Changeless in a Changing World

James 1:17-18

            “There’s been so much change around here that I just don’t know how to handle it anymore,” she said. “The colleagues I have known and worked with are all either retiring or they are moving to other divisions. Just for once,” she continued, “I’d like to see things stabilize and remain the same.”

            I was sympathetic. No matter where we look, it seems that change is the only thing that remains the same. And, even in the church, we experience this change.

Many of us have come to expect it in business and industry. We have seen the giants of industry; the automotive and manufacturing sectors for example, struggle with necessary changes. In Atlanta we have watched as Delta Airlines worked through bankruptcy and we could only hope for the best – no matter what the outcome.

The consequence is that we live in a time when the majority of Americans carry around a “free floating” anxiety. By that I mean that we are anxious but it isn’t tied to any particular concern or event. For those who are directly affected by the changes, anxiety and emotional disruption are very real. But for the rest of us, we worry about where society is going, what will happen next and how it might affect our own lives.

And we ask: Isn’t anything permanent?

St. James says yes. God is permanent and changeless. We read: Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1:17)

            God, the giver of all good things – both to us and through us – is without variation. God’s good will and love is eternal. No matter what may change within the Church or outside of it, God remains the same.

This is why faith can provide the disciple with an inner confidence and peace in the midst of a season of change and anxiety. Faith directs our hearts and minds towards the One who alone holds true and doesn’t change. Faith is the antidote to our fears – even the “free floating” anxiety of our time. The reason is that we come to understand that only God can finally be trusted – everything else is subject to change.

Discipleship lesson: When we feel overcome by change our hope is not in clinging to the past or trying to hang on to the present but in turning to God who alone holds true forever.

Lord Jesus, be my confidence and security in times of change. Amen