How many Anglicans does it take to change a lightbulb?
Change?!!! Change!!???
I know, of course, that this cliché would never apply to us here at All Saints, but it does illustrate the complicated relationship that many of us have with change. Each of us will have our own appetite for change, how comfortable or uncomfortable we are with change. It is another cliché that we are living in an era of change that has been more rapid than any other era in human history. For some of us, this is exciting and inspiring, others of us feel left behind or bewildered. I wonder how you feel about change?
Aiden’s parents have experienced huge changes over the last eight months with the arrival of Aiden. The changes that a new baby brings in family life are extensive and deep. Some of them are easier to live with than others, if my experiences of having young children are anything to go by. There is the delight of exploring what it means to have a new member of the family, and the joy that brings. There are the challenges of sleepless nights and changed routines to accommodate the small person’s needs.
Over the last few months we’ve been exploring and celebrating different aspects of God’s character, who God is, and what difference that makes to us, and our relationship with God. This morning we’re thinking about the fact that God’s nature is unchanging – what God is like doesn’t change – and what that means for us.
In our first Bible reading this morning we heard from the book of the prophet Malachi. In this book he shares God’s message for God’s people, including some warnings about things that they were getting wrong, and how they needed to change.
The first six words of the reading set the theme. “I the Lord do not change.”
This is the starting point, the foundation, of the message that God has for the people. “I, the Lord, do not change.”
Now, if you’re the kind of person that likes change this might not fill you with joy. After all, things that don’t change can be stagnant, boring, out of date. I don’t think that this is what we want to say about God, I don’t think it’s true about God, so what might be more positive ways of thinking about the fact that God does not change?
Well, there is a sense in which saying “doesn’t change” or “unchanging” is describing something by what it isn’t. It’s a negative definition. What would a positive definition look like?
How about saying things like God is reliable, dependable, trustworthy, faithful?
These are all true about God. They emphasise God’s consistency over time, God’s commitment to creation, God’s constancy. They are deeply comforting descriptions of God that we can rest in.
And yet. I wonder if they are sometimes a little bit too comfortable? Do they run the risk of taming God, making God sound a bit like a favourite uncle or maybe a Labrador.
It’s seems to me that I want to say something stronger than this. Again and again in Psalms we hear God described as a Rock. Psalm 62 is a great example of this.
“Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”
This is the force of God’s unchanging nature, of God’s faithfulness, that God is a rock – a rock that we can anchor our lives to, that we can run to for shelter, that will never be moved.
This is why we bring our children for baptism. It’s why Aiden is here this morning, because we trust in God’s unchanging nature to be a rock that will anchor his life and provide him a strong foundation to build on as he grows and gets to know God for himself throughout his life.
Through this sermon series we have considered a number of God’s characteristics. That God is love, merciful, powerful, Light amongst others, and we still have some to come through the summer. All of them are underpinned by this one – “I the Lord do not change.” God’s love, mercy, power, light – they don’t change. You can anchor your life to them.
As we read on in Malachi we find worked examples of this.
Firstly we read about God’s protection of God’s people. Because God doesn’t change, the people have not been destroyed, God has protected them. Even though they have turned their backs on God time and time again, their unfaithfulness has not broken God’s faithfulness. God is still there, looking out for them, waiting for them to return to him.
Secondly we read about God’s generosity. God loves to bless God’s people, and to pour out what they need on them. God calls the people out for their lack of generosity and contrasts this with God’s own commitment to generosity and blessing. Now, we have to be a bit careful here. I wouldn’t want us to fall into the trap of treating our giving as an investment opportunity. We don’t give because we want to earn God’s generosity and blessing.
Having said this, trusting in God’s rock solid generosity does free us to be generous ourselves. This is why as a church we give away 10% of our income to other organisations working for the kingdom – because we trust God to provide what we need and so are free to be generous to others. It’s why we teach that it is good for us all to be generous in our own giving, and that 10% of our income is a good benchmark for that. As we demonstrate our trust in our faithful and generous God by being generous, so we will discover all kinds of blessings.
One of the things that we have been seeing over the last couple of months is the consistency between God the Father’s character and God the Son’s character, and the way in which God’s nature does not change from the Old Testament to the New Testament. God is who God is, and that does not change. In Hebrews 13:8 we read that “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday and today and forever.”
Everything we have been saying about God applies to Jesus, because Jesus is God.
What then are we to make of our reading from Matthew’s eye witness account of the good news of Jesus’ life and ministry?
This is a strange little encounter, isn’t it? At first sight it doesn’t seem very “Jesus-y”does it?
The first thing that happens is that we meet a woman who is desperately concerned about her daughter who is being oppressed by evil spirits. She comes to Jesus for help. And Jesus doesn’t respond to her. Jesus friends and followers, the disciples, try and get him to send her away, but Jesus doesn’t do that – he just comments that he believes that he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. The woman isn’t taking no for an answer, and now comes and gets in Jesus’ way. She kneels at his feet and begs, “Lord, help me!”
I wonder how you imagine Jesus’ tone of voice as he talks to the woman for the first time.
“It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
Describing people as dogs was no more polite in 1st century Palestine that it is today. With the wider evidence of what Jesus was like with people in other conversations, I believe that he found a way of saying it that took the sting out of it, but I’m not sure I’ll ever really understand why he used such a horrible phrase. Some people have suggested that the word used meant “pet dogs” but they weren’t really a thing in that time, and to be honest doesn’t make it much better.
Anyway, the woman wasn’t put off, and comes at Jesus – “aren’t we even worth the crumbs?”
At that Jesus changed his mind, and seeing her persistent faith, healed the woman’s daughter.
Now, this could be a bit embarrassing. I spent the first chunk of this morning talking about how God doesn’t change, and then emphasised the fact that whatever is true of the Father is true of the Son, which means that Jesus doesn’t change either. So what is Jesus doing changing his mind if he doesn’t change?
Well, it seems to me that Jesus’ change of mind is entirely consistent with, and in fact demonstrates, Jesus’ consistent nature. Jesus is consistently full of grace, willing to show mercy, and loving. Because this nature is reliable and sure, unchanging and dependable, Jesus is free to change his decisions. If this were not the case, if Jesus were bound by what had been said to people, despite changes in circumstances and attitudes to Jesus, then the character of Jesus would have to be different. People who can’t change their minds when new evidence comes to light, or insights are gained aren’t being consistent, they’re being obstinate, and that is not what God is like.
God does not change. God will always be holy, just, loving, and merciful. God’s purposes do not change. God is always reconciling, always with us, always rescuing us from the messes we get into. God is always blessing and being generous to us. Let’s hold on to this, trust it, and build our lives on it.
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