Fearless Faith

It’s one of those jobs you simply can’t think too hard about. You know it’s going to be hot, itchy, dusty, dirty and downright wearing on a person. And it doesn’t matter how small the job is, when it is finished, you’ll be wanting to clean up. “It” is the tear out of lath and plaster which usually begins by pulling down regular drywall over plaster over lathe over two by four wall studs. Once the rock wool insulation that had been blown in the walls is cleaned up, it’s time to start tugging down ceiling. Each lath that is pried free initiates a further cascade of insulation, most of which appears to find its way around the collar of your shirt, into your eyes, and under your dust mask.

There really is no good way of doing it. It is either get dirty or live with the old. In this case the old included mold which had formed on the original wall and ceiling paper as well as in the plaster itself, the result of multiple exterior roof lines and inadequate flashing. Plaster dust that we hoped was taped into seclusion around the doorway, nonetheless, and in short order, made its way into the remainder of the rooms of the house.

The truth is, a major part of the process of remodeling, most times, involves deconstruction and its attendant concerns — dirt, dust, expense and the need to improvise. Utilities become outdated, foundations settle, corners drift out of square, and walls may no longer be plumb. Remodeling demands improvisation and a willingness to change underlying support structures that, though once adequate, no longer are sufficient based on improved understandings of building techniques. For those familiar with construction, today’s innovation quickly becomes tomorrow’s headache to work around and to figure out. What remains structurally sound? What can be improved? What should be discarded?

It’s been suggested that theology lags one or two or more decades behind other academic disciplines because of participants’ unwillingness to remove overlayments of theological lath and plaster. Following tear out, basic structural premises can be evaluated in fresh light. Much of what remains will be solid and usable, but there will always be something new to discover; different framing, new materials, research techniques unimagined in recent pasts.

“You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all – irrespective of how we got here – in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day – a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home (Eph 2:19-22, MSG).”

Be bold in the tear out phase but also daring when it comes to putting it all back together. It will not be the same space it once was. Remodeling will have taken the best of what was there, discarded that which is no longer life-sustaining, and blended the old with the new, a statement of the nature of God’s evolving creation. If on the other hand, your theology favors mold and dry rot, you need do nothing at all.