I’m not going to lose 30 pounds sitting on the couch. I need to lose the weight. I want to lose the weight. I’ve lost weight before, so I know it can be done. The challenge is turning the wanting into doing.

A lot of us face a similar challenge in our spiritual lives. We’d like to do something, and we know we should be doing more things for Christ, but we’ve gotten a little too comfortable on the couch. We need some motivation. And God has a way of giving it, even if He’s got to tip the couch to get us up. He’s very persistent when it comes to His Kingdom.

And here it is: Christians who act on their faith by serving and sharing Jesus save lives. Especially those closest to us. Faith is always a hand-me-down. Or hand-me-over.

Toward that end, we’ve adopted a goal for everyone in our Church Family for 2025: Try One New Thing. We actually have three components to this goal:

1. Try one new thing;
   
2. Invite one new friend;
3. Meet one new person.

 
Here’s how it works, along with the why and how. 
 
Try one new thing.  This means getting involved in some aspect of faith life that you haven’t done before, or haven’t tried in a long time. This is where I use the V word: volunteer! As a matter of fact, you do have the time and the energy, if you ask God to manage your time and your energy.

It can be a one-time activity, or a longer-term commitment. You and the Lord choose.

Why? We have over 200 ways to try new things at SHLC, mainly because we have about over 2000 people who might need a little help here and there. By trying one new thing, you serve the Lord (personal blessing) while you share the Lord (community blessing). God reaches us…

How? First, pray. Then listen. We will be sharing with you the ways you can connect with whatever ministry, project or event the Lord is drawing you to. You can also ask any staff person and we’ll help you figure it out. 
 
Invite one new friend.  I believe we have a really good thing going here, as reflected in the comments of members new and old, as well as visitors and neighbors. The Holy Spirit has blessed us beyond measure, and He designs every blessing for His Church to be shared.

Why?  Recent surveys show that the vast majority of people who don’t go to church would go if a friend invited them. We also know from multiple studies that our current culture craves belonging, to a place and, more importantly, to a group of people. Acts 1:6 says, “You also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” If you care about someone, open the door. …with the love that reaches others.

How?  First pray. Then, personal contact. Talk. Phone call. Text. Email. However you communicate with the people close to you. Pick a Sunday or an event (Night of Hope, God’s Deer Camp, etc.) that works for them, and plan to meet them here, or even pick them up if they need a ride.
 
Meet one new person. We have over 1800 members of the family here, and nobody knows everyone by name, including me. We also have first-time visitors every weekend, at almost every service. The field is ripe for the harvest.

I know you introverts are cringing already, almost as much as when I make you stand up and shake hands. But this is the simplest act of evangelism any Christian can take: smile and say hello, and call someone by name.

Why?  It comes back to the belonging. With so many people in one place, some folks may not feel like they belong, and then they drift away. But a Church Family that makes it feel like Home tends to find people not only coming, but staying.

How?  First, pray. Ask God to put someone new on your path today. Then, wear a nametag. Make it a point to find someone you don’t know. Introduce yourself with, “I don’t believe we’ve met…” (NEVER ask if they’re a visitor; who cares?!). Better still, join a group or an event you haven’t been a part of before. The ultimate? Go to a different service once!
​
So first, pray. Then try it. See how it goes. You’ve got nothing to lose.

Are you alive? Are you human?

Assuming you answered “yes,” praise God! He is responsible for both of those key elements in your existence: you are a living human being, since God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, things visible and invisible, also made you.

That seems rather pedestrian, doesn’t it? We say it every week in the Creeds, and it’s simple enough for even a child to understand. God is our Creator. Our, plural. As in all of us, every living thing, and especially human beings.

Some don’t believe that. It doesn’t matter. It’s the truth. (Side note #1: there is no such thing as “your truth” or “my truth;” there is only THE truth). Our belief or unbelief does not bring the truth of God into existence, nor does either spiritual condition of the human heart negate the truth.

For all the amazing developments in technology and science, we have yet to create life ex nihilo, out of nothing. Even in the miracle that is invitro fertilization, scientists use a living ovum and live sperm. Once they’ve expired, there is no resurrection. Once the egg or the sperm have wandered outside their God-given nest, they have relatively little time to fulfill their God-given purpose before they are, essentially, dead. Similarly, we have no cure to death, no medical ability to willfully, intentionally make the dead alive again.

But God can do all those things. He started with nothing and spoke everything into existence. He is the author, giver and Lord of all life. All things were made through Jesus: “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:3-4). When it comes to life, we cannot replace God, nor can we eliminate God. He is Life.

This is most certainly true in His creating new life, when He forms and shapes another human being in a mother’s womb. This has prompted the somewhat philosophical question: When does life begin? I prefer to approach the entire issue theologically, through the lens of Scripture, which means the God’s-eye-view of life. (Side Note #2: All Scripture is God’s Word and binding on the heart and mind of the Christian. Jesus calls us to obey everything, not just the parts we like).

The question I propose is: When does God begin creating each new human being?
Consider Psalm 139:13-16:

13 For you created my inmost being;
       you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
       your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you
       when I was made in the secret place,
       when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
       all the days ordained for me were written in your book
       before one of them came to be.
 
Clearly the Lord of Life is working long before the child’s birthday. But Jeremiah 1:5 takes it back even further:
       “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, 
    before you were born I set you apart;”

And He did a great job! God says that we are His workmanship – His masterpiece – “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

God does not distinguish between born and unborn as possessing more or less value, more or less humanity. An unborn child can feel joy, as did John the Baptist in his mother’s womb upon the entrance of Mary and unborn Jesus (Luke 1:41-44). According to the blessings of today’s technology, we know that unborn babies also feel pain.

And both God and science affirm that the child in the womb is a he or she as their own person, with their own body, their own DNA, and their own life, compliments of God.

An article by James Lamb, Executive Director of Lutheran for Life, adapted in the Lutheran Study Bible (p. 983), recalls the 1920 publication by two German physicians of a book called The Permission to Destroy Life Unworthy of Life. They argued that “death assistance” should be extended to “empty shells of human beings,” such as those with brain damage or mental retardation. They argued that money spent for “meaningless life” could be used by those socially and physically fit. “It was just a matter of determining which lives were worthy of life.” Then came the Nazi death camps.

In our own country, the “Three-Fifths Compromise” in the 1787 Continental Congress which brought forth the US Constitution declared that slaves were to be counted as “3/5 of a person.” Aside from the political wranglings of “it’s better than nothing” and “it led to the Union that ultimately ended slavery,” it is not a proud moment for America in assigning lesser value – or none at all – to another human being.

Pastor Jason Braaten provides an excellent viewpoint that truly focuses on the heart of the life issue in today’s abortion debate: “If the unborn aren’t human, then we don’t need a reason to commit an abortion. But if the unborn are human, no explanation for abortion is good enough."
(https://files.lcms.org/file/preview/glt8Rg49nJZGEh8kn899FLlzz5WIFdI0).  
 
We hear all sorts of secondary questions (though still important) in this debate:  

• Doesn’t a woman have the right to choose what to do with her own body? Her body, yes. Another human being’s body, no.  My rights end where yours begin. The key in this situation is to love them both, mother and child, as God does.

 

• What if a poor woman can’t afford another child? If she comes to that conclusion when the child is 2, is it then acceptable to “terminate” (read: kill) a 2-year-old? Her unborn child is still a living human being. (Side note #3: This is precisely the situation where God’s people should and do spring into action, particularly in provided multiple levels of support to needy families. God sustains and defends the “fatherless and the widow,” and He does so through us.) 

 

• Isn’t a fetus a bunch of cells? Yes. So are you. So am I. The value of human life does not depend upon what someone can or cannot do. God places supreme value on all human life, regardless of their stage in life. 

​

• What about cases of rape and incest? This is tragic beyond words, and pastorally I will not use the heavy hand of the Law to heap guilt on top of victimization. I would gently encourage the woman to consider adoption, and to remember her Creator and Redeemer. (Side note #4: Neither Scripture nor I would have any problem with lawful government, as God’s servant for justice, initiating capital punishment for rapists and child molesters, but that’s another issue).  

 
You are certainly free to disagree with me; no harm there. If you are a Christian, you are not free to disagree with God. He is very clear on Who owns life, and it ain’t you or me.

Listen to what He says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: “You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God in your body.” Heed also the warning of Jesus, for those who want to clear the way for others to go against God: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6).

I am reminded of this every time I hear glittering atrocities like “reproductive rights” and “women’s healthcare.” I cannot bring myself to align myself with someone who dehumanizes a child created by and through Jesus Christ. That strikes me as idolatry.
 
This I know, from God Himself:  Life belongs to God, begins at God, and ends at God. Not anyone else.

Apatheists just don’t care.

I first encountered the word in Lutheran Hour Ministry’s video-based Bible study, “The Journey from Unbelief to Faith.” In the fourth session of the study, a young gamer named Tyler Mann used it to describe one of the three categories of unbelief systems that he like to argue with: atheists, agnostics and apatheists.

Tyler himself had grown up an atheist, and had also taken up a serious interest in online gaming (video games, not gambling). He eventually entered into online discussions with believers and unbelievers alike. Tyler loved to argue the Bible, using it to attack believers who weren’t aware of what it said.

Tyler describes his attitude: “I didn’t care about what the Bible actually said. I cared about arguing, and basically telling Christians and other believers that they were wrong.”

Tyler is a very intelligent guy; he immersed himself in the Bible, not with an intent to believe, but to gain ammunition for his arguments. He soon learned, as he engaged Christians in theological debates, that “I knew more about the Bible than they did.” Here come the Apatheists.

Apatheist is not actually a new term. It was first coined by sociologist Stuart Johnson in 1972. And it’s really not a belief system as much as an attitude: apatheists just don’t care. In the broadest sense, they fit in well with atheists and agnostics, except those groups often are quite passionate in advocating for their unbeliefs.

The more dangerous apatheists are the ones Tyler encountered online: people who indicate some level of “belief” in God, but make no effort to actually live by faith, or even know who He is or what He says. Tyler quotes James 2:19, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.” As the Holy Spirit gradually broke down Tyler’s walls and led Him to believe Jesus and His Word, Tyler concluded, “It’s not enough to believe that God exists. Do you trust what He says? Do you trust His promises?”

Do you trust Him with your life? What difference does Jesus make in your life? Can anyone else tell that difference?

Jesus saves you from sin, from death and from the power of the devil – not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death. Perhaps the greatest adversary He saves you from, is you. His amazing unbounded grace – a love as undeserved as it is unconditional – drives Him to seal the deal on salvation for you. When Jesus breathes His last on the cross and says, “It is finished,” (John 19:30), He’s not just marking the end of His own life. He’s proclaiming the end of your death.

You and I – two of the most deserving targets of God’s anger on earth – are instead saved from ourselves by His grace, and then handed the keys to the Kingdom by His gift of faith. This is not an intellectual ascent or a reasoned conclusion. Faith is God opening our eyes, our hearts and our lives.

Jesus calls us to be, to believe and to belong. He calls us children of God, because that is what we are through His sacrificial love (1 John 3:1). He calls us to believe in who He is and trust what He says (John 14:1-14). He calls us to belong to Him, as the One who resuscitates and resurrects us by His own power of Resurrection (Romans 1:6).

But do you care?

Jesus is not an acquaintance, and the Bible is not a coffee table book. When Jesus asks us, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15), He makes it intensely personal. Scripture tells us, “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord,” (1 Peter 3:15), and then calls upon us to be ready to explain that. Jesus as Lord means He is your top priority in life, your source of strength and hope, and your very best friend Who is with you always. And you treasure spending as much time with Him as you can. He is your everything or your nothing; no in-between. You have a daily conversation with your Lord.

His Word, then, becomes our breath and blood. This is no longer ink on a page, nor is it a collection of cute stories and catchy sayings. The Bible is not a meme. This is God talking; this is Jesus revealing to you and reminding you of all that can be, in every moment of life, when Jesus is your Lord.

Christian comedian Jeff Allen talks in his act about his conversion from atheism to Christ. A comedian friend tried to talk to him about the Bible, but Jeff kept pushing back, saying, “Ah, don’t give me the Bible. I don’t want to hear the Bible.”

The friend says, “What do you mean?”

Jeff: “I’m an atheist. I don’t believe in that garbage.”

His friend: “What is it about the Bible you don’t think is true?”

Jeff said, “I don’t know. I never read it.”

He said, “Well, you’re not an atheist; you’re a moron!” Jeff asked him to explain himself and the man told him, “To be honest, a true atheist is not only a Biblical scholar but is scholarly in all the faiths of the earth. And after a long intellectual journey has come to the conclusion that there is no God of the universe. You, on the other hand, want to circumvent the entire intellectual process and just come to the conclusion that there’s no God. That’s lazy and moronic.”

To avoid that same fair and accurate accusation, I want to challenge you to go deeper, grow stronger, and get healthier in your faith by resolving to care: Care about Jesus; care about His Word. No apatheism. Genuine faith come to life.

Three ways that the Lord can snap you out of the lazy haze of indifference:

1. Be in the Word on your own. At home, in the car, wherever. You and Jesus. We’ll help you make a plan.

2. Be in the Word with your Family. Come over to God’s house, EVERY TIME YOU CAN! Don’t get lazy on worship.

3. Be in the Word with a group. Finding a few people who get it and get you can help you experience a much richer and fuller faith life in Christ. It worked for Tyler. We’ll set you up with a group, or help you and your friends get started. Message me or Pastor Chad.

​
You cannot have a relationship with someone you never talk with or spend time with. You matter to Jesus. He cares about you. He loves being with you and living life together. It’s time to care back. Don’t be a moron.

During Lent the last couple years I’ve had the 8th graders watch the movie, “Heaven Is for Real,” based on the book by Todd Burpo. A lot of thought-provoking issues come from that movie.

One is a line from Todd, responding to Colton’s question, regarding heaven: “What are people afraid of?”

Todd answers, “Some are afraid there is no heaven. Or they’re afraid there is.” I think he’s right. Twice.

In this corner, we have some believers don’t believe in their believing. They want it to be true, they wish it were true, but in moments of genuine contemplation they don’t think it is true. This is the inevitable conundrum when you trust in your trusting, rather than in the external, eternal Source of truth.

Because you and I are reasonable, rationale creatures (sometimes…some of us…), we reshape faith into a series of logical conclusions that must withstand empirical grounds of observation. We have to see it to believe it. Then it’s no longer faith. We’ve confounded faith with knowledge. On this side of eternity, we fully believe, even if we only know in part. Hope that is seen is not hope, but if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:24-25).

Take Thomas, he of the Doubting fame. He would not believe the reality of Christ’s resurrection until he saw Jesus live. [Irrelevant Sidebar: I have zero interest in seeing Taylor Swift live, even when the Chiefs are playing at Lambeau.] When Jesus shows up again, risen for real, NOW Thomas believes. Because he sees. Because he knows it’s real.

Jesus tells Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29). John then explains that the Gospel he has been called to write is purposed by God to inspire belief in Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, “and that by believing you may have life in His name.”

Such spiritual knowledge – as opposed to empirical – is thus acquired by spiritual means, or as we like to call it, the Means of Grace. In Ephesians 1:18-19, Paul prays that the “eyes of your heart may be enlightened” to know the hope, the blessings, the power of the real Jesus, resurrected and present with us personally every single day.

In the other corner are those who fear that heaven is for real, because that means hell is for real, God is for real, and sin is for real. People who’ve built a worldview that begins at their eyes and ends at their outstretched fingertips have nocroom for the spiritual dimension that is inevitably and indelibly imprinted in all of us. In their world, good and evil are relative from sensate being to sensate being, so who are you to judge?

The chief priests and Pharisees could not handle the reality of God Incarnate, let alone the reality of Resurrection. That would mean acknowledging that everything Jesus said was true, and we can’t have that, now can we? To this day, Judaism has virtually no focus on heaven – having given up waiting for Messiah to show – and even less inkling toward hell.

In our corner of the Kingdom, the reality of Jesus would necessitate not only a changing of the mind, but a changing of the life. God calls that repentance. But people grow comfortable with the stage props they’ve built, so any reordering of that scenery stops the show. They must stay on script, with no ad libs. It’s not real life, but it’s the only one they’ve got.

When Jesus opens eyes and ears, hearts and minds, He makes sure the patient knows who the Doctor is, and that He has no intention of botching the procedure, nor of deserting them in the rehab process. He has an awesome bedside manner.

Jesus not only makes His grace and power real, He keeps it real. He’s not a distant god we have to climb up to. He’s an always-present God that steps in and stays in. When two of His disciples were walking along the road to Emmaus, thoroughly distraught by the Crucifixion and perplexed by the alleged Resurrection, Jesus catches up to them and talks them through it. He turns their uncertainty into genuine joy as His Words reach into their doubt and fear. He then reveals His ultimate Reality to them at the Breaking of Bread – now where did we hear THAT before?

That’s why the Sacrament is so special, and so needed. Jesus puts His Word to work at His Table, serving up real substance rather than pictures in a menu. He doesn’t do empty words or empty ceremony. When He holds up a piece of bread and says, “IS,” He means IS. Take it, eat it, believe it: forgiveness made real by the Real Jesus. With real forgiveness comes real life and real salvation. That’s life changing.

And Jesus keeps it that way. Jesus keeps it real.

​He gave Thomas peace and told him, “Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:27). The only way to do that is with enlightened eyes that consider the Source: the Real Jesus.

You don’t win the race before you’ve run it. They don’t hand you the Oscar before you’ve made the movie. And you don’t get the diploma before the first day of class.

For generations now, Christians have been putting the last before the first. We’ve become so fixated on the final resting place that we barely glance at the current living place. We have to know the answer to the heaven question, as if that will magically and mystically resolve all the earth questions.*

Do you have to go to church to get to heaven?

Is my golden retriever Murphy in heaven?

What will we look like in heaven?

Can homosexuals get into heaven?

Are Muslims going to heaven?

One of the bigger ones: What happens to babies who die without being baptized? That too is a heaven question.

Theologian Chad Bird caught my attention in March 2020 with his article, “I Can’t Wait to Get Out of Heaven.” The subhead says this: “We act and speak as if dying and going to heaven is what the faith is all about. It is most emphatically not.” Exactly. (He makes some assertions on the eternal geography of the resurrection that I am not in full agreement with, but his main point is spot on.)
Certainly our ultimate resurrection and eternal dwelling with Christ is where true faith is leading us, and it most definitely should matter to us, because it matters to God! But let’s not sidestep the life we have now just because we know how the story ends.

We also dare not curtail our sharing and caring just because we think we know where everyone will end up. Satan loves it when we think the battle is over, so we stop fighting, and we stop rescuing those he attacks.

We really don’t have a clear, definitive picture from Scripture what our eternal life is going to look like or feel like, nor any specific descriptions of the accommodations or the residents therein. Even the titles of said domicile are frequently cryptic. Jesus tells the (soon-to-be forgiven) thief dying with Him, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 24:43). The thief himself had spoken of “Your Kingdom” to Jesus.

This is after Christ had referred to “My Father’s House,” with many rooms, including a “place for you,… that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2). Jesus shows John a “new heaven and a new earth” in Revelation 21, because the old ones had passed away. But beware of translating every word picture in Revelation as a physical, temporal reality. Otherwise you’ll have Jesus with a sword sticking out of His mouth.

God’s Word references heaven repeatedly, but not as the destination on your spiritual GPS. Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father [who art] in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9). To oversimplify, heaven is where God is, where we are with Jesus and with all those whom He has graced with His presence. Heaven is defined Biblically by Who is there, not where. And we’ll get there soon enough – wherever it is.

God’s focus for the living is exactly that: living. We were dead in our sins, but then Christ brought us to life, before He brings us to heaven. We are baptized into His death and raised with Him in His resurrection, to live a new life with Him and in Him, without waiting for the coroner to stamp our death certificate.

Even when God speaks of eternal life – the one bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus – that doesn’t start the moment we die. It starts the moment we come to life: when He hits us with forgiveness, with His Holy Spirit, with the gift of faith. We won’t need faith in heaven (because we will see Him face to face), but we certainly need it on this side of eternity.

This is why Christ makes mission our ministry. He sends us to disciple the world by baptizing them into Him and teaching them to live by His Word. He expects us to proclaim His life-giving Word to everyone with ears, so that He might revive (literally, bring back to life) them right here, right now. Together we draw comfort, strength and encouragement from the presence of God-With-Us Jesus, who promises to be with us always, forever.

When Jesus called His disciples to follow Him, He didn’t say where He was taking them. And they didn’t ask. Not until three years later, when Thomas stopped for directions. “I am the Way,” Jesus says. All roads lead to Christ. That’s the place to be.

By grace through faith, Jesus walks us through the valley of the shadow of death. He washes us clean and clothes us with His righteousness. He steps into our pain and empowers us to overcome it. He doesn’t wait for us to die. He breathes into us the Spirit of Life, ready to go, to love, to live.
Now.

*Don’t think of it as going to church; think of it as coming to Jesus. And then the answer is yes.
*Animals in heaven, yes; specific pets: I don’t know. It will still be heaven either way, with lots of golden retrievers.

*Don’t worry about looks. You’ll love it no matter what.

*No, homosexuals cannot get into heaven. Neither can liars, adulterers, thieves, gluttons, Catholics, Lutherans or people who yell at the Packers, the coaches and the refs (chief of those sinners, right here). All the labels that define our sin or divide us from each other got canceled at the Cross.

*No, Muslims (or any other followers of not-Christ) are not going to heaven unless they believe in Jesus Christ, the risen Son of God, in life. Only one Way in, so we keep defending and proclaiming the truth about Jesus, one soul at a time. Focus on this life, rather than the next one.
​
*”Let the babies come to me, because My Kingdom belongs to them.” Baptism is for the living; Jesus takes care of the dead. So keep baptizing. Jesus takes care of them, too.

The more things change, the more things change.

Not nearly as profound as French philosopher Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, who is credited as the first to pen the line, “The more things change, the more they are the same,” in 1849. But hear me out.
Just as in Karr’s day, we are living in an era of seemingly phenomenal and continuous change. Karr wrote in a journal. Printed. On paper. Now we have countless memes harking back to glorious days of riding in the back of a pickup or drinking from a hose. Now we have memes.

Things change. Always. Sometimes the change is so incremental it escapes notice. It takes centuries for global temperatures to rise one-tenth of a degree, and most don’t ever feel it. On the other hand, four years ago the only people who wore masks in public were robbing a store.

When we start taking an honest look at our lives, individually and societally, we see more things changing. Much depends on context, so identifying cause and effect can be complicated. But the changes we see inevitably bring on more changes in domino effect, and those in turn knock over a few more. The more things change, the more things change.

For instance, marriage – including the process leading up to and after the wedding, if there is one (that’s a clue right there). Dating was offline until online became a thing. Living together before marriage goes way back (John 4), but was largely kept out of the public eye until its current status as commonplace. Sexuality as designed was for the enjoyment of husband and wife in lifelong commitment, along with the potential expansion of their family.

God’s institution of marriage – pre-Fall – is one man and one woman for life. Now none of those core components are seen as necessary in our society. The collateral damage has been deeper despair, deviance and division, children’s childhood destroyed (some before they ever leave the womb), self-gratification on roidal levels at the expense of relationship, with greater and growing distance between us and each other, as well as between us and God.

While divorce rates appear to be relatively stable, the marriage rate has plummeted, so in reality we are divorcing commitment and stability. Ask the children of divorce how much fun they’re having. Until they are divorced themselves.

But hey, it’s fun having as much sex as you want!

That’s a harsh dose of reality, but change is inevitable in nearly every arena of human endeavor. The business world constantly keeps its fingers on the pulse of change, knowing that the more things change, the more things change. Education and medicine, likewise. Certainly the entirety of how we communicate has morphed beyond recognition. Have you gotten a letter in the mail lately? I mean, a PAPER letter in a metal BOX by the curb? Put down your cell phone and look.

Even life in the church changes, despite well-intentioned efforts to resist. Screens are easier to read than hymnals. New hymns and spiritual songs (see Ephesians 5:19) are being written, even as we love the classics. At one point, “A Mighty Fortress” was a contemporary song. As long as they are faithful to the Word, glorifying Christ and edifying His people, they fit, even if our personal preferences may vary.

We’ve certainly seen rapid-fire change around SHLC, born largely out of the Holy Spirit’s penchant to add more souls to our Family. When my parents kept having kids, they went from sedan to station wagon to van to multiple vehicles. In our congregation we now have a new and larger place to worship and fellowship. We’re also adjusting how we celebrate the Sacrament, as God keep bringing more people to His Table: four stations, continuous communion, to avoid disrupting the other Gospel ministries that follow.

The problem with change is that, generally, we don’t like it. How you doing with roundabouts? We may eventually accept the change, but we prefer consistency, even predictability. We draw reassurance with repetition.

That’s where God comes in. He built us to treasure community and continuity. Since the beginning He made us social animals whose gatherings produce language, customs and traditions that connect generation to generation. America the Melting Pot, rather than a gaggle of diverse tribes sharing a hemisphere. He has also blessed us with the creative spirit to adjust those traditions around the margins, as our hearts and minds and communal attitudes evolve. We stay true to our core values, while each generation puts its own signature on the means by which we exercise them.

Problems arise when the means have forgotten the meaning or the values that inspired them. We fall into stale patterns of rote repetition bereft of authenticity. “They honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.” Succeeding generations adjust accordingly, though not always for the better. Human nature is still fatally flawed, so that clinging to the past and streaking into the future become mortal combatants, even in families. And churches.

The catalysts for change come from an infinite number of sources, many which mean to divide and harm, but capture the temporal fancy of individuals seeking…something.

The biggest change in human history happened in a garden not long after humanity began. It ruined everything in the garden, but not everything since.

God changes things. In the midst of rebellion and shame, He steps in with mercy and grace. While we keep reaching for rotten fruit and hiding in plain sight, He calmly and lovingly keeps finding us, restoring us, saving us from ourselves. He capitalized His compassion on the Cross.

You see, God does not change. The Commandments still apply, and the Savior still cleans up our messes. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. His Word is the rock solid foundation for faith and the life that flows from it. We may not speak it in Hebrew and Greek anymore, nor proclaim it in Latin or King James English. The Message is the same, even if the voices –and instruments– may have changed.
So we will keep streaming our services and adding lines to the Supper, singing hymns from the last century and songs from last year. We’re actually building new traditions.
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But the One on the other side: He’s right there where we need Him. Still.