Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.

Here is a loaded word for you.

Change.

There are times in life when it thrills us with the challenge of new adventures and new experiences, “I’m going to HS . . . I’ve got my Driver’s License . . . I’m off to college . . . I’ve got a job . . . I’m planning my wedding . . . I’m having a baby . . . I got a promotion . . . I’m a grandparent . . . I’m retiring . . .”

All of these stages in life bring changes to us.

But then there are the other changes, the ones that kick us in the stomach and leave us empty and numb in our souls: “I failed Spanish . . . I got cut from the team . . . I’m flunking out . . . I lost my job . . . I’ve been arrested . . . she says she doesn’t love me anymore . . . I have a tumor . . . I lost my retirement savings . . .”

These events bring change to us as well, just not as welcome.

Yet I will stand by my sermon title today, The Gospel of Change.

As everyone who has ever wandered through my Confirmation Class program knows, the word Gospel means Good News. And in all of the Changes of our lives, the blessings and the curses, the joys and the sorrows, the successes and failures, in all of these things there is Good News for those who seek it, for those who can discern it.

Change is, as we all learn over and over, the only constant in our lives.

But it is also the one sure sign that we are alive, isn’t it? Life changes for all of us and rarely does it turn out the way we have it planned.

People change all around us, those who were once joyful become grumpy and grumpy folks shift gears and discover the joy of living and old friends drift apart and sometimes back together and illnesses and accidents strike and it is hard to see Good News, the Gospel, in those events that we read and hear about.

But that’s because the Good News of change, the Gospel of Change is not going to be found in the news of the world, nor is it going to be found in the actions and attitudes of others, the Good News of change is first found in our own experiences and changes or it will never really be found.

And that’s not easy. But it is necessary.

We are all familiar with, and have probably gained great comfort from, the famous Serenity Prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr, the preeminent American Theologian of the 20th Century. The legend is that Niebuhr was spending his vacation on Cape Cod and he attended a small church there. The pastor was impressed and asked the great professor if he would offer a closing prayer, so during the sermon Niebuhr jotted a few lines on the back of the bulletin which in it’s original format went like this:

O God and Heavenly Father, Grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed; courage to change that which can be changed, and wisdom to know the one from the other, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. Well some clever soul paraphrased that prayer in this way:

“God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one that I can, and the wisdom to know that the one is me.” 

You see, we need, each one of us, to change ourselves before we can change anything or anyone else.

That’s what Paul was getting at in the letter to the Ephesians, isn’t it?

If I had started reading 8 verses sooner and if hadn’t told you that it was Paul describing Ephesus, the beloved home of the Ephesians, I might have been reading about, I don’t know, maybe New Jersey, my own beloved home.

In a place such as theirs, in a place such as ours, filled with ignorance, hardheartedness, greed, corruption, impurity, and delusional lusts, that’s how Paul described Ephesus, and you don’t need to change much to let the shoe fit us, in a place where those things abound, here is how Christians are to live:

Put away the falsehoods, speak the truth.

Be angry, if it is appropriate, but don’t let anger dictate what to do and say, and give the anger up at sundown every single day. Let the words you choose to speak build people up, not tear them down.

Put away the bitterness, the wrath, the petty squabbling, the wrangling, the disagreeable disagreements, the casual slanders, the envy and the malice.

Be kind, be tenderhearted, be forgiving and let yourself be forgiven.

Imitate God and live in love.

Those things are not as easy as they sound, we’re going to have to change to do that.

And when we do we change, we will find we’re not worried about change anymore.

But are we doing that?

Do we want to do that?

Are we even capable of doing that?

Oh I don’t mean are ever capable of doing that, we all have our golden moments.

We have loved, haven’t we?

And we have let others love us, haven’t we?

We have forgiven, we have assisted, we have encouraged, haven’t we?

And we have let others forgive and assist and encourage us, haven’t we?

We have prayed and sung and served, haven’t we?

And we have helped others to pray and sing and serve, haven’t we?

We have had those moments when our belief was so certain, our faith was so strong, our vision was so clear, and in those moments we have touched and been touched, by God.

We have believed and – at those moment of faith – we transcend the limits of the here and now and we have eternal life. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.

You see, this is what eternal life is: loving and forgiving and being forgiven, assisting and encouraging, praying and singing and serving and doing it with and for and to each other.

And you can only do that by believing.

That’s all.

Faith, and faith alone, gets us eternal life.

This is where we get it all mixed up, over and over again and we need to be reminded that there are no qualifiers here, no fine print, no list of do’s and don’ts, no disclaimers, no prerequisites, no demand for a certain form of worship or stewardship or vocation or ancestry, no deeds to do, no rituals to follow, simply this: Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.

And Jesus doesn’t say Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes will have eternal life, no, he says Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.

The people complained that Jesus wasn’t giving them anything special, they never realized that living in this world, and living with Christ, that is as special as it can possibly get, that is the reality that makes eternal life possible in the middle of our lives.

It may come to you in the any moment, the next old friend you speak with, the next new acquaintance you make, the next check you write out, the next vote you cast, the next phone call you make, the next prayer you offer, each of those things should be understood as the unique moment that it is, a window to eternity waiting to be opened by your faithfulness.

I used to think, and I know that some of you would laugh about it, but I used to think that I could plan out my life and career decades in advance, and I did. And none of it has turned out the way I planned. And I know I’m not alone. Our lives end up different than we thought they would, our children and our parents are living different lives than we imagined. Our nation and our Church are not what we would gave expected just a few decades ago. The economic turmoil of recent years has shot holes in many of our carefully constructed dreams of the future, reminding us of what we have always known, that the future continues to be in God’s hands, not ours.

John Lennon had it right “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.” So do we still plan? Of course we do, but we write our dreams in pencil, not ink. I know I plan a couple of weeks, a few months, maybe, if I’m feeling really gutsy, a year in advance and even as I do I know there will be changes to those plans.

But that’s OK, because I also know this: you and I have today as a gift from God.

If you and I can avoid anger and malice today, and if we can keep evil talk from coming out of our mouths today, and if we can look around and see and appreciate the people we love in this God Beloved world today, and if we can simply live the life that that God has created us for today, and if we can realize just how blessed we are today, we will at that moment of realization, at that moment of believing, have a taste and a touch and the experience of eternal life.

And if we do that, and if we wake up tomorrow and do it all over again, we will find that all of the changes will bring Good News with them, not necessarily the Good News we want, but always, by faith, we will hear the Good News, the Gospel, that we need.

Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.

Clover Hill Reformed Church 1834-2009 A 175 Day Scriptural Companion Dear Friends, As we progress through our Anniversary Year, I invite you to join together in a shared reading of scripture. I have selected 175 passages, from Genesis through Revelation, that have had special meaning in our Congregational life. Go Here