The New Normal John 20:19-31; 1 Peter 1:3-9 Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Anoka, MN April 30 th /May 1 st, 2011

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1 The New Normal John 20:19-31; 1 Peter 1:3-9 Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Anoka, MN April 30 th /May 1 st, 2011 We are going to spend the next several weeks focusing on the fruit of the spirit. You might have this list memorized and it is quite a tasty list: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. You may also have done this in past it is a common thing to do. But it is not a bad thing to take a look again at what our life looks like in Christ. So, let me begin with a story, and bear with me we will get to these tasty looking treats! I am not a hunter, but I read a very short story about a hunter who was out pheasant hunting. He noted that birds, especially the new ones, year old birds, find safety and peace and security in the grass. It is normal. However, once you come upon birds bedded down in the grass and scare them, they fly, and you shoot, their life is never the same. The safety and peace and comfort they found in the grass are now only a façade. There is a new reality in their life a hunter who stalks the grass. It will take them time to realize and understand the new normal. And even after they do, they will still be unsettled for a long time afterwards. Trust, safety, and peace are concepts that take time to restore. The birds will continue to be wary, especially if it happens again and again. But eventually, they will conform, they will figure it out they really have no choice. Figure it out or they will end up on the dinner platter. Theirs is a new normal. Normal in that it will continue to happen. New in that what they thought was normal has been dramatically changed it is now normal to be afraid even in the grass. A new normal. All of us today are living in a new normal. I was at a conference where the top economist in MN was speaking and his entire presentation focused on the new normal we live in today. He was especially speaking about funding nonprofit organizations from government grants. He noted those days are ending the funds are not available. He encouraged everyone to consider their options. One of the options was to identify other organizations doing the same work and consolidate, merge, join together. Of course this would mean job losses, but the other side of the coin was company viability. Lose staff or lose the business. Pay cuts or freezes, economic downturn, downsizing, skyrocketing gas prices, foreclosures, houses depreciating rather than appreciating, investing in real estate is not a no-brainer might be smarter to rent than throw money at real estate, fewer government services as they cut the budget and programs. Think about this new normal from a smaller but very practical perspective. I heard this on the radio the other day and found it later on the web (that alone is a new normal). A new normal: the Smart phone. Let alone the reality of cell phone usage, what has the smart phone done to change normal to a new normal? 1 P a g e

2 One small, hand-held piece of equipment has replaced tape recorders, alarm clocks, MP3 players/ipods, land line phones, cameras, GPS equipment, wrist watches, and video cameras. Amazing. And this new normal will change in a few years to another new normal. Change happens fast in our world today. In the past, people lived through decades, if not longer times, of no change, no cultural differences. Africa was just like that it took decades for things to change upcountry. In Biblical times, change happened only after longer periods of time generation after generation lived in similar contexts and cultures and thought patterns. Your kids and my kids would raise their kids in the same world in which they were brought up and their kids would do the same. Not today change happens too fast. Notice in the slide that the lifespan of a person today spans significant change events in that person s life, unlike that of the past when generations of people lived in similar contexts and cultures and worldviews without any major changes. Even at MOLC change happens. Here is the point for all of you here at MOLC. You are in a new normal. And in a new normal which will change not too long after you get used to this one! It has been a ride these last few months. Though I was not here for all of this, I know some of things that have happened to you as you entered into this new normal. Pastor Noreen announced after being at MOLC only a short time that he was taking a call to the district office. Soon after, Pastor Heiden announced he had a call and subsequently declared he took the call. And then the new normal realities and questions and concerns and nervousness started to hit. After 12 years with Pastor Dennis, someone else would need to take over. Would he be as good? Would he be better? Friends and relationships with others that had been formed will need to start all over again. And then there is the work: who is going to fill the shoes in the meantime? Two full-time pastors, now down to none! And even if you get vacancy guys, there is more work to do than part-time pastors will be able to cover you ve got three of us, and still the staff and volunteers are doing more now than they did when the full-time guys were here. And the vacancy guys, they are only part-time, so giving them too much power and authority and decision making power just doesn t seem appropriate during a transition. So people in the congregation simply need to step up and take over and lead and guide and direct and make decisions. More responsibility is on the shoulders of the present staff and volunteers in the church. And then there is the process: who will be the next pastor? Which one should be called first?, second? Both at the same time? Maybe you only need one? Will whoever gets called and accept be a good fit with present staff?, ministries?, vision?, expectations? And the process my goodness: how come it takes so long? In the business world, within two weeks you can have someone on board. What is the deal with the church? Pastor Dennis has been gone already 8 months and you still don t even know who the people are that are being considered! In addition, you don t even know when that announcement will be made since it rests on other checks and studies and research. And even after the candidates are 2 P a g e

3 announced, the congregation still needs to meet and decide who to choose out of the two or three finalists. And once that has been decided, a call is extended and it can take several weeks if not even a month or two before an answer is received. And if the called pastor agrees, it could take another couple of months before the new pastor arrives a total of nearly 12 months just to get a new person hired. And that is if he says yes. If he declines the call, the whole process begins all over again. And another time of decision and studying and research kicks in maybe a little shorter, but the all the same, no pastor yet. Are you feeling any better yet? How do you like this new normal? And by the way, when a new pastor finally does arrive, another new normal will kick in. And everyone prays it will be a good, long, stable new normal. In the Gospel lesson, Thomas is faced with a new normal Jesus is no longer with them. After three years of walking and talking and teaching and learning and being schooled by Jesus He is gone. Dead. Crucified. Buried. His normal world, a rather exciting one when you think about all that happened during those three years of walking around with Jesus, is now halted. Now what? What will happen for him next? And then his world is again shattered when Jesus stands before him and shows Himself alive. We call this a paradigm shift. His whole world of what is real and possible is thrown into confusion. Another new normal begins for Thomas. And the exciting thing is it continues even for us today. Christ is not dead. He is alive. He was buried, but He rose. He was crucified but overcame death on the cross. If you enter this conversation as an unbeliever and come to faith through the work of spirit, your entire life changes. A new way to interpret life emerges. Resurrection from the dead is not possible, you think? But in our Christian world of faith it is the ultimate new normal. The letter from Peter we read today was sent to people in the middle of some trying times. He mentions a difficult time the people in Galatia were experiencing. Trials and suffering. Persecution. Things not going the way they hoped. The normal expectations of daily life were being replaced with a new normal for them. Persecution was heading their way. They were being tested and of course, encouraged by Peter to persevere through it all. Remember what Peter finally wrote in the epistle lesson read this morning? Peter mentions love. Peter says they love Jesus. And even though they have not seen Him, they believe in Him and love Him. And today I want to spend a little time on this first item listed in the fruit of the spirit as well love the same focus Peter noted in his letter. Now, I don t want to compare a vacancy with trials and suffering and persecution like the Christians in Galatia were experiencing. But I do want to impress upon you that the love you have for Christ, and more importantly, the love Christ has for you can imbed itself in the middle of this new normal and make it normal, or at least bearable. He has assured all of us we are far more valuable to Him than the rest of His creation. Christ loves us and proved it as the story of doubting Thomas makes clear today. 3 P a g e

4 And Paul noted the same when he wrote to Titus, Jesus Christ gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness (Titus 2:14a). And again Paul writes, This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins (1 John 4:10). Now, I will not go through the whole agape love thing you have heard it before. But this love thing is a lot more difficult than it sounds. This isn t loving our spouse or girlfriend or boyfriend. This isn t being nice to people. This is sacrificial love we are talking about giving up what you love, want, desire for someone else. So, if we are truly living for Jesus and loving as Jesus; following Peter s admonition to love, then the new normal MOLC is in at the moment will be approached and lived quite differently. What do I mean? As you know, vacancies are not fun for anyone even for those who are glad the last guys are gone! Posturing begins, politics take over, selfish ambition or desires become more common thoughts in people. Finally, I will be able to have a significant role and voice in this place the last pastor did not like me or use me to my full potential. I have got to step it up and push a little more now that the pastor is gone. Now things will be done my way people will have to listen to me. Since there is a vacuum in leadership, my ministry has a chance to become more prominent. We will now be able to get rid of that program which drains our resources which pastor kept pushing along. I will just sit back and watch for a while until the new guy shows up before I get involved. Who knows? I may not like him. Finally here is my chance to leave. Rather than letting love drive and lead our own desires and wishes and hopes and dreams emerge. We want to define the new normal according to our own personal likes and desires. Love I don t think so. Just a little while ago I read, Jesus Christ gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness, but Paul continues, and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good (Titus 2:14). Is that where you find your love working in this new normal a pure people eager to do what is good? Driven by His love? What is love? What does it look like? Anyone been to a wedding lately? Paul writes this: Love is patient. Love is kind and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant. Does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own. Is not provoked. Does not take 4 P a g e

5 into account a wrong suffered. Does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails (1 Cor. 13:4-8). And how can you love like that? Well, to be honest, you can t. Only God can love like that. Only God in Christ showed that kind of love when he came to this planet, lived for you and me, walked the walk we cannot walk, lived the life we cannot live, took the punishment we surely could not bear even the punishment of banishment from the presence of God, a living hell but overcame that pain and suffering and death by rising from death to life and freely giving to us this payment to repair the broken relationship we created by our sinfulness. Now that is love. And it is this love of Christ which drives us to practice love in this new normal: to be more devoted, more compassionate, more caring, more concerned about the other than ourselves, than our desires, than our ideas, than our programs, than our plans, than our part of the church and building which we think we own and take care of. For when our heart determines our actions, it is not Christ s love defining for us our day. But when it is Christ s heart in us that makes us live and move and have our being as Paul preaches in Athens, then this church will continue to be the voice of Christ with its members, and in the community. Peter says love. Paul writes, Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:1). Practice love in this new normal. It is what Christ has done for us and asks us to do. Amen. 5 P a g e