
1811 witnessed Ned Ludd lead a clash with the British army. Change was being brought to the textile industry that threatened the workforce. This change was resisted with their very lives.
Ned Ludd is now a byword for change resistance and backward thinking. I guess he is a bit like Judas or Jezebel, remembered in history, but for no good legacy.
The Luddites were people that resisted change. They did not like the new weaving technologies. They were left behind.
Resistance to change is both perennial and ubiquitous. The old days and the old ways, preferred to the new.
Usually at best, change leads to a form of syncretism. An amalgam, where 'new' and 'old' are blended in a sort of 'each way bet' or 'having your cake and eating it too'. When the 'old' is never fully removed, the 'new' can never fully received.
Jesus has introduced, is introducing and will introduce a new order to life. Jesus gave us His life for this cause. His commitment to the new, knew no self restraint nor syncretism.
His death shows His commitment to bring His 'good' new to all those who would leave their 'bad' old behind.
Following Jesus is no act of syncretism, no Luddite response to His will for me. It is not compromising with the old. Following Jesus, is enjoying the new.
Someone once said being a Christian is like being pregnant, you either are or you aren't. I have either accepted the new He has for me, or I haven't. There is no 'partly' christian. In Jesus there is no Luddite Legacy, but simply a new person.