Change

Jesus replied, “You do not understand¹⁷ what I am doing now, but you will understand after these things.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” ~ John 13:7-8

I have this picture hanging on the bulletin board in my office. It is a postcard I received at my call in Texas from the publishing house of the ELCA promoting a new resource. But it speaks volumes that we sometimes forget. Change isn’t something we only get from a vending machine. Meaning many things. Change isn’t something that happens always when we want it. Imagine if we would know everything that was going to happen and could make a choice between options. I used to love reading books that allowed you to do this. If you want Sally to go for a bike ride turn to page 45, if she stays home and does homework turn to page 14. But this isn’t the way life works. Change sometimes comes at us when we least expect it and can seem to not always be good. But really it is how we accept it and move with it that makes how it really affects us and the world around us.

As I said in my sermon on February 25 Jesus said this to Peter the night He washed the disciples’ feet, and Peter wanted nothing to do with it because that isn’t the way it is done. That is against what society says should happen and this isn’t the way we have always done it.  Jesus told Peter, “You don’t understand…” This is a new way to think about things and the way that society wants or the way we have always done it is not necessarily the way we are always going to do it.

You see change isn’t good or bad. It is different than what we have known. And different can help us grow. Grow as disciples, grow as beacons of His love in a world that needs to see Him. So don’t let change be anything other than what it is, a growing edge for all of us. And know that when Jesus washes your feet you are clean and set as a messenger of His love to the world.

Be the change the world needs to see