Thought for Today

Genesis 26:24 And that very night the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham; do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you and make your offspring numerous for my servant Abraham's sake."  

Exodus 3:6 He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

1 Thessalonians 1:2 We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you remember the song The Way We Were? Do you remember Barbra Streisand’s haunting rendition of that first line, “Memories/Light the corners of my mind/Misty watercolor memories/Of the way we were?’

The first 10 verses of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians will be our New Testament reading tomorrow and have been the focus of several devotions recently in These Days. This morning, as I read the devotional in These Days, I thought about the passage above, about Paul’s “remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” As I did so, I also thought about, “Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Tomorrow, I will talk a lot about works of faith, labors of love and steadfastness of hope. But, this morning, I am thinking about memories and remembering. This has been a topic of note recently in much of what we have read and heard during worship. It has also been a topic about which I have written recently. Memories, misty watercolor memories of the way we were.

Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, “1 Corinthians 13:13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” Hopefully, it is not surprising to anyone that I agree with Paul, especially about the abiding and sustaining power of faith, hope and love. But, why do these abide?

Implicit in The Way We Were is the idea that something has changed. Those misty watercolor memories lighting the corners of the mind are representing something no longer there. “Scattered pictures/Of the smiles we left behind.” That is not representative of the situation in the 1st century within Christendom. It is not representative of the attitude of the Jewish people in the 1st century. Certainly the geopolitical map of the world was vastly different in the first century from what it had been when Isaac was digging wells in Beer-sheba or when Moses encountered the burning bush. However, in these instances God self-identifies as, "I am the God of your father Abraham” and “"I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

We don’t talk enough about the immutability of God, “God’s freedom from all change, understood to emphasize God’s changeless perfection and divine constancy.” (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, pg. 116) Interestingly, the very first song in one of the hymnals our congregation uses during worship is Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise. It is a favorite hymn we often sing. It includes the words, “Your life is life giving – to both great and small.”

As I reflect on all of this today, I cannot help but wonder whether part of our enduring faith, our “assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” is the result of the immutability of our Creator God. I suspect that much of the credit for the Thessalonian’s “work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” is due to the immutability of our Creator God.

The God we will worship tomorrow in our service, the God to whom we daily pray is the God of Genesis 1:1, is ". . . the God of your father Abraham” and ". . . the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Immortal, invisible, God only wise.  The God who sent God’s Son to us to show us the way home.

When people wonder at the enduring power of our faith, when people question how we can have that assurance and conviction, maybe we should simply respond as Moses was told to respond, “Exodus 3:14 . . . 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

Jesus, the Son of God said, “Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Go, tell, baptize, teach, trust our immutable God,

Pastor Ray