William Faulkner wrote: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” St. Paul would agree. He is deeply concerned about the children of Israel. They are the chosen people and God does not change. Their past includes “the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises, the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Christ” All of that past, all of that history shapes the present. The followers of Jesus — both Jew and Gentile — cannot lose that past. At the same time, the past cannot limit the new thing that God is doing. That is our story as well. We are heirs to a heritage of faith but God can break through with something new.
