A New Kind of New

Can you believe that it’s the last day of 2023? I feel like I just started writing the date correctly like 2 weeks ago but ok.

It’s been a year. Honestly a heck of a year. I think that as a church, we have got a lot of things to be proud of this year. We’ve created new ministries, seen other ministries catch a new breath of vitality. A bunch of you actually read the whole Bible! We’ve welcomed new members. We’ve seen some incredible things happen and we’ve seen lives transformed.

It hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. Y’all know that. Heck, on New Years Day we lost 3 beloved friends. The world has seen some tough times. Conflict continues in Ukraine. Now new conflict in Gaza threatens to perpetuate more violence throughout the world. Our denomination has splintered.

And yet, we persist in good faith and continue to abound in hope because we have seen a God who shows up. We have a seen a God who brings new life into this church and into our communities.

While there are reasons to hang our heads and ask God for an explanation, there are far more reasons for us to be exhilarated and enlivened for the next season of ministry here at First Church and the next season of ministry here in Fort Pierce.

Today’s scripture comes to us from a strange book in the Bible. You probably didn’t see that coming did you. But you’ve probably heard this scripture before, or at least heard it referenced. It comes from the book of Ecclesiastes.

Now Ecclesiastes is a woefully pessimistic book on the surface. It’s essentially the rambling of a person who has reached the end of their life and is still trying to find some meaning in the mess of the human existence. It is internally ascribed as being written by King Solomon, though we can’t know for sure who wrote it.

But I like the idea of King Solomon as the author because it just drives home the point even further. Solomon was like the most powerful and wealthy person in the world for most of his life. He was blessed with incredible wisdom and inherited the golden age of Israel… only to watch it all fall away from him.

The opening lines of the book are often translated “meaningless… everything is meaningless.” Or “vanities… all is vanity!”

And well, that sounds just… melancholy right? But what we find out when we dig into Hebrew a little bit is that the word that’s used and translated as “meaningless or vanity” is actually the Hebrew word for vapor.

What the author is setting up right at the onset of the book is that life and everything in it is temporary. Just like water vapor in the air, it comes and goes quickly. There is no permanence. So that’s kind of the set up for where we are going to find ourselves. This is

Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 NRSV

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

Now I think that this speaks a pretty obvious word into the lives of those of us who have actually lived for any number of years. Like life is cyclical. Just like the seasons come and go (for those of you who are native to florida… seasons are when the weather actually changes) so life and all of its situations comes and goes. And that can be a good thing, or it can be a bad thing.

We want the tough times to exit quickly and the good times to stick around. And it never happens that way does it? It’s like Florida seasons. I want 70 degrees for 9 months. But we get 95 degrees for 9 months instead. That’s just the price of living in paradise.

But the reality is that there is great hope in knowing that there are very few situations that are permanent. It keeps us guessing. Keeps us moving forward. Keeps us listening to the Spirit of God about what is next for us in our lives and what is next for us as a church that is in ministry to our world.

I’m sure that Solomon couldn’t foresee just how wildly important these words were going to be to the people of Israel as they waited in extremely long seasons of pain and death, as they waited through the reality of civil war, conquest, and exile. For them the season of death, being plucked up, being killed, broken down, weeping, mourning, being thrown away, not being embraced, being lost, torn, silenced, hated, and war torn was so very long.

And then, without a moment’s notice at all, the season changed. A child was born. The Christ Child. This Jesus, who it was said would save the people Israel from their sins. And that Child grew up, and as it turned out he would bring far more than just physical saving of Israel. They prayed for a new king. God gave them a new kind of new king. A King of all people, not just Israel. A King who would save them from spiritual death, not just physical death. A King who would bring them something they had hoped for for a thousand years.

He would bring life. He would bring vitality. He would bring healing. He would build them up. He would bring laughter, and dancing. He would gather them and embrace them. He would give them something to seek after, and he would keep them safe in his embrace. He would begin to sew the pieces of humanity back together, give them a story and a gospel to speak. He would bring the love. He would bring them peace.

But like any season, only those who looked caught it coming in. Others, too busy watched it pass right by without a notice. Like vapor.

But we are fortunate that the season of Christ the King is always there for those who seek it. In Fact, isn’t that why the church exists? To point people to and connect them to Jesus?

Surely that’s our purpose. And it’s a purpose that we have lived out for 2000 years across the world and for 131 years here in Fort Pierce. But that doesn’t mean that the seasons don’t still change for us. The world changes around us. And what we are finding out is that its just a whole lot easier to do ministry if we don’t miss the changing of the seasons. It’s a lot easier to do ministry if we step into our world and see the people… all the people.

In the later parts of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is talking about his return, and honestly he’s warning his followers about what that will entail. And it’s one of those places that Jesus says some really hard things. But it’s also very important. So this is the truth that he lays on them:

Matthew 25:31–46 NRSV

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Listen. I do not want to be on the left hand alright. I do not want this church to be on the left hand. We want to be right hand of Jesus people.

And here’s the deal, being on the right hand doesn’t mean that we only do these things like feeding and clothing and caring for and visiting people. Those are things we have got to do, but I think what Jesus is getting at here is that we have got to be people who care for people in a holistic manner. We are called to care for people physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

And friends, we just can’t do that if we don’t embrace new seasons. And you all know that, and I can tell that you know that because you’ve embraced me and a whole bunch of crazy ideas that followed me into this place. And I’ve prolly got more where they came from. In fact I can guarantee you that I do.

I believe that we are on the precipice of revitalization. I believe that 2023 was a year of positioning, a year of reorganizing, and a year of dreaming. God’s shown us who we are and who we are going to become. And I can’t wait to share it all with you in the coming weeks.

But my ask for you is that you leave room to embrace a new season. That you keep your hearts and minds open to a new kind of new. The kind of new that only God can do… and that you’ll be a part of that new when it shows up.