For this season of Lent at Bethlehem Church we are following the theme of change as a guide for our midweek reflections. This week the weather is certainly illustrating wild and rapid changes. Overall we acknowledge we are in times of uncertainty and change. We see changing styles of communication, the changing world of politics, the changing climate, the changing shape of families, changing loyalties of denominations. So much change, it seems bewildering.
And some people might choose to cry against it. Others would ask, “What good will that do?” Others will celebrate the changes because of dissatisfaction with the past.
There is a saying that the only constant is change itself. Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher in approximately 500 BC, said that life is always in flux, like stepping into a river; you never step into the same water twice, nor are you the same person.
The biblical philosopher who wrote Ecclesiastes was acquainted with this same reality of the inevitability of change. How do we deal with this strange unease we feel about something so natural?
In some sense we recognize that a spiritual capacity to accept and experience changes will be important. From birth to toddler-hood we see amazing changes in the little ones in our families and churches. We wouldn’t think of denying the transformations we celebrate in them.
From adolescence to young adulthood the changes are simply astounding, we’d rebel against the thought of restricting the milestones from happening. From youthfulness to maturity, from the strength of young health to the slower pace of age the change is also extensive.
And of course the wisdom that guides our feet on this journey is that the path proceeds in one direction and all the changes we experience in age are inevitable. Along the way there are losses and gains, there is grief and celebration, there are regrets and rejoicing.
Along life’s way of constant change then other changes are strangely unwelcome as if we wish to have an anchor in the wind. Though we are changing continually, we want other things to appear permanent and therefore trustworthy. The author of Ecclesiastes tells us that the times change, and we can’t change that, rather we must discern the time it is, and what part of life we enter.
Jesus tells us that change and growth are part of God’s plan (Luke 13). Like seeds and growth, and yeast and bread, change is good. Nothing is static nothing is fixed. Movement and growth are the shape of all reality. Why not also with our lives, our souls and our experience? Is this also good news? For though we wish for good times to remain, we also know that hard times do not last. Although we may grieve a loss of youth or health itself, we know that all suffering is a “momentary affliction” for those who believe in God (2 Cor. 4)
The Apostle Paul spoke of another change as well. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet— we shall be changed. The apostle in his inspiration (1 Cor. 15) describes the change from perishable to imperishable, from mortal to immortality. He spoke of living beings transformed into the image of the man of heaven, a life giving spirit.
Paul wrote (2 Cor. 5) about earthly life like a tent which will be shed and replaced by a house. He spoke of our lives becoming unclothed by this existence so that we might be clothed in that which God has prepared for us forever.
We are in times of great uncertainty, but don’t believe them when they say the pace of change is increasing, it just feels that way when you are in the middle of the rapids. Change happens every minute of every day and always has. Therefore every moment counts, every day is meaningful, and every life continues to be precious. This also means that the present quickly becomes the past and we cannot change it; we can only cherish or regret, but must accept it for having been. The future is not ours to experience yet and so we anticipate and hope.
But what we do know is the inevitability that this river of time we are in, by the gift of faith in Jesus Christ, is the very river of life that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:1) and we will be carried by this flow to the ocean of God’s unchanging steadfast love and grace.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month our contributor is Reverend Mark Ditmanson of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Grand Marais.
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