Change Is In the Wind

The day after Super Tuesday - and the winds of change are blowing across the political landscape. Clinton, Obama, McCain, Huckabee, Romney . . . all speak of change: change in the economic landscape; change in the political arena; change in the health care fields; change in the war in Iraq; change in the way Presidents behave; and change in how the American public is heard. Change. Everybody offers change.

Few offer or promise change in themselves.

The same could probably be said of most of us, though. When we talk of 'things needing to change', very few of us are making reference to how we will change. Talk of change is talk of how you will change, how employers will change, how the government will change, how my lenders will change, how health care providers will change, how my neighbors should change, how my family should change, how my church should change . . . . you get the picture. Change is inevitably desired in every situation, as long as the change is in someone or something other than me. "I don't need to change, but the world around me needs a bit of revamping."

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. For the next 40 days, not including Sundays, the Christian community ponders how God changes to meet our need. Truly, the steadfast love of the Lord never changes, but what does change is how God chooses to meet humanity where it is and transform our living, even change how we are to live in faith. In Jesus' journey towards Jerusalem, God journeys with all of us, face to face, calling us to profoundly understand just how deeply we are loved - and how far God will go that we would fully know are we are known. Jesus' journey to the Jerusalem is a journey of faithfulness to God, a journey of life lived in absolute faith that God's love has power over all things. So fearful are the 'powers that be' of a change in how folks understand themselves and their relationship with God, that the 'powers' crucify the Messenger. What they couldn't crucify, though, is the unchanging love of God for all of humankind, which has absolute authority over even the grave. The empty tomb is sign and seal of God's change transforming our own hard-hearted and stiff-necked living.

Change is in the wind, but not the kind of change politicians, even the most well-meaning among them, can affect. It is the change only the Child of Bethlehem is empowered to announce: the kingdom of heaven has come near. God is with us.

Embrace the Change on this journey to Jerusalem. The Change is for you.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Don