God of the new
I
remember a professor teaching a class on anxiety and I remember them saying
something very interesting. They showed a list of things that cause anxiety,
and on the list was the word “change”. The professor explained that it can be
bad change (like the death of a loved one), or it can be good change (like a
better job). Change (good or bad)
produces anxiety. Something that is new, is a change. (does that make sense?).
If something is new then it is different than what had been. A new car, a new
technique, a new dance, a new relationship, all of these are changes that can
provoke a bit of anxiety in us. So something that is new, can automatically
produce anxiety. So what we try to do to get rid of the anxiety is to get rid
of the new thing and go back to something familiar, old, and comfortable.
This is actually
one of our problems with God. Our God is constantly up to something new. This
also means that for many of us God is going to constantly be making us anxious
and nervous. God is constantly doing something new in our lives. God is
constantly teaching us something new about ourselves, or He is teaching us
something new about Him, or something new about following him. If you seriously
read the Bible you will constantly be confronted with learning something new
about God, or about what it means to follow God. If we are earnestly seeking to love God, then
we will constantly be confronting something new.
Now I’m not saying that new is always good. I’m also not
saying that new for the sake of new is good. But it does seem to be the case
that God is into doing new things. God
is always doing something new. When God created the universe, it was a new
thing. God Called Abraham and Sarah into a new place, and to start a new
nation. Jesus speaks about new wine not fitting in in old wine skins. Jesus speaks about a new covenant. Jesus
speaks to Nicodemus about a new birth. Jesus gives his followers a new
commandment, that they love one another as he loved them. Paul says that if
anyone is in Christ they are a new creation. In Revelation we read about God
creating a new heaven and a new earth. (My prof. from seminary, John Bowen, brought my attentions to all this newness in the Bible). God is always up to something new. God
is not static. God is always ahead of us blazing a trail for us to follow. We
are always playing catch up with God.
One of
my Professors at seminary once asked how we visualize God. What picture comes to
mind? You might have Michelangelo’s painting come to mind where God as an old
man with white hair and a big beard reaches out to create Adam. It has become a
stereotype- God as the old bearded man in the sky. My professor, John Bowen,
pointed out that when God revealed himself most clearly in the person of Jesus
Christ he appeared as a 30 year old man at the height of his powers. Jesus does
not present an image of God to us as one stuck in his ways and nervous about
change. Through Jesus we see a God who is on the move and leading us on new
paths.
As a God
that is about newness and change we might be constantly in a state of anxiety.
God is challenging. God will challenge you to change your character. God will
challenge you to get involved in a new ministry. God will challenge you to deal
with your emotional wounds to enter a new state of emotional health. It has
been said that Jesus brings discomfort to the comfortable.
In our reading from Exodus 32 God has brought the Hebrew
people into something new. They had been slaves for hundreds of years. And now
they have been rescued through a series of miracles. The people who had no
power as slaves under the foot of Pharaoh now had the power of God rescuing
them. They left the life of slavery they knew and were on their way to a new
land and were being made into a new people.
God gave them a law to show them how to be this new people. At this
point in our reading Moses has been on top of the mountain with God and the
people have grown impatient. They gather around Aaron and they say to him,
"Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the
man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become
of him." They ask for gods to be made, and Aaron collects gold from them
to create a golden calf. They return to
the worship they knew in Egypt. But, God told them not to create a graven
image. God cannot be limited by a visual form. God was calling them into a new way
of worshipping. God was not just another god among the Egyptian pantheon. God
was showing them a new category of God. God was breaking their image of
divinity and replacing it with something new. The people were avoiding the
anxiety of something new by returning to old comfortable ways of worshipping.
They may have left the physical place of slavery, but that slavery was still in
their heart. They were comfortable as slaves. God was calling them to something
new, but that new thing produces anxiety even if it is good. Constantly the
Hebrew people will grumble against God and Moses yearning for Egypt. Their
whole time wandering in the wilderness is about God trying to get the slavery
out of their hearts so that they will be able to enter the new Promised Land as
God’s new people.
God enters into a new relationship with this people. God
even allows himself to be hurt by their actions. God allows himself to have a
level of vulnerability. He has essentially married these people and now so soon
into the relationship they have damaged it.
God opens Himself up to be influenced by their actions, and by the words
of Moses.
God hasn’t stopped doing new things, and we haven’t
stopped wanting comfort. We sometimes resist newness in the desire to resist
the anxiety that newness brings. In our individual lives if we are seeking God
we will be drawn into new understandings and new actions. As a church, if we
are seeking God we will be drawn into newness. That means that the Church will
be in a constant state of change.
Now I
have another assignment today, which is to talk about the Reach campaign, which
the bishop has called us to. The Reach
campaign is an opportunity for us to dream a bit bigger. It is a chance for us
to wonder what new thing God might be calling us to. This will challenge us in
all kinds of ways. It will challenge us because some of us will be called to
get involved in new ministries perhaps working with youth or children, or
perhaps offering care for the suffering. We will be challenged to think outside
of our own parish and do some new things as a group of churches, as a diocese,
and as a national church. We will be challenged to perhaps a new level of
generosity. But, I also recognize that this can come with a certain level of
anxiety.
But,
regardless, we are being asked to do something new. Some people have very
generously offered their time, talent, and treasure to this campaign. Ed Paul
has volunteered to take on the ministry of being our fearless leader. And there
are others who are very generously offering themselves to this new thing. It is
not an easy thing to do. It is a new thing for most of us who are involved in
the campaign. They have been asked to visit others in the parish. This is a new
thing that can cause a lot of anxiety. Some of you have been contacted already and
have had a visit with a member of the Reach team. Many more of you will be in
contact with a team member and they will be giving you the opportunity to be
involved in something new.
I ask
you to please be gentle with those who are contacting you. They are doing
something that can be quite anxiety producing. Please be gentle with them.
Regardless of how you feel about the Reach campaign we are still called to love
each other and to treat each other with respect. Those who are volunteering their time for
this Reach campaign are doing so out of a love for God and a love for God’s
church. They believe that we are being called into something new, even if it
produces anxiety. God is calling us forward into something new. God is calling
us to do something more than just survive by paying the heating bill and
keeping the church roof over our heads. The church is not called to just survive.
The church is called to be a blessing. It is called to movement- and to
mission.
When
someone contacts you from Reach please receive them in the Spirit of Christ- as
a brother or sister. Receive them in love and respect. You might not agree with
the Reach campaign, but as Christians we are called to treat even enemies with
love and grace, so how much more our own brothers and sisters in Christ. You
might have a problem with me, or with others in the congregation, or with the
diocese, or the national church, fine, but please receive those contacting you
with love and respect.
It is
truly okay to disagree with the Reach campaign. Those who are contacting you
are not there to push you. They are there to give you information and to answer
questions. They will let you know what we are planning on doing at St.
Timothy’s as a part of the Reach campaign. They will let you know what the
diocese plans on doing as a part of the Reach campaign. And they will let you
know about what we plan on doing on the national level. The people who will be contacting you are
there to offer you an opportunity to be a part of this new thing. They will
invite you to consider giving a gift. It’s not an easy thing to ask people because
newness causes anxiety. So please respond when people contact you. Even if you
respond with a “no thank you I’m not interested”. No one will think less of
you. We don’t want to cause resentment or hurt. You don’t have to believe in it or even give
to it, but please respond when they approach you and hear them out. … Sometimes
that anxiety can become excitement if we offer it to God.
I am
very thankful for all those who are helping with the Reach campaign, and I am
very thankful for those of you that have so generously offered your treasure to
support this new thing.
I do
believe that God is up to something new at St. Timothy’s. God is constantly up to something new. In
each of our lives he is calling into newness. He’s calling us to take one more
step in following him. He is challenging us to constantly grow and mature. He’s
calling us as a congregation to discern where he is leading and it is always
going to be a new place for us. And that new thing will cause us anxiety, but
if we offer that to God in trust he can transform that anxiety into excitement.
We will learn that wherever God is leading us, he is leading us into a new
place, not for His benefit, but ultimately for ours. More than anything he
desires us, but he loves us too much to leave us where we are. He wants to lead
us closer to him as we learn to have our souls shaped into the image of Jesus.
amen
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