Change

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.   James 1:17

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like change.  Change is never easy.  I like the comfort of routine and repetition; many pastors do.  Sometimes the ruts just guide you to where you want to go.  Again and again and again.

Yet, it is a season of change for Susie and me.  As uncomfortable as it may be.

I have announced to my congregation, Third Presbyterian Church in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, my plans to resign as pastor, effective May 1.  It’s been an always interesting and at times extremely rewarding ministry over the past almost nine years.  In some ways I do this coming off maybe one of the better years (at least numerically) of my ministry.

Yet.

It is time for a change.  We’ve known that for almost a year now.  And we couldn’t ignore it.  The Spirit has been nagging on us.

Even in the midst of change, and we all go through it, I take great comfort.  So should you.  No matter what you are going through, the God of “every perfect gift” does not change no matter what the circumstances you find yourself in today.  Or what they may be tomorrow.  In our God we have One in which “there is no variation or shadow due to change.”    

This Sunday is Easter, although I prefer the phrase “Resurrection Sunday.”  We celebrate the unchangeable truth of what Jesus has done for those who are willing to believe and trust in Him.  As millions have done through the centuries, we shall gather and give thanks from the bottom of our hearts for this “perfect gift.”   The good news does not change. We might; our circumstance certainly will.  But He won’t.  That is a change…or lack of…that you can count on.  Forever.

P.S.

Please be in prayer for Susie and I as we meander about 90 miles to the north and east to start ministry at Marion Presbyterian Church, in Marion Center, PA, at the end of May. Also, please be praying for the congregation at Third Pres.  It is a time of excitement and certainly some sorrow.  Change is never easy.  Did I mention that?

And let’s all be grateful for the One who never, ever changes.  

Commandment

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. - Matthew 22:37-39

The context of this statement by Jesus was a trick question asked of him by a Pharisee who “was a lawyer.” The question he asked was this: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Trick question. The evidence is that scribes held to there being a total of 613 laws, with 248 being affirmative and 365 being negative. According to one author I read, some Pharisees even argued that the commandment to wear fringes on the garments was the greatest of the 613!

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

You have to love Jesus’ answer. In a brilliance only the true Son of God could muster, he succinctly summed up all of the law (all 613 of them) by saying two things: First, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”

And then he continues by saying, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus’ ministry was one that made things rather simple.  Sum up 613 laws with two.  The heart of the Christian faith is so unpretentious.  Do two things…and everything else will fall into place.  Maybe even all 613 laws.

OK, let me admit, even Jesus’ two simple commandments, however, may not be so easy to do. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  There are three alls in that sentence.  All my heart, all my soul, and my mind.  That is a lot of everything.  Then there is this love your neighbor as yourself.  Right. Jesus never met my neighbors! (just kidding, by the way).

But as we drift deeper into the season of Lent, hopefully one spends more time thinking about what all Jesus went through for each of us, the persecution, the pain, the cross.  And how ultimately unworthy any of us are.  And that just makes me love him more and want to know him deeper. (visit Philippians 3:10)  and, it also makes me want to share his love and grace and truth any all that I come into contact with. 

And if that is where my heart truly is, and even though I may fulfill my desires in an incomplete manner, is that not still what “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself, all about?

I want to know him more; and I want to share him.  Do two things…and everything else will fall into place.  Can it be that simple?

I’m fairly sure the answer is yes….

Chosen

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,  - Colossians 3:12

So I look at this verse, and a lot jumps out at me. 

The first is this.  I am, apparently, one of God’s chosen ones.

Now we can argue till we are all blue in the face about how one becomes one of God’s chosen ones – and admittedly I would come at this from a decidedly Reformed point of view, but that is not the point of my writing…nor do I think that’s the point the apostle Paul’s writing here.

The point being that if you are a truster and believer in Jesus Christ, then somehow, someway, you have become one of God’s chosen ones.  Relish in that fact. Rejoice in His grace. Sing His praise. Shout your alleluias.

But.

Read the remainder of this verse.

As one of God’s chosen, holy and beloved, put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience…. There is more to Paul’s thought, but that is for another time.

With God’s choosing, comes responsibility. Jesus put it this way, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” (Luke 12:28)

Chosen one, God is has given you much, in return, Paul says, “put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience….”

It is, in many ways a short list.  But it is all encompassing. It is about our personal relationships, but also about the stranger that we meet on the street. Towards all we are to show the traits of “compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience….”

Tall order.  And there is no way we could do it on our own power.  But, “as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved” anything is a possibility.

And imagine those possibilities in your life.  For today and for tomorrow.

Dear “God's chosen ones, holy and beloved….” 

Go and be a blessing.