A theology of change

 

Matthew 3: 13-17
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
January 8, 2023

Photo of a deciduous tree with a leafy canopy, a gray exterior, and very large exposed roots.

How do we understand change and how it occurs in our lives and in our world? When we are young it can seem like change just happens, randomly, beyond our control: a new teacher, a move to another town, the death of a beloved pet. Or it can appear that some things never change, like the constancy of the stars, the sun and moon, the rhythm of the earth we live on.



And yet all things have a lifespan. Everything and everyone changes, even if we can’t perceive it. To live is to change. When it is something or someone we love, we wish for permanency, for time to stand still, for things to last as long as possible. And then there are things that can’t change fast enough, destructive systems and harmful ways that need to come to an end, to the point where sometimes we have done violence to ensure that end.



A theology of change describes how we view change in the context of our faith. What role does God have in the changes in our lives, in our life together as Church, and in our world? What part do we have when it comes to change and our relationship to God? Hopefully, our theology of change shifts many times over the course of our lives. We move to and from revolution and evolution, action and acceptance, indecision and discernment.



Across various religions, ritual baths, including baptism, are a sign that a significant change or transformation has taken place. In the ancient Hebrew tradition of the mikveh still practiced today, persons immerse themselves completely under the water, water that must be living water, that is, moving water, what is often called troubled water. Which is why John was offering a mikveh or baptism of repentance in the river Jordan, for Jews to turn away from sin and turn toward God and the Torah. In the waters of baptism, we enter as our old self and we rise as a new creation. In baptism we commit to a lifetime path of change and transformation. God loves us exactly as we are and so much so as to not leave us that way.



In baptism we are offered the gift of unconditional love, unmerited, undeserved, and unlimited. Like Jesus, we too are a child of God, beloved, in whom God is well-pleased and there is nothing we have to do to earn that. Through the centuries and under the dominance of empire and control, God’s unconditional love has been warped into shame, twisted into tough love, whittled down to the stick of the threat of hell for the carrot promise of heaven, as a means of coercing so-called change. “If you do this, if you believe that, then you are God’s beloved child.” God’s unconditional love becomes a transaction, quid pro quo, a zero-sum game. We humans are so much more capable of love than that watered-down, soul-damaging version.

Photo of a yard sign, white background, black print, all caps, that reads "You are worthy of love".

It is in the warm and safe embrace of unconditional love that we are then able to change. When we know that we are loved without reservation, that nothing can separate us from community, from those who love us, who have compassion for us, we are liberated from the limitations of conditional love: “If you would only…”. “I love you if…”. “I love you, but…”. Unconditional love gives us the trust we need to dare something new, to be our authentic self, to be healed and made whole.



Unconditional love isn’t an anything goes, get away with anything, let people walk all over you kind of love. Buddhists call it lovingkindness. It’s about having compassion for yourself and for others regardless of behavior or what you receive in return. We can set boundaries with those who have harmed us and still have compassion for them but it takes practice. Unconditional love is probably the most difficult spiritual practice but also the one that has the most capacity for change in that it will most certainly change us and those around us.



Unconditional love is what makes it possible for us to disrupt our lives for others, which is what this Table is all about. Which is why it is so important for us to practice unconditional love every day. We love God and ourselves so we can love our neighbor. Regard yourself the way the most loving person in your life would and how they would speak to you. Give yourself at least ten minutes of prayer or meditation or quiet each day. Let go of using the word “should” with yourself and others. Even though we all have negative thoughts every now and then, refrain from holding onto them. Send compassionate thoughts to the frustrating or difficult or mean-spirited people in your life. Upon waking, imagine hearing the words, “You are my child, my beloved, and in you I am well-pleased” and believing them.



We are living through a time of tumultuous change, so it is important how we care for ourselves and for each other. Author Octavia Butler wrote, “Kindness eases change. All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. God is change.” The world changes when we love unconditionally. Tough love is about empire, how to live in empire. The Church is the workshop for the kindom of God, a community in which we learn to love unconditionally, unreservedly, and then bring that love into the world, liberating as we go.

Photo of author Octavia Butler (mid-50's Black woman with short black and gray afro) with the caption "All that you touch, you change. All that your change, changes you."

Benediction – enfleshed.com


The steadfast love of God
calls us not into shame, but transformation—
invites us not towards despair, but towards accountability.


Go forth boldly and tenderly,
for there is work to be done in the Kindom of New Life.
In the Spirit of Christ,
let us extend and receive compassion.