May 20, 2021

Over the course of this past year, we have all been through something together. Something that has changed us. In fact, I think we still do not know all of the ways we have been changed and impacted, as individuals and as communities, because of the events of this last year. We have seen the lightning strike of the pandemic, but we have yet to hear the thunder, and over the course of another year or two or three, we will come to see all of the ways that this experience has changed us.
 
What comes next for us is something new. There is no simple going back to “normal.” What even is normal at this point? Each of us has been changed, and the ways that we live and move and operate in the world have and will change. Even for us as a church. What lies ahead will of course bring forward some of the wonderful things of the past, but we cannot just go back because we are not now who we were.
 
We are being made new.
 
I know that new is sometimes scary. In fact, I know that we often seek to protect ourselves against new. But God is always making things new. We are always being made new. New is part of the natural movement of the universe. Your whole body is basically entirely new every seven days as your cells die and new ones are made. New is baked into the system even though we might be scared of it or try and avoid it.
 
From Genesis when God creates something from nothing, through the call of Abraham and the making of a new people, tribe, and nation, to the good news of the prophets, in Christ, all the way to the final chapters of Revelation, God reminds us that God is doing a new thing, making all things new.
 
When we receive the gift of faith, each day as we remember our baptism and die to the old, self-centered self in bondage to sin and are born anew again in Christ, when we trust and obey the call of Christ who says, “Follow me,” then we move forward transformed. Changed. Ready to live for God alone in service to our neighbor, as part of the new thing God is doing and the new creation God is making right here and right now.
 
What comes next for us at Spirit in the Hills will be new. Our life together will have shades of the former things and ways and at the same time be new and at times unfamiliar because we are in unfamiliar territory. We have been changed by this past year, but more than that, we are being transformed by the Holy Spirit’s presence in and among us to join in God’s new creation, to join in living the way of Jesus, to trust God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And when we have that bold and daring faith, it transforms us and makes us new that we might enter into the work of God who is making all things new.

Catch up on all of our Wednesday What Comes Next? conversations by clicking here.

May the God who brought Jesus from death to life fill you with new life and open you up to the presence of the risen Christ with you now and always. 
Pastor Drew

PS – A reminder about our recent changes to worship 

As of now, the Sunday morning schedule will continue to look like it did before Palm Sunday:
8:45am email liturgy
8:50am Sunday School for adults via Zoom 
10am Worship (online & in-person)
11am Zoom fellowship time 

When in-person worship services are being held, they will also be at 10am moving forward. You should have received a letter from me this week about changes to worship going forward. You can also read and see more on our website at http://spiritinthehills.org/covid19-response-updates/