"TURN, TURN, TURN"

If you've ever had "one of those weeks" - and I know you have - let me share with you that I have had "one of those weeks." I had planned on having a very productive week, both at the office and with my sorting and packing at home. But...my plans got changed.

Here I am, with less than a month left in St. Louis, and this week I was called in for Jury Duty. And not only did I have to be in the Jury Pool, I got placed on a trial! And let me tell you: when they say "the wheels of justice turn slowly," they're not kidding!

As I sat...and sat...and sat...I tried to do some work. I had taken sermon preparation materials with me but, for whatever reason, I could not get a good hold on the assigned passage for today. So, late in the week, I decided to change my focus. Everything else in my life is changing so why not my sermon focus...just to make the picture complete! In fact, let's focus on...CHANGE!

And to start out, let's play a game. This game is called, "Preferences." It's really simple: I'll throw out some ideas and you choose option "a" or option "b". Ready? O.K.

When it comes to pizza, do you prefer having it cut (a) into a few big slices or (b) into a lot of smaller slices? A? Just raise your hands. O.K. B?

At a party, would you prefer to (a) talk to one person for twenty minutes or (b) talk to twenty people in one minute? A? B?

When it comes to the situations and circumstances in your life, would you prefer (a) to have some control and arrange things the way you like them or (b) wake up every day and have no idea what's going to happen and have no real control over any of it?

None of us really wants life to change too often or to be too much out of our control and yet...that's life! That's reality. Things change. People come...people go. What was is not necessarily what will be. As the biblical book of Ecclesiastes reminds us, "For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven."

That idea reminds us that, in life, the wheels are constantly turning, the tides will always ebb and flow, time will pass and things will change. Change is one of the very few guarantees we can have.

We've had a lot of changes around here in the past four years. People's ministry positions have changed. Others have retired from their jobs or started new jobs. Relationships have started...relationships have ended. Numerous people have moved away...I'm getting ready to move away, too...but new people are coming in every week and church isn't exactly the way it used to be and that's a good thing but there's no time to adjust before something else changes and eventually "Enough!" we want to say. "Enough!"

Remember that famous episode on "I Love Lucy"...when Lucy and Ethel get jobs at a candy factory, putting bon bons in their little paper cups and boxing them up? They do O.K. for a while but then the conveyor belt starts moving faster and faster...and they panic! They're stuffing bon bons in their hats, their shirts, their pockets, there mouths! It's out of control! Ever feel like that? Me, too!

But change is inevitable. We can decide the course of some changes, other times we seem to have no say so whatsoever. Life is like the weather in St. Louis: there's one guarantee: it will change!

The good news is that, while we may not realize it, we do have choices about it all. Not about whether life will be in constant change; that's not a choice, that's a definite. But we can choose how we respond to that reality.

We can resist change...or we can accept and even learn to embrace change. Whether we will be perpetually unhappy and uneasy in life...or at peace and genuinely happy in our lives may well depend on how we choose to respond to the reality of change.

Most of us are naturally resistant to change. We don't like it...and if it's going to happen, we want some say so about it. I never cease to be amazed at how often folks who were rejected by the churches of their childhoods come into M.C.C. and, eventually, find fault because this isn't exactly like what they grew up with! I've come to realize that that often has nothing to do with what we do or don't do in worship but more with people's need, in a chaotic world, to have a place that is predictable and familiar and unchanging. We want security. Even if what we had was not particularly good, we are still very resistant to change. But as we might hear in a bad sci-fi movie, "Surrender, earthling. Resistance is futile!"

We can't just plop down in one place and say, "Here! I've arrived. This is where I want to be. My life is a done deal." The reality is we're more like the main character in those Patricia Cornwell mystery novels. Are you familiar with them? This medical examiner, Kay Scarpetta is consistently present in every book. Some of the other characters are present in different books. Some die...some come and go. The situations change. As the pages turn, we see Scarpetta moving through a series of loosely connected stories. Well, that's us, too!

The thing is, we have to keep moving! Last Saturday, at the golf tournament, some folks had great games...others: well, not so great! But everyone kept moving! Good shots...bad shots...onto the green...into the trees...everyone kept going. I guarantee you...there's no one sitting out now by the 13th hole who said, "That's it! I give up! That shot was so bad, I quit! I'm staying right here; I won't risk another shot like that!" Likewise, there's no one still sitting there who said, "That last hole was so great, I'm not going to risk messing up the next one; I'm gonna stay right here and bask in the glory!" We have to keep moving on. And the road we travel, won't be one of constant security.

The search for security in life is a road that leads only to disappointment. It's a romanticized notion that we can ever "arrive;" as long as we live, we will be on a journey...in process... "subject to change without notice"! There is nothing on this earth that won't eventually change. Even the phrase, "'til death do us part" implies that, eventually, change is coming.

Only God...and God alone...is unchanging. The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us, "I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken away from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before God." That is what we need to cling to: the assurance that our security lies not in earthly things or situations or possessions or even in other people. Our security rests in God and God alone. God can provide for us and care for us in the most amazing ways.

Several centuries ago, a man called Felix of Nola found this to be true when he was fleeing from his enemies. Calling on God for help, he took refuge in a cave. He had scarcely entered when a spider began to spin a web over the opening. His pursuers saw the lacy veil blocking the entrance and didn't bother to look inside. They figured no one could have entered without disturbing that delicate curtain. So they left, and Felix lived to go on and serve Christ for many years. He would later sum up his experience with these words: "Where God is, a spider's web is a wall; where God is not, a wall is but a spider's web."

In Psalm 46 we hear, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. That's why we don't have to be afraid even though the ground beneath us gives way and the mountains fall into the sea." If we're seeking security, let us seek where it may be found. Jesus told us, "I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Trust in God. Trust in me."

When we develop that genuine dependance on God...and God alone...we can find ourselves freed from the search for security and released to experience life with an openness and a joy that allows change to be something we can embrace rather than fear and avoid.

Rather than holding the book of our lives closed so that no new pages will turn, we can become page turners...seeking and welcoming each new day and the changes it might bring. I remember clearly the exhilaration I felt the first time I experienced what it was like to be a "page turner." Some years ago I had traveled from Alabama to Oklahoma with some friends and for the trip back, I had picked up a copy of Alice Walker's novel, The Color Purple. I started reading that book as we began the drive home early in the morning. Well, I got so caught up in the story and so excited to see what might happen next, that when the sun went down and it finally got too dark to read, I made my friends stop so I could buy a flashlight! I just had to keep turning those pages!

Our lives can have that kind of joy and exhilaration when we realize that change is nothing to fear or avoid. It's the course of life that God has given us. We don't have to like everything that comes along. We only have to place our security in God and trust what Scripture tells us: "God has made everything suitable for its time; I know that there is nothing better for [us] than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as [we] live."

Life is constant change...up and down...but as those in the medical profession can tell you...it's when the line suddenly gets nice and straight: that's when you're in trouble!

The world turns...pages turn...seasons change and people come and go and that's life and we can learn to love it! We can love it when we've learned to trust in God for all things.

Amen.

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