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Change Decently and in Order!

5/20/2021

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8)

Listen to:  Mark Harris, One True God
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z95ms1rOlo

You know you might be Presbyterian if you can name some or all of the following:

PCA, PCUS, PCUSA, PC(USA), PC(U.S.A.), PCUSA(NS), PCUSA(OS), RPCES, RPCNA-GS, RPCNA, EPC, OPC, ARP, NAPARC, CRC, RCA, BPC, BPC-Collingswood, BPC-Columbus, CPC, TE, RE, WCF, WLC, WSC, BCO, UPC, UPCNA, UPCUSA, NPC, COM, CLP, CPM, NFoG, ECOP.

Presbyterians. We even do change "decently and in order!" Think of all the change in denominations and committees this list represents!

We are a world in flux, in a denomination facing enormous change, a congregation in time of significant transition, each of us is facing change in some area of our lives. This past year of COVID has brought us through a whirlwind of change. Life seemed to fall apart, when in reality it is being reconfigured in order to move forward more alive, more whole, more vibrant.  Thank God we have a God who is eternal, and can change us, mold us in the image of Christ, loving and serving others. Thank God we can turn to Christ as our rock. His example and help will hold us steadfast and guide us through whatever we face.

The Bible is a change document. It teaches us how to embrace change (and sometimes how not to!) with discernment, trust, faith and hope in God, the author of the future. Think of, for example: Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Moses, Joseph, Ester, Ruth, Peter, Mary, Paul -- and the change they lived through following the Lord. So pick your favorite character this week, study it, and you will find some challenge to grow and change. Name the choices and actions that made a difference. So what is your challenge? How can you change, and help the church to change in a spiritually healthy manner?

Remember Charles Darwin's observation: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."

PRAY:  "God, show me where I need to change"

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Keep the Change

5/20/2021

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Listen to: The Change" by Steven Curtis Chapman,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgpEwGoSLB8

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, s/he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Corinth. 5:17)

What did the Dalai Lama say to the hot dog vendor?

Make me one with everything.

The hot dog vendor said "that will be $2.50" and the Dalai Lama handed him a five.

And waited. The Dalia Lama said "Hey where's my change?"

The hot dog vendor said "ah, change must come from within....!ust come from within"

The Christian life is a life of transformation and change. Change is written on each page of the bible. It is written in the fabric of our bodies: While we are sitting here we are changing. During this message about ½ million cells in our body are going to die and be replaced with a half a million new cells. Our skin replaces itself every month. Change is natural. Our families change. our societies change. Our churches change. Everyone changes. We are not alone.

Ideally as we change, our emotional and spiritual responses begin to change too. We learn to know God is in charge. We learn to trust. We respond to change in more healthy ways. We learn to handle the sadness and fear, and through it, with God's help, learn to hope and embrace a new future.

Churches everywhere are in times of accelerated change, accelerated by this time of COVID. So we're going to spend some time talking about change; understanding and recognizing it, responding in healthy ways to it, supporting each other and growing in faith together. So think about your changes around you, in you, and in the church. Begin to name them, make a list. Think and pray about how change is affecting you. What's troubling you? What gives you hope? Knowing that our Eternal God, Changeless, is in the midst of the changes, seeks to guide us "reformed, and always reforming" is a comfort.

For now it is good for us to remember the prayer of change from the great Reformer, Martin Luther:

"This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.”

PRAY: "Show us to embrace and manage the changes of life with grace, courage and trust in you. Help us be sensitive and caring to others in the midst of their changes."

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Called to Galilee

5/20/2021

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"But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you"
Mark 16:7

An "oldie but goodie": Keith Green singing, The Easter Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3StQfGXwKQ0

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!

So it begins -- where it began before. Jesus goes back to Galilee. Not the temple. Not Nazareth or Bethlehem. Galilee brings into the present all the disciples had experienced with Jesus: the calling to follow him and take up the ministry he had begun.

It was in Galilee that Jesus began his preaching and teaching and healing. It was in Galilee that he had called his disciples. It was in Galilee that Mary, Mary and Salome had themselves become disciples and from where they had followed all the way to the cross and now to the tomb. It was in Galilee that Jesus was baptized by John, and began preaching the Good News to the poor. In Galilee water was made wine, a withered hand restored, a blind man's sight returned, demons driven out and the lame leaped. It was in Galilee he called Israel to a law of love surpassing love of the law.

We are called to Galilee. Where ever someone is in need of healing, help, forgiveness; to hear Good News of God's love and mercy -- there is Galilee. The resurrection does not allow for complacency. Easter gives us marching orders to go to Galilee -- and bring resurrection to the living. Amen!

PRAY: "God, thank you that you sent Jesus ahead of us to Galilee to prepare the way. Make us an Easter people, may Allelulia be our song and caring for others be our prayer."

"But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you"
Mark 16:7

Listen : :

An "oldie but goodie": Keith Green singing, The Easter Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3StQfGXwKQ0

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!

So it begins -- where it began before. Jesus goes back to Galilee. Not the temple. Not Nazareth or Bethlehem. Galilee brings into the present all the disciples had experienced with Jesus: the calling to follow him and take up the ministry he had begun.

It was in Galilee that Jesus began his preaching and teaching and healing. It was in Galilee that he had called his disciples. It was in Galilee that Mary, Mary and Salome had themselves become disciples and from where they had followed all the way to the cross and now to the tomb. It was in Galilee that Jesus was baptized by John, and began preaching the Good News to the poor. In Galilee water was made wine, a withered hand restored, a blind man's sight returned, demons driven out and the lame leaped. It was in Galilee he called Israel to a law of love surpassing love of the law.

We are called to Galilee. Where ever someone is in need of healing, help, forgiveness; to hear Good News of God's love and mercy -- there is Galilee. The resurrection does not allow for complacency. Easter gives us marching orders to go to Galilee -- and bring resurrection to the living. Amen!

PRAY: "God, thank you that you sent Jesus ahead of us to Galilee to prepare the way. Make us an Easter people, may Allelulia be our song and caring for others be our prayer."

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Change Decently and in Order!

Keep the Change

Called to Galilee

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