The Unchanging Christ, by Randal Nicholas

          Our entire life depends on it. People fear and work to avoid it. Our president was elected by promising it. Bookstores are crammed with guides on how to create it personally and manage it professionally. He knows changes aren't permanent, but change is.  Sometimes it’s the only constant in life, and other times people desperately want it but can’t seem to muster it. Change.

          The longer we live, the more of it we see. Consider a few childhood classics that have left nostalgia behind while looking to change with the times.

          The board game Monopoly was built on obscure geographic locales from Atlantic City. Without Monopoly, would anyone outside of Jersey know the location of Marvin Gardens and Oriental Avenue? But because 750 million people around the world have played the game, Parker Brothers has released about a dozen different versions of the game.  City streets have been replaced by any number of things, depending on the version.  We have the National Parks version, and the Disney version.  There's a world cities version now where they no longer buy, sell and collect rent with cash; they do it by registering electronic transactions on their hand-held personal ATM's.

          Nostalgic food favorites have changed as well. Recently, M&M’s have gone “Premium,” with new flavors including almond, raspberry almond, mocha, mint and triple chocolate. The Premiums, which lack their predecessors’ hard shell, come in an upscale, trendy box instead of that tired brown-paper wrapper.

          And most of us remember the nation-gripping taste-drama that surrounded Coca-Cola becoming New Coke, reprising Classic Coke, then reverting back to just plain old Coke.  I don't really know - I drink Diet Mountain Dew.

          Another changing classic is the Bible. Think about the medium by which we read the Bible.

          In the ancient world of Judaism, Scripture was memorized and passed on orally. Hebrews took papyrus technology from the Egyptians and wrote on scrolls. Later, they wrote on sturdier parchment — dried animal skins. These were combined into exorbitantly expensive book-like codices. In the 15th century, the printing press revolutionized the world by getting Bibles into the hands of non-clergy for the first time. Today we beam texts onto PowerPoint slides, and people bring Bibles to church on the iPhone. I use four different web sites to access a Bible, rather than actually opening one of the dozen I own.

          Think about all the ways technology has altered age-old interactions between people. We used to talk face to face. Then we created the telegraph and eventually saw a phone in every home. Now we carry our phones, ditch our land lines and drop text messages to avoid those pesky, lengthy human interactions.

          Previous generations wrote letters and posted them through couriers. Then MIT nerds in the ’60s created an intranet, which led to e-mail, which spawned a worldwide Internet. One-to-one communiqués became SPAM, Facebook wall postings and Tweets about what cereal we ate for breakfast. I can't recall when I last wrote a real letter, using paper and a pen.  I type everything.

          In our real lives, we have friends and acquaintances where change is either missing or massive. Still hopelessly single. Still in a stale marriage. Still exhausted parents with no rest on the horizon. Still in the same career with the same company in the same cube.

          Others are changing jobs like underwear because of the economy. Some have new family issues every time their schedules clear enough for them to see each other. People may be cycling through relationships like the Flavor of the Month. So sometimes we need an anchor in the storm, and other times we desperately need the wind to fill our sails.

          Despite the life situation we find ourselves in, today’s text should offer some hope. And it plays on that which is unchanging — the Triune God.

          The reality is that Revelation confuses a lot of us. The imagery in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ seems more like the work of a writer on LSD than it does Scripture. We don’t know what to think about Revelation because we’ve seen it taken captive by too many end-of-the-world preachers and street crazies.

          But this week’s text is a classic — well known and easy to understand. No dragons. Nothing with wings. No fire to interpret. In fact, it just as easily could have been nestled inside a Pauline epistle somewhere.

          It’s good to remember the context in which John wrote. Though exiled, John was writing to and about the Jewish-rooted church emerging in Palestine. Its history was one of theocracy — God as commander in chief of culture and country. Its new reality was one of imperialism — occupied, ruled and persecuted by a Roman Empire that pushed its own pagan religion and claimed Caesar as god. That context gives rise to pointed, apologetic descriptions of our Triune God.

          Father, Spirit and Son are the givers of “grace and peace” — entities entirely unknown to a people being persecuted by a foreign government imposing its will on them. And each person of the Godhead has an aspect of eternality and constancy to him.

          Father: God is called the one “who is and who was and who is to come.”  Like alpha and omega in the Greek alphabet, he is before and after all else. These are allusions to the divine name “Yahweh,” defined in Exodus as “I am who I am.”

          Though the times are uncertain, John is sounding a classic apocalyptic message: This God controls the past, present and future and can be a source of comfort. God is eternal. Unchanging. The same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

          Spirit: Most see “seven spirits” as a reference to the sevenfold Spirit, a reference for completeness and perfection. It may also have connection to the universality of the Spirit who speaks differently to seven churches later in the chapter. Like Zechariah 4:10, the perfect Spirit ranges through the earth and sees all things. The misery of John’s audience isn’t going unnoticed.

          Son: John describes Jesus in three important ways for a persecuted people:

• A “faithful witness” who modeled perseverance and martyrdom;

• The “firstborn of the dead” — sovereign over death and a promise to those who would be raised with him,

• One who ruled earthly leaders like Caesar.

          Despite what the people’s situation told them, this Jesus loved them, freed them and made them into royalty instead of the ruled.

          This passage speaks of an unchanging God who sees all and can redeem all. But what do we do with this God if our life is changing way too much — or if it isn’t changing like we need it to?

          It’s difficult to trust anyone or anything that changes. The economy of the last year has proven that the job market, the housing market and the stock market are no place for our faith and comfort. Because God is the same yesterday and tomorrow, God can serve as an anchor point to a chaotic life. His words and the lifestyle he commands are a constant. Following God means we have a true foundation for the whole of our lives to be built on. We can trust that God knows best. We know God won’t change the rules of the game on us later on.

          Christ the King has established a throne in the middle of our filth. He “freed us from our sins by his blood.”  But that “us” is no longer just John’s audience. It is the audience of Christian history. It’s us today. It’s the church tomorrow. Without taking away from the individuality of each one of us, our mess is exactly like that of a lot of other people whom Jesus also redeemed. Paul reminds us that “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone.”

          Our sin doesn’t surprise Jesus, and it isn’t outside his reach to forgive. Period. No exceptions. But we haven’t just been redeemed from. We have been redeemed to.  Jesus redeemed strangers into his priests. In Scripture, priests always bring God to the people and bring the people to God.

          An old Russian proverb says, “He who dwells on the past loses an eye, but he who forgets the past loses both eyes.” Because God is unchanging, Christianity by definition is a historical faith. We should learn how the saints before us approached God, who was the same 1,500 years ago as he is today. This is why we care about the beliefs and experiences of Augustine, Martin Luther and John Calvin.  That is why we still share the words of the Apostle's and Nicene Creeds.

          Their God is our God will be our children’s God.

          John Wesley, founder of the Methodist branch of our family, developed a theological schematic called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.  In it, Wesley rightly includes Christian Experience as a component of our theological method and reflection. But like Reason and Tradition, Experience always remains subservient to the Bible as the primary truth about God and reality.

          The situation of the believers in Asia Minor called this reality into question, and many experience-driven Christians face the same danger today.

          We hesitate to believe that Jesus “loves us and freed us.” After all, look at our unemployment. Look at our chronic pain. Look at our loneliness. Look at our Saturday-night decisions. Look at our Internet-browser history.

          This past week or so, I've spent time each day corresponding with a friend I have never met in person, but who I know via one of those internet railfan groups to which I belong.  His mother has been sick for several years, and as her only child and care-giver, my friend has been under a lot of stress for quite some time.  His mom took a turn for the worse last Sunday, and died on Wednesday.

          As with many of my internet friends, Mooch knew of my occupation, but rarely if ever have we talked faith and religion.  I try not to burden my friends with such stuff - until they ask - and then I'll burden them all they want!  Well, when Mooch's mom took her turn last Sunday, he sent out an all-group note, letting us know that Ma wasn't well, and wasn't expected to live much longer.  Most every guy in the group, despite our usual banal banter, sent words of encouragement. My note was more pastoral than most, I suppose, but whatever I said must have touched his heart.  Not my words, but those of the Holy Spirit, I am certain.

          We have exchanged many notes throughout the week.  We did again this morning.  There's no doubt in my mind that Mooch is a man of faith - his words and actions prove that ten-fold.  He has lived at home with his mother for 15 years, since his father's death, caring for her, supporting her with his income, and doing most of the household chores and upkeep.  And now his life has changed.

          I share this story only because of words that Mooch shared with me just this morning.  I'll paraphrase what he said:  "It is words of Wisdom that were said, "God Works In Mysterious Ways", but of the past 15 years, anything I've tried comes to naught. I cut off a finger, then a year later Mother breaks her hip. I knew when I lost that finger something was up, more than just ignorance. He's keeping me in a certain spot, and I think He's trying to protect me, so I haven't said much. I do worry about what it is He is trying to protect me from."

          Identifying the presence of God, yet standing in awe and wonder of why things happen, is part of what drives us crazy.  The world changes around us daily, yet some things stay the same.  My friend will be facing some major changes in the next few days and weeks as he sorts out his life, and picks up the remains of what's left of his parents' things.  Yet, as if he needed to remind any of us - on the list, or here today - despite all the changes in life, the love of God, demonstrated by our friends especially in a time of need, is a constant.  In Jesus, there is no change.

          Friends, the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is for us all. God won’t change on his position of grace and peace. Despite what we do, what we leave undone and what is done to us, our theology remains constant. God loves us. God frees us from sins. God makes us royalty. God calls us to serve him. These remain unchanging even when life experience calls them into question.  In Jesus, there is no change. Alleluia!  Amen.