I have watched with awe the complete renovation of a building. Two months ago carpets were ripped up, walls were demolished, and stages were torn up. Construction after construction dumpster was filled and hauled away. Slowly, methodically and with massive amounts of labor, the chaos and mess is finally giving way to order, beauty and design. Renovation, it is a great word. In watching this transformation, I was reminded of what Eugene Peterson said, “All creativity begins with a mess.” It is true, even in the Genesis account we have this scenario. “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water.” The image is a telling one - God brooding over his unformed creation, contemplating it, pondering what His creative powers would produce. Then God spoke and out of the formless chaos emerged a cosmos—a place of order, beauty and design. Yes, this is the way it is, this is what we are invited into. This ability to renovate, this ability to brood over something and then in your mind’s eye see something of form and beauty where there was none. This is good. We are never more like God than when we create!

Coming home from this work of renovation the other night, I was thinking about all that had been done; most of the painting complete, the stage almost finished, the mudding on the new walls awaiting one or two more coats, and the floor about to be laid. Then it hit me just how much had been done in such a short time. Working nights and Saturdays it seems to drag till you think back to the beginning and can really see the progress. But as I was thinking about this, it hit me, this is what the work of the gospel is all about, the renovation of the soul. Yet, how wonderful if the renovation of our souls were as easy as the renovation of a physical structure. Wouldn’t it be nice if God could our damaged soul and in a couple of months reconstruct a self-image, heal a wound that festers and never seems to heal, wipe out years of bad habits, tear away the mask and with a paint brush renovate years of hurt. This is gospel work to be sure—the care and cure of souls is what the ministry of the gospel is all about, but tools are different and the process is the work of a lifetime.

If there is anything both non-Christians and Christians would agree on is that we are not finished creatures. We are all in need of the renovation of our soul and character. I have never met one person who would dare say they have arrived. Whether young or old we all want to be “made new.” Last Monday, I was visiting my doctor who changed my life while we were traveling in Egypt. When I asked him for some Rolaids, he said, “You suffer from heartburn?” I told him that for as long as I could remember I had been afflicted and never went anywhere without Rolaids in my pocket. He told me to come see him at his office and, because I was in such misery, I did. After a scope down my throat reveled I had a hiatal hernia and there was no way to fix it, he to me he had good news, “I have a little purple pill for you.” Talk about renovation of the body! Instantaneous! It was like being born again. After all those years of suffering, to finally live without heartburn was too good to be true. I saw him for a yearly check up this week and told him life was good since the Nexum®. But, I also told him, that if I had a little purple pill for souls, I would sell all my books for it. Even in the body, we sometimes can see instant relief for what ails us. But when we come back to human hearts, we are dealing with something that is never healed in an instant.

I guess that is why we see so little change. The tools are given to us for this work of renovation but because they do not work in an instant or because they demand much from us, we languish. Years and years go by and we are still unchanged creatures. We fret about it to be sure, but seldom are we willing to detach ourselves from the idols of the heart that bind and enslave us. Simply put the only instrument of our restoration is the cross. However, we put our hope of restoration in anything but the cross - money, medicine, security, fame, relationships, etc. But history and personal experience teach us these things can’t renovate us. They just leave us more anxious and more fearful.

The other thing that makes us run from this gospel restoration is that the work will never be completed in this life. We will see the end of the renovation of the church facility, but we will not see the renovation of our lives till we get to glory. I really don’t think people realize how difficult the renovation of a human life really is. What does it take for us to change? Is it costly? Will it diminish us? But when we put it in perspective, we begin to see it. It takes nothing less than the death of God to renovate any soul. How bad could we be, that God must suffer and die for us to be made new? For us to know renovation of our heart and life, so that joy is the keynote of our existence, God was crucified! Yes, that is how messed up we are. And yet, we want a pill that will fix us in an instant or a two-month project to make us happy and whole.

The Bible says renovation in our lives is possible, but it is not easy, nor does it happen in an instant. The tools of this project that take us to the cross are simple, Word, Sacrament, prayer, and face-to-face community. They all point to and are about believing not in what we can do, but what has already been done for us. Radical, for sure-but necessary.