And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. (Genesis 1:14-15)

 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

 

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior. Amen.

 

God created the earth to have a system “for signs and for seasons and for days and years.” Despite being described by Genesis as being ‘good,’ humans can find seasons in both weather and life to be trying. Most of us are not huge fans of change, yet we live in a climate of constant flux and change. God even created signs to help us navigate that flux and change.

 

To the best of my knowledge, no one has successfully initiated time travel. This means we are stuck in a chronological existence for as long as we inhabit this earth. Time moves forward, not backward. Despite the yearning for summer come January, we know that we cannot go back in time. We will have to wait for another summer, one perhaps similar but still different, from the last.

 

Human beings can have difficulty accepting this fact. For some inexplicable reason, we struggle to grasp that things are not going to return to some idyll of the past. Recently, our dog learned (the hard way) that while playing in the snowdrifts was still a lot of fun, his subsequent stiffness and soreness was absent from his memory. Most of us have had similar experiences. The activities we used to do no longer seem the same. Even if the activities themselves have not changed, we have – despite our best efforts. That is inevitable in life along this time continuum. The future is constantly becoming the present. Days, weeks, years, and seasons continue to come and go while we observe the signs of time’s onward march.

 

The same is true for congregations. As communities, we continue to evolve.  We continue to experience change. We move forward in time. Those same exact activities that reached people 50 years ago, will not have the same exact effect today. Even those who participated 50 years ago are no longer the same as they were then. The community is not the same. Just as none of us can go back in time, neither can the community.

 

Yet, communities often have even more difficulty than their individuals with this concept. There is a powerful communal memory that tells people that if we could just go back, things would be the same. We can get trapped into a mindset of only looking back, never forward – only remembering, never dreaming. We ensnare ourselves with our own attitudes.

 

Attempts to recreate the past are futile. Time does not work that way. God did not create time to work that way. The underlying message that we give when we get stuck in the past, is that the present is somehow inferior. God did not create time to be superior or inferior. “And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:18b)

 

Unfortunately, the message of the past being better than the present can easily be interpreted as the people now are inferior. That is definitely not a message we want to deliver. Evangelism becomes nearly impossible if we inadvertently give the impression that the people or the congregation will never be as good as they used to be.

 

It is imperative to be mindful of this danger and recognize that different does not mean worse. Change is part of life. We experience it in all aspects of our life. None of us stay the same through the years, neither does our community. We are all different now.

 

There is a difference between remembering the past and being stuck in it. We can honor our past without diminishing the value of the present or the future. We can remember and dream, while living in the present. We can march with the signs God has given us.

 

Take time to weep and mourn, but also take time to laugh and dance. Move forward with the seasons of your own life and the life of the congregation. Observe the signs and pace yourselves alongside them instead of fighting them. Celebrate all the seasons of your life and the life of the community. They are all gifts from God.

 

The grace and peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

 

In Christ,

 

Pastor Carla

 

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance; (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4)