New Coke, Old Habits

2 Corinthians 5:16-21
5:16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.
5:17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
5:18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;
5:19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
5:20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 

New Isn't Always Better, Even When It Is...

In the spring of 1985 the Coca-Cola company of Atalanta Georgia reformulated their flagship product Coke. Contrary to what you may have heard it was never actually called "New Coke", they simply took the old product and improved it...by making it sweeter. Here is what happened:

For decades Coca-Cola held a near monopoly on cola consumption here in the USA.  Sure there was R.C. Cola and Pepsi-Cola but for the most part Coke owned the industry but then things began to shake up. Pepsi was seen as the scrappy outsider that identified with the youth while Coke was the oldster who "just didn't get it".  Worse yet, Pepsi had settled on a marketing campaign that was darn hard to counter: taste.

Yep, at some point their marketing staff realized that in blind taste tests a majority of folks preferred the taste of Pepsi. They ran with that concept (Called the "Pepsi Challenge") and swiftly began to take the market share away from Coke.  The Coke executives in Atlanta panicked.  They called in their chemists and taste-makers and declared that Coke must taste better!  So they reformulated it to make it sweeter and more in line with the tastes of the "youth demographic".  Instead of releasing it as a different product they were so confident that their consumers would love the new formula they simply changed Coke, added the word "new" to the label, changed the font on the word "coke", and set out to market the daylights out of the concept.

What resulted is considered one of the worst decisions in the history of American industry.  "New" Coke was universally hated, lampooned, and reviled publicly.  Everyone from Saturday Night Live to Time magazine disparaged the new beverage.



Shortly thereafter Coca-Cola re-released their original formulation as "Coca-Cola Classic" while still trying to back "New Coke" which they eventually dubbed "Coke 2".  The resulting loss in revenue numbered in the billions of dollars.   In 2002 Coke gave up on the whole concept and scrapped the recipe (sort of).  The marketing of New Coke was considered so hilariously mishandled that Pepsi gave its employees a paid day off in celebration winning the "Cola-Wars".   Two small problems with all of it.

1.  New Coke was better:  OK...full disclosure...I am an RC Cola guy.  I don't like either Coke or Pepsi best, but in every single blind taste test done New Coke beat Coke Classic AND Pepsi (but RC Cola always beats all of them). So, yes, it really was better.

2.  Coke IS New Coke. Contrary to what they say publicly about the formulation of Coke over the last fifteen years little tiny, periodic tweaks have been made to the recipe for Coke to the point that it VERY strongly resembles the New Coke recipe...in fact it is nearly identical.  Yeah, you are drinking New Coke now...and liking it. 

We live in an era of newer-is-better but the truth is there are things we don't want to change because we like them the way they are...even if they would taste better changed. Change is hard. I know that it seems like change is the only reliable constant in contemporary society but the truth is humans are just as change averse as we ever were. When twinkies went out of production in 2012 it took exactly eight months for someone to buy the recipe and trademark and start producing them again with the exact same recipe and box. We talk a big game but in the end we want our twinkies back.

Humans are change averse, nostalgia driven (have you seen Hollywood's offerings lately?), and hard headed creatures.  When St. Paul says that "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away" this is as much of a threat as a promise.  We don't like New Coke!  Even if we actually do! And we sure don't like New Humanity. If we did we wouldn't keep trying to re-release Humanity-Classic



Fortunately the change does not come from us.  Paul says the change comes from "God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ."  We have a God who knows what we actually need and is not willing to give up on the notion of New-Humanity.  God does not rely on our strength or wisdom to do this but does it for us through the good gift of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Sure us hard headed humans will keep trying to go back to our old ways and our old faults but Paul tells us that God continues to reconcile "the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them".  Newness is not something quickly grasped or immediately embraced.  Sometimes the recipe has to be changed slowly and gradually, one little bit at a time.  Paul says that for our sake Jesus took on the burden of the guilt of our sins so that we might "become the righteousness of God".



Maybe you don't feel like "the righteousness of God"  Maybe you don't feel all that new.  Maybe you have rejected the newness of life offered.  Paul wants us to remember that God knows we humans are a hard headed lot that reject newness of life, even when it is the very thing we need most.  So, Christ continues to reconcile us to the Father, continues to forgive us, continues to change us from the inside out.  God never gives up on you or me and salvation isn't a one time offer.  It isn't about our strength...it is about the strength and tenacity of God who will not give up on us.  If Coca-Cola can make us like New Coke (even if we didn't realize that we were drinking "new coke") what makes you think that God is less tenacious than Coke?

Those of us who know we are being changed by the love and forgiveness of God are sent into the world as "ambassadors for Christ, since God is making an appeal through us...to be reconciled to God"  The appeal continues and the reconciliation does not end.  God never gives up on us and the newness of life never ceases to come.  So pop open a glass bottle of Coke (because those are back in fashion....see, we are nostalgic creatures) and sip the old new coke and reflect on how the Father is making you new through the gift of Christ even when we are too hard headed to realize that we need it.