March 21, 2013

 Readings for the Day

AM Psalm 131, 132, [133]; PM Psalm 140, 142  
Jer. 26:1-16; Rom. 11:1-12; John 10:19-42

Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the Lord; speak to them all the words that I command you; do not hold back a word. It may be that they will listen, all of them, and will turn from their evil way, that I may change my mind about the disaster that I intend to bring on them because of their evil doings.

Jeremiah 26:2-4 (NRSV)

We often speak of God as unchanging and steadfast. God as ever present in times of trouble. God as Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. And all of those are truthful and valid ways to speak of God. Indeed, it is these ways of thinking of God and understanding God that help us to know God is always with us and is the one constant we can rely on in a world that is often swirling chaotically with change all around us.

And so when the conversation turns and we begin to talk about God changing we can get uncomfortable or nervous. So much so that it can be hard to wrap our heads around this idea. How could God change? If God can change what do I have to rely on? How can I be sure of anything if even God can change?

To me the fact that God is open to change gives me hope. It means that God’s creativity is ongoing. It means that God is always doing something new and that God never gives up on us. It means that God is always at work in our lives and world in surprising ways and in surprising places so that we can never tell where we will find God showing up next.

It is that good news I heard when I read today’s reading from Jeremiah and saw that the Lord told the prophet Jeremiah to go speak to the people of Judah. The Lord didn’t send Jeremiah to deliver a message of certain disaster to them. The Lord sent Jeremiah with a message of warning, hoping that the people would hear the message and change their ways so that God could change God’s mind about punishing them. Yes, that’s right, so God could change God’s mind. God wanted a future for the people of Judah other than the one their ways of sin had condemned them to. God knew the people had sinned and knew they needed to be punished if they insisted on staying on the same path, but God held out hope that they could and would divert from that path. God sent Jeremiah because God hoped that they would change so that God could change what God had in store for them and instead of punishment offer them a more hopeful future.

In Lent when we are so focused on our sin and brokenness this gives us a message of hope. It reminds us that when we have turned from God and God’s ways we can always turn back. A single or even multiple mistakes in life don’t mean that our future is then set in stone and we can’t change or find our way back to God. God believes we can change. In fact, God hopes that we will and so always offers us the opportunity to turn back to God and be made new each and every time we wander and stray from God’s ways.

The following video tells the story of a young man who was told he would never change from the path he was on. He didn’t believe it. Instead he did change. His future is different than the one envisioned for him by the judge who doubted in his ability to change. And now he wants others to know that there is a chance for change for them, too.

We can always change. Some may doubt our ability to change, but God believes we can. We need to believe it, too. We need to believe that there is always hope for change. We need to believe that in God there is always hope in change.

- Karen Safstrom