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The Upload

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I pray that you have had a blessed week.

We sure have had some great weather lately, haven’t we? As I write this letter, the temperature is on its way up to 65°. But the weather has also been kind of weird. I was out of town earlier this week, but I was told that on Tuesday we had a thunderstorm in De Soto, but that it snowed in other areas around Kansas City. That seems incredible to me to have weather from two different seasons in the same area at the same time. When I heard about Tuesday’s weather, I imagined “Old Man Winter” having a fight with “Spring.” In my imagination, it was like “Spring” saying to “Old man Winter,” It’s time for you to leave now, I’ll take over from here. Then as “Spring” begins her work, “Old Man Winter” says, Oh, no, you don’t, I know how things are to be done. I’m not changing. Things are fine the way they are. “Old Man Winter” is just not quite ready to give way to “Spring.” “Old Man Winter” likes things the way they are!

There was a time when winter was supposed to take over. Last fall, the earth was ready for a time of rest and renewal. It was time for the grasses and the trees to go dormant. It was time for the animals and the birds to either go into hibernation or to fly to new places. “Fall” fought “Old Man Winter” just like “Old Man Winter” is struggling with “Spring.” It was time for that change, but now, even though things look the same, the trees are bare, the grass is brown, the flowers have not popped out, something is changing. The trees apparently are ready to blossom, the grass wants to turn green, and the birds and animals want to come back out. But to do so, spring must occur and winter must move on, but change won’t come easy.

In this Season of Lent, we are called to change our lives. We are challenged to look at our own lives and the life of our faith community and realize that there are gifts within us that are ready to blossom, if only we are willing to change and let them blossom. But to do that, we will have to let go of some of our old ways and some of our comfortable ways.

In our Gospel text for this coming Sunday (John 3:1-17), Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, because he doesn’t want anyone to know he is going to the “new kid on the block.” Nicodemus seems to know something is changing, but he likes things the way they are. He likes knowing that if only one knows and follows the law, they will be saved. But this Jesus is saying something different. It appears that salvation does not come to us by what we do, but by believing in God, especially God’s Son. It sounds so good, but surely God must want me to do something; surely there has to be more. Nicodemus says to Jesus, “How can these things be?”

To this final question, Jesus responds, Nicodemus, Do you want to know how you can be born again? Do you want to know how you can start new? Well, the answer is you cannot do that, but God can, and to make this happen God did something completely unthinkable. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (3:16-17).

Our good news this week is that it is time for us to change. It is time for us to let go of the past and be willing to embrace the future knowing that our God has not come to condemn the world, as so many want us to believe, but he has sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, so that we might know salvation. Don’t fight this change. Let God’s grace abound in you and through you.

Have a blessed week.

Shalom,

Pastor Dave

Tags: Weekly Word