All Change

A few shopping trips ago, as I received my change, I flipped back in my mind to my teenage years, when I had a Saturday job in a grocer’s shop. I recalled the men who ran the shop – men born soon after the First World War – as they gave change to their customers. Their timeless ‘script’ was virtually automatic, as they counted the change into the customer’s palm, “three-and-fourpence; five, six, four ... five, seven-and-six, ten ... and ten is a pound.” I contrasted this to what was being said to me: “Ten, fifteen, sixteen pounds ... fifty, sixty, -two.” Instead of counting from where we are, the amount spent, up to the amount tendered, the shop assistant of today counts from nowhere, up to an amount dictated by the till.

The former practice began with a sum with which the customer was already familiar, and the counting proved the accuracy not only of the payment of the change, but of the amount of change itself. The modern equivalent achieves less, and seems more distant. It begins with the allegation that the amount of change is what the machine has determined, and the counting of the cash into my hand serves only to prove that that amount has been paid. Sometimes the delivery of this is limited to “Your receipt, sir ... and here’s your change <dump>”, implying that there is no way that the till could have been wrong, nor the cashier in preparing the heap of coins now in your hand, perched precariously on the slip of paper produced by the electronic monster that has already swallowed up your twenty-pound note.

It’s my contention that these technological advances represent a retrograde step in customer relations. Let me offer a Biblical parallel to this comparison. The ‘Old Covenant’ was based on commandments written on tablets of stone (Exodus ch. 31&34; Deut. ch. 5&9). Time after time in the succeeding centuries, Israel rebelled against keeping their part of this Covenant. They refused to make God’s commandments – which started from God and were passed on to them by Moses – the only rule of their lives. The ‘New Covenant’, promised through Jeremiah’s prophecy (Jer. 31:31-34), was not based on the letter of a law (2Cor. 3:6), but on the Holy Spirit, which is within each one of us. It is a Covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus, blood that was evidence of a human life just like the lives that you and I lead here on earth. In other words, the New Covenant is more significant to us because it starts where we are, and draws us to God.

So, how effective are we in telling other people about our faith? Do we try an Old Covenant approach, like the modern supermarket cashier, explaining how things ought to be and asking (or even telling) them to conform? Or can we begin with a tolerant understanding, like my erstwhile grocer friends, starting where they are and pointing out to them how God’s love applies to their situation? Why not think of this when you’re doing your Christmas shopping, or when making New Year Resolutions?