From the Pastor

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

² a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
³ a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

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

Jesus predicted His own death by using agrarian common sense, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” If the molecular structure of a plant does not develop and change, it remains a seed. If a seed remains a seed, there will be no plants. If there are no plants, there will be no fruit or crop. The very usefulness and worth of that seed lies in its ability to change – it is part of its very nature to change.

As human beings, we do not grow if we cannot adapt and change over time. Our bodies, minds, and spirits require nourishment and their needs change over time. None of us is exactly the same as we were 20 years ago (or longer). We have learned new things. We have seen new things. We have experienced new things. We have grown.

Likewise, the church cannot grow if it remains static. The church cannot live unless it is willing to die. Just as sinners die and are reborn in the image of Christ, so must the church. As the seed must fall into the ground and die in order to bear fruit, so must the church. This means change must and will happen, whether we like it or not.

As Lutherans, we have been taught that we cannot save ourselves. This is a fundamental core tenet of our faith. We are saved by grace through faith. Jesus taught the crowds, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. (Mark 8:35)

This also applies to our congregations and other institutions. The church is dependent upon God’s grace. Just like we undergo a constant flux of death and resurrection in Christ as individuals– so does the church. The experience of death and resurrection is not limited to the individual; it is also communal. The church is also just as apt as any sinner to resist death and resurrection.

Change is difficult, but inevitable. God did not create this world to be static. Life grows, seasons change, water ebbs and flows, even the dirt we walk upon changes. Yet, although it is all around us, the church on earth tends to fear change. For some odd reason, we expect the church not to change while the world around it does.

This is not a new phenomenon. The church on earth has been fighting, fearing, and trying to avoid change since Jesus ascended into heaven. Most, if not all, of the conflict in the Early Church revolved around the fear that accompanied change. The extensive impact of the Reformation was largely a result of avoiding change for centuries. This nation experienced two periods of pervasive renewal termed ‘Great Awakenings’ by church historians. Several new denominations emerged (most split from other denominations) from those ‘Awakenings.’ Churches do not readily embrace change.

Recently I finished a book by Madeline Le’Engle. Toward the conclusion, she warns about the temptation (although penned in the 1970s, but this temptation continues to thrive) to take “shortcuts’ in their attempts to define or discover who they are. She is primarily referring to drugs and sex (common ‘shortcuts’ of that era) and individual self-discovery, but this temptation has manifestations to tempt the church as well.

The church’s ‘shortcuts’ tend to come in programmatic or nostalgic form. The church tends to believe that they can save themselves by either some ‘miracle’ program that someone is doing (& usually selling) or by recreating an idealized past that in reality never existed.

Congregations (and the larger church) tend to resist change until they hit a point of desperation. Actions motivated by desperation tend to be more destructive than constructive. Desperation leads to ‘shortcuts.’ Christ does not call us to act out of desperation. He does not call us to take ‘shortcuts.’ He calls us to act out of faith, love, and hope. He calls us to follow Him.

We do not have a crystal ball to tell us what the future will entail, but two things are most certainly true: 1) the future will not look like the present or the past and 2) God will direct our paths into that future. We journey forward into the future, willing to die, trusting always in God’s promise to raise us up and make a new creation. For everything there is a season…embrace this season and follow the Lord.

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

In Christ,

Pastor Carla

For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.

 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;

(2 Corinthians 5:14,17-18)