I AM ABOUT TO DO A NEW THING

Last week, annual conference ended in Billings, Montana. It was fun to watch my Facebook feed fill up with pictures of national parks, as people took time to explore more of our conference on their journeys home (and yes, there were a number of pics of Chugwater milkshakes!).

On the Monday following conference, the Rainwaters, Robin and I took at day of Sabbath together and went to Yellowstone National Park. The oldest of our National  Parks, it is filled with geothermal areas, due to the Supervolcano that created the area. Seismic activity continues throughout the region, sometimes changing the landscape dramatically in an instant. Other changes, as land recovers from fire, for example, happen more gradually.

I watched a mudpot roil, belching out gases as if it was a turbulent sea. Nearby, an entire forest was felled when an earthquake caused magma to heat the ground so high that it killed the roots of trees and plants, and everything died.

Yet, even in the midst of death, there were signs of new life: there, a beautiful wildflower. Over here, new grass danced in the wind.

I couldn’t help but think of the current crisis in the church and how we would love to turn away from the conflict. Because it seems to be a very human thing to run from change and do all we can to maintain the status quo, even if it is not life-giving. Change frightens us.

Yet, God reminds us: “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.  I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43: 18-19). While God’s mercy and grace are constants, Creation keeps unfolding as we move more fully into a God-filled world. Jesus offers this to us when he said, “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” (John 10:10 MSG)

This life of faith is not static. It is not a “now we’ve got it and we are sealing it in cement.” It is a dynamic relationship between us and God, with God inviting us more and more fully into a rich way of living. John Wesley said we all are “moving on to perfection.”

If our denomination, our world, your church, your life seems to be roiling like a Yellowstone mudpot, ask yourself, Where is God in this? What change is occurring that is about to bring more life, better life than we ever dreamed of? What do you need to let go of so God can put something new in your hand?

May we be receptive to the new life God seeks to offer us, and may we willingly engage with the Holy Spirit, who will lead us—both individually and collectively--through a decaying wilderness to a land teeming with life and love. A place called Beloved Community.