Change Happens 1/6/19 Epiphany C

Rebecca L. Kiser

CHANGE HAPPENS

1/6/19      Epiphany C       Mathew 2: 1-12

There’s an old saying that nothing is certain except death and taxes.  I’d add a couple things...that God is, is certain; and change is certain.  Change Happens.  I got to pondering this when I read the phrase about the magi who came to worship Jesus.  To help preserve the child Jesus, they went home by a different way.  As the situation with a jealous King Herod changed, they changed their plans, and went home by a different way

Change happens.  When my mom was young, the country was in the throes of the Great Depression, and she had to help her father in the garden and help her mother put food up, so she moved herself to the city where she could buy sliced bread and frozen veggies.  She talking about gathering around a neighbor’s window, with all the other kids, to listen on that one rich person’s radio, to a program called The Shadow Knows. Her Christmas stocking had some sweets, an orange and some nuts.  They didn’t have a car.

Contrast that with my young days, when mom and dad both worked outside the home, quickly moving into the burgeoning middle class. My Christmas stocking had toys. Our pantry shelves were full from the grocery store. I didn’t know that pickles were made from cucumbers. We had a car and a TV - black and white at first, then color, and all our relatives came over to see Ed Sullivan in color.    

Contrast that with my kids learning computers in Kindergarten and Elementary school - I signed up as Computer Mom to get some training so I could keep up with my 5 year old.   I can remember the first mall that was built near our house; now they have a choice of malls.  I did Drivers Ed on the brand new Capitol Beltway, I 495, even before my dad did.  Now its a parking lot.  Two of my children choose to not have cars, but use public transportation and Uber.

Change happen.  Our country’s population has grown and grown, and people have flocked to cities - agricultural families are no longer the norm.  An economy based on  the slave labor that enabled plantations to thrive, changed when slaves were freed.  Nuclear families of several generations living nearby are more rare now, as children’s jobs get them transferred around the country, or they move in order to find work.  Every community has its long-term population, but its not really the norm anymore.  People are more transient. 

Change happens.  My father-in-law was loyal to one company for his entire career, then, as he neared retirement, new leadership wanted more profit, so finagled older and well-paid employees out. That has happened so often that loyalty between a company and its workers has ebbed from both sides, as workers seek to protect their interests and companies work for their bottom line.  And there was a time when unions were important for workers to not be exploited by the bosses; together, the workforce had bargaining power and improved their working conditions. My dad and mom came from coal-mining country, where unions were a good thing.  Daddy would never cross a picket line.  But now many leaders run on a platform of union-busting. 

Change happens.  Sometimes change is fun, like vacations, or traveling, or new shoes and clothes, or a new kitten.  Some changes are difficult - like changing the way one eats due to diabetes, or heart problems, or gluten intolerance.  Overcoming an addiction is very difficult, although preserving life and health.  Losing a spouse to death or divorce makes for difficult changes as well.  Changing our negative behaviors and attitudes takes work, too.  Some changes are both exciting AND scary at the same time - like going off to college, or moving to a new house, or starting a new job, or getting married, or retiring.  My son and I were talking about the changes that negative life experiences make in us; changes we never anticipated or imagined.  We both agreed that our younger selves might not even like our current selves! 

Language changes - every year our dictionary adds new words.  “To Google”, used as a verb, is one small example - “Somebody google that,” I’ve said in classes, and everyone knows what I mean, and whip out their smart phones.  Try and read a book from several centuries ago, and note all the words we don’t know anymore!  Some schools now are deciding not to teach cursive writing, but emphasizing “keyboarding” skills. 

Change happens.  The other night I bragged to my younger son that I’d gotten good at playing DVDs on the television, working the buttons and all.  His response?  “People still watch DVDs on their televisions?”  Ooooohhh, cut the momma!

A question on the Facebook group “Happy to be a Presbyterian” came from a mid-life man, asking if anyone else had undergone big theological and faith changes in their lives.  He got lots of affirmations from other folks - most people, as their brains develop, as their lives experiences ups and downs, have to ask questions of their faith, and wrestle to an answer.  Our understanding evolves and grows as we do, as we develop capabilities of reasoning, the insights of reflection, and the exposure to more situations.  Its not that we lose our faith;  its more that our faith morphs somehow into a different understanding as we wrestle with what life throws at us.  Our understanding of Scripture changes, too, as we learn about the difficulties of translations, of the philosophies of different times and cultures and how they heard things; as we have discovered more copies of ancient texts and been able to make more accurate translations.  As Presbyterians, we have the Reformation call that living out our Faith in God is always being reformed.

So why in the world should we expect the way we are church to totally stay the same?  Why should we expect that programs that worked to spread the gospel 50 years ago, will still work in today’s milieu?  Why do we assume people of today will flock to church like the folks raised in a post-World War country did?  

A simple look at church history will show that the church has looked different in different eras.  Always, the church has existed to spread the message of faith through Jesus Christ, to worship God, and to support and nurture faith in one another.  But it has looked different.  The earliest churches were small house churches, where the few converts to the gospel banded together to work out the changes in belief and living.  Those churches were eclectic mixes of Romans, Jews, affluent, starving poor, slaves and sex slaves.  At some point, Christ-followers had to meet in secret, and be careful in their words.  After Christianity became the state religion under Constantine, people converted who really didn’t know what they were pledging.  A system of priests developed, educated men who carried out worship in Latin that no one spoke, and told the less educated people, who stood during the service, what to believe.  Paintings and stained glass windows told the stories.  Pews were an innovation.    Scripture available to be read, for those who could read, was a huge change.  Monasteries were a big change.  The Reformation was a huge change on many levels, theologically, structurally and even in the music - hymns in the local language were written and sung.

Who would have guessed that music to the praise of God could be such a fighting point in churches?  Songs that my generation sang in coffee houses, with everyone who could play guitar joining in, were called ‘unchurchy’ and rebellious.  Now some of those songs are in our hymnals with organ accompaniment. I kind of giggle under my breath when we sing them. Organs may not last in worship, though, as fewer and fewer organ majors are coming out of schools. Not as many people are learning piano either.  Churches who move to contemporary services are actually doing the music people my age grew up on…..

For most of my ministry, I was the first woman pastor people had heard of, heard preach, heard do a wedding or a funeral.  Clergywomen are a big change in the church. 

Not everything about church changes - The focus on Jesus as Christ has not changed.  Scripture is still stressed as important, although not as many people know it well. Nurture of each other remains the same, although its more centered on bodily health than spiritual health.  Something that thriving congregations seem to have in common is their emphasis on mission  - mission in their local community, as well as concern for national and international situations.  These congregations are active in reaching out through programs like feeding, English as a second language classes, clothes closets, prayer shawls or quilts, adopting a local elementary school, using their sanctuary for lectures or concerts, doing community gardens or farmers markets, participating in Relay for Life, hosting yoga classes, hosting 12-step groups, doing a Habitat house, volunteering for Neighbor-to-Neighbor that takes people to dr appointments, ….all kinds of things, according to what their members can handle and are interested in.  We’ve had a couple suggestions here - a calling-tree for elderly or homebound folks; and evening adult classes in various things.  Thriving churches are in their facilities  more than just Sundays, and are also active outside their own walls.

While I am pleased that we at Indiantown keep up with our Mission Pledge through the presbytery, as well as our per capita; and while I am proud of the way we care for one another within our congregation,  I think our challenge is to get involved in caring beyond our walls and beyond our own people. When we listen to those who are hurting, we will get ideas of how to support them and address concerns. 

If we fall more into letting our boundaries shrink, and begin to not see beyond our own walls, and only do what we have always done even if its not working, then we will be in trouble.   Many of the congregations that fold are those who get indrawn and petty.  They argue about letting a mom’s group meet in a room, because the extra heat & lights costs money.   They fuss about letting AA use a shelf for their coffee supplies.  They start fights over how another person runs a committee.  They turn on the pastor and blame him or her.  And then they wonder why no one wants to join!!!   These situations are ones that I’ve seen…..

Indiantown, thank God, is not at that point. We have forward-looking people who can imagine and re-imagine how to move into our future.  As Christ-followers, God’s Spirit can move us into places we’ve never thought of before - if we listen.  The needs in our communities and our world have not decreased…. People are still in need of the grace and forgiveness that Christ gives as each person is valued.  Love and welcome and kindness seem to be waning in our world; the Christian virtues of right relationships between people seem to be fading from practice.  There are winds blowing through our culture that are not consistent with faith in God.  Our witness and message are needed; our hands are needed; our living the faith is needed; the interpreting of the message of Jesus to our time is needed.  The community and fellowship of being Christ’s church could address the need of people whose lives are more and more solitary and far from their families.  Our love for people across racial lines can have a vital impact on local and national levels.  Our care for the poor and the suffering may well be more necessary, given the way the country is going.  Our altruism and compassion from following Christ can be a shining star to many needy people.  Our ministry is needed - how will we respond?