Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

There is this morning a theme that weaves itself through all three of our Scripture readings. That theme is one word. That theme is “new.”

In our First Reading today, St. Peter explains to colleagues the “new ministry” that God entrusted to him, namely taking the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, to non-Jews, to those considered “unclean” by the Jewish community newly converted to being followers of Jesus Christ.

In our Gospel today, Jesus gives His disciples what He calls a “new command” to love one another as He had loved them. It’s always struck me as strange that Jesus called this a “new” command as it seems that the God of love had always commanded His followers to love each other. Maybe the “new part” is the addition of the words “as I have loved you,” that great, sacrificial love to show itself shortly as Jesus would journey to the Cross to die for them.

In our Second Reading today, we continue our post-Easter journey through the Book of Revelation. And there, after his description of Heaven as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband, with no more tears or crying or pain, St. John records these words from the very mouth of God: “Behold! I am making everything new!”

When you stop to think about, most of us, myself included, probably have an aversion to “new” because, along with “new” come concepts like “different,” “unfamiliar,” “uncomfortable,” and the especially dreaded concept to almost all Lutherans, “change.”

In 1990, I arrived at Historic Trinity Church in St. Louis to spend four years working while I completed my Masters’ Degree at Concordia Seminary. When I arrived, Trinity had just completed a massive interior remodeling project to its sanctuary in honor of the 150th Anniversary of the congregation. When I say massive, I mean massive. The church worshiped in the school hall next door for over a year while the entire Sanctuary, from the floor, to the pews, to the altar, pulpit and baptismal font, to the walls, the lighting fixtures, and the ceiling, was literally taken part, fixed, and put back together again. When I arrived at Historic Trinity, she literally blushed like a new bride. But, as with all projects of any size, Historic Trinity’s remodeling project ran over budget and some things had to be cut from the project near the end.

One of those cuts deemed most prudent was to the substantial wall to the left and high above the pulpit. Almost since that building was constructed in 1864, there had been on that wall a painting of King David, holding a Bible, surrounded by a decorative scroll that contained the words from Psalm 26, “O Lord, I love the habitation of Thy House, the place where Thy glory dwells” [verse 8]. Those words were written, of course, in German, which everyone knows is the language of God.

As funds ran short near the end of the remodeling project, it was decided not to commission an artist to repaint that picture. Those in charge of the project didn’t think another thing about it. I mean, after all, if there is no money, there is no money, and if we’re basically getting a whole new church, who’s going to complain about a painting? Well, complain some people did. In fact, it really became a headache for my mentor, Dr. Sam Goltermann, who finally had enough and, with his strong personality and dry sense of humor, one Sunday proclaimed from the pulpit that wall be repainted not with King David, but with St. John the Evangelist and with the words, “Behold! I am making everything new!” Most of us younger folks enjoyed Sam’s comment. For some of the traditionalists, his words simply stirred the pot even more.

When I left Historic Trinity in 1994, I admit I forgot about that controversy about that wall. I had enough controversies concerning change right here. But, when I went back to Historic Trinity for Dr. Goltermann’s funeral in 2004, I was shocked to find that wall repainted, with King David, holding a Bible, surrounded by a decorative scroll with those words from Psalm 26:8, but this time at least written in English. In those intervening 10 years, it seems someone died and left money to Historic Trinity to repaint that picture on that wall. When I returned to Historic Trinity again last fall, I was quickly greeted by a friend with satiric good news – “King David’s still hanging around Historic Trinity!”

Change. Let’s admit it. Few of us like change, but change is exactly what our God does in us because of His death and Resurrection. I guess you can say that our God loves us too much to leave us the way we are. He takes the old and gives us the new. He takes our brokenness and makes us whole. He takes our fears and addictions and gives us His strength. He takes our tears, our pain, our death and gives us a news and unimaginable life. He takes our sin and gives us His righteousness. He takes our status quo and gives us His dynamite. He takes our old models of mission and ministry and births new life into our midst. He takes our cautious, frugal love and gives us His reckless, luxurious, lavish love.

I don’t know what’s “old” in your life, but there is certainly something in each of our lives that our God wants to make “new.” Not only is that our God’s desire, but it’s precisely how He chooses to operate in the lives of all His followers.

“So, Lord Jesus, here we are, again in need of Your remodeling. We know You will take us just as we are and make us into Your new creations, remodeled and refashioned into the way You desire us. We ask the power of Your Spirit to let go of our old ways and receive with joy Your new ways. In Your Name we pray, Amen.”

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena