Change is not a Four Letter Word
-- Brian Lambert
Originally I selected this topic of change because we as a church are going through the change of a pastor. Either side of this process can be a challenge. There are many unknowns and that which we don’t know or understand is the very thing the scary movie industry banks on too. Fear of the unknown. Don’t go into the dark woods. Don’t turn the knob on that door. Don’t descend the steps to the dank basement especially with the light burned out. Why are all those birds lined up on the telephone wires and roof tops around the playground. Did that doll just talk to me. Is that a chainsaw I hear off in the distance? How about when your babysitting and go in to check on the child and he is laying there wide awake and looks at you and says ; “ I see dead people” or better yet like Linda Blair sits up in bed and their head starts spinning 360 degrees. I personally do not like these kinds of films and I think the reason is fear and the inability to control situations where fear and uncertainty is the main ingredient.
Those of you who are following me are probably thinking is he somehow trying to make the connection between the moving of a church Pastor and a horror film. My answer would be in a cinematic sense yes. People have fear and genuine concerns when a pastor leaves and another comes in, just like we have fear about opening a door in an abandoned haunted house . From a theological sense though I am interested in connecting fear with change. People often don’t like change, change often leads us into the unknown and the unknown can cause us fear. If not fear than at the very least it causes us to look at things differently. As Anne Lamott says in one of her books” If you want the world to change you need to change your mind” Depending on how you think about a situation dictates how you perceive the change
Think about change. We change teams, socks, and lanes. We change diapers, now that can be scary ,We change hair color, facial features and the effects of gravity. We change addresses, planes, names, and seasons. There are times when we are admonished to change our tune sometimes from someone who is fanning themselves , while flushed in the face , lamenting about something called “ the change”. we change our minds, we can even change our hearts .
WE collect change, we give change like all the coins that everyone brought in this morning, We even used to be able to buy penny candy with change or a gallon of gas.
So as you can see Change whether noun or verb is about the fact of becoming different or thinking differently or making and becoming different. As we heard in Psalm 51. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Thy presence, And do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, And sustain me with a willing spirit. When we put our trust in the Lord , ask him to change our hearts , when we put all our faith in His Will and Love we no longer need to fear anything for God is always with us and will never forsake us.
Two weeks ago Roland was talking about how Tim’s sermons were like onions you peel away the layers to get at the core of truth . He mentioned this as a reply to Tim saying that I had told Tim that the message each Sunday, God’s truth, if you will, is the same though it is presented in a different fashion or we are led to it by a different scripture path. Here is a sample of that core of the onion. Love one another as I have loved you. Look beyond your own selfish desires and help those in need and I will provide. Come to me all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Be still and know that I am God. The message is the same. Let the Love of the Lord change you and you have nothing to fear. Think about Nathan and King David. Nathan was a Prophet but he was also a personal friend of the King. Nathan and the King would sit together and talk , discussing current events and dreams and wishes . King David wanted to build a temple for the Ark of the Covenant . It was our most sacred treasure and he felt it needed an appropriate home. Nathan agreed with the King as any smart subject would but that night had a vision from God which told him that he must go and tell the king that building the temple was God’s decision and not the Kings . God would tell them when and where. Imagine Nathan wrestling with how to relay all this to the king and what the possible outcome might be. But Nathan’s faith was strong and he did as God commanded. King David’s faith at the time was equally strong( this was happening before King David slipped up with Bathsheba) and he took the news from Nathan and went in private to pray. Nathan was more nervous than ever by the King’s leaving but God spoke to the king in that prayer time and the king was at peace. This is just one story from the bible about letting go and letting God but if you think about it we’d be hard pressed to find any story in the bible that did not look at changing one’s heart and mind in order to fulfill the will of God. God’s time is different than our own, God’s purpose and plan are not always as we desire them to be. We must remain open and trust and obey that all will be as it should be and whatever that looks like is a blessing because it is a change made by God to fulfill His will. This is the mystery of faith.
Edith Stein , a German jew who was an intellectual and philosopher who despite her brilliant mind found her self searching for a fulfilled life. She found it in Jesus. She profoundly and reverently recognized the truth of Christ and the Cross and converted and became a Carmelite nun and dedicated herself to God through prayerful cloistered living. However during the Nazi regime the fact that she was a converted jew was seen as a liability to the Nazi’s and she was taken from the convent and sent to Auschwitz.
She freely accepted her destiny and lived it to the full, offering herself as a victim for her people. The following are two excerpts from her writings
“God demands nothing of man without at the same time giving him the strength to accomplish it. Faith teaches this, and the experience of life in the faith confirms it.” Edith felt that God asks us to do nothing without giving us the blessing needed to succeed . Our very souls are filled with God’s Spirit to prevail no matter the hardship or horror we face.
Last Sunday I was talking with some of our youth about the upcoming Mission Trip and I asked them what they feared about going and one of them said they didn’t fear anything because God would be with them, like opening a door in a strange house and not being afraid of what is on the other side because God would help you through it. I was so impressed that this young man had such faith in our Lord. It speaks to the same faith Edith Stein had when her door was a gas chamber disguised as a shower room at a concentration camp. May we all have the conviction of such faith as we each go through those doors on our specific journey as Christ Followers.
A second quote from Dr. Stein "The Saviour is not alone on the Cross... Every man, down through the ages, who has patiently borne a hard lot by remembering the sufferings of the Saviour, or who freely took upon himself a role of expiation( which is the act of atoning for a sin or wrongdoing); that man has thereby lightened the enormous load of the sins of humanity, and has helped the Saviour to bear its weight. Does this make sense to you , Edith Stein is saying that if we bear the hardships that come our way in life, and they will come, and if we remember Christ and the sufferings he endured, We end up lightening the load of sins in this world and help our Savior bear the weight. I find that comforting that in dealing with the pains and hardships of the world in my life I am helping Christ even though he does not need it and really do live the life of a disciple.
I have been profoundly moved by this Christ Follower’s witness. She willingly sacrificed herself for the cause of Christ’s love. Not my will but thine be done! Hail the Cross, the only hope! When one thinks about any changes or deviations from our day to day lives in the context of what this woman gratefully , willingly and joyfully surrendered to it brings me to my knees. I am humbled by her conviction. I know the words, I sing the songs, I recite the prayers but what has yet to come is the total surrender to God. Maybe there are some of you out there like me who have yet to find that contentment . I struggled to write this message for weeks and today it was revealed why. I couldn’t get out of my own way and give you God’s words . That onion core of Christianity if you will.I wanted to resist change and wallow in fear about the future. In my selfishess I closed my mind and heart . Through prayer though God gave me the grace and mercy to open my heart to fill it with love to be His voice for you all this morning. I seemed to have forgotten that with God there are no limits or mistakes and he will patiently and persistently keep at one of his children till they get it. One of the preachers at Annual Conference 2 weeks ago opened her sermon by saying a prayer ; God use me to speak for you and convey your message to the people and if necessary in spite of me get your message out . God’s message is that he has blessed us with wonderful pastors throughout the years each with gifts and talents that were needed at the time to help the church community grow in health and faith to care…. Care as Jesus cares. God wants us to embrace the change knowing that He will never forsake us and as his children we are to do his Will. We are surrounded by God’s love so that we can love in turn those who have not yet come to know this amazing God.
Christianity is not a faith of conservation and preservation . It is a faith of creation , participation, movement and change. That is why Caring as Jesus cares are the marching orders God has given us at Wellspring. Living the way of Christ will bring about the love, the mercy, justice, compassion and peace that God intended all along and that we so desperately pray for. But as we see with Sister Teresia Benedicta which is the name Edith Stein choose during her conversion or with the prophet Nathan and King David this journey comes at great sacrifice for us all. The sacrifice could be so great as to be our very lives Like that of opening a door in a strange place or walking through the door of a gas chamber with God by our side as shining witnesses to his love and mercy we willingly climb onto that cross with our Savior .
Be open to change your heart, Let God create in you a new heart , one that will overflow with love and change your mind about all the changes in life that in our selfish dark and fearful mindset prevent us from living as blessed children of God . We should willingly be undaunted by personal pain and suffering since our very example can be a beacon to change others and bring them to know and be changed for Christ.
So think again about the movies where a glowing fingered Alien states “phone home” , or George Bailey who sees God’s love in all his friends and neighbors and family on a winter’s evening, or a kung foo panda who learns the secrets of the dragon scroll, or Forest Gump, or the Wizard of Oz, or the students in Sister Act, or Gone with The Wind, or this scene that could have been from a movie. We are all gathered at the end of VBS by the well, trying to get a group shot. Everyone is tired, the children are restless, it is very hot. It has been a long day. All of a sudden someone spots Jesus coming down the hill. As heads turn in that direction and the realization of who it is comes into focus , you can feel the change. Voices go higher in shouts of joy. Spontaneous clapping starts. Eyes get that twinkle of the Spirit. He’s real! He’s alive!. It is all true, we are loved. Obviously we knew it wasn’t really Jesus but it was a validation to the mystery of our Faith. It is engraved on our changed hearts that we are filled with the Spirit of the Risen Christ and everyone yesterday from four years old to adult felt it. What a blessing. What an awesome God we serve. In these films people overcome fear and personal darkness so that instead of the horror film it turns to following the light and embracing love and peace justice, mercy and compassion even at great personal sacrifice and risk. Fear not, its a change worth making and the change that God is calling each of us to make as we live out our Call to Care… Amen.