The words of this hymn (ELW 733) came to mind as I was working on a sermon last week. It was like one of those “ear worms” for me that day. “God is faithful.” The thought came back to my mind when I read a sermon from Pastor Katie Hines-Shah from Redeemer Lutheran in Hinsdale, IL on Friday night. She wrote: “There are some who will claim that this pandemic is God’s will…God’s punishment for a sinful humanity. This theology seems to me a cold comfort for the dubious prize of preserving God’s power. What if we give up the need for this all to be preordained, prophesied, and predictable? What if, instead, we see in the Good Friday story a God who laid aside all power, who gave up all control, for the sake of the world, for the sake of each of us?” Wow, God is faithful. God is so faithful that God is willing to send His son to die for us. God is always faithful.
It is a great time for doing theology in the church—relating our faith to our life. But if there is one thing I discovered through seminary and graduate school in theology, it is that we human beings don’t have all the answers. When I was in seminary a school of theology (process theology) was in vogue that expressed that God is constantly in the process of relating to us as human beings. It meant that God weeps when we suffer. At that time there was a lot of comfort brought by that emphasis.
Today I find great comfort and hope in knowing God is always faithful…ever compassionate, and loving beyond a shadow of a doubt. When we experience difficulty in life, as we are doing now, God’s compassions fail not.” When we go through brand new experiences like the coronavirus situation has created, God goes with us. God’s mercies never fail us.
But what about us? Are we always faithful? Scripturally speaking, we say “no, not always.” There is even a Scripture passage, 2 Timothy 2:12-13, which says, “
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The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him
if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.”
Still, we do the best we can under the circumstances to serve God. And when we falter, God picks us up.
Several weeks ago, Virginia Bartelt and I spoke to news 3 reporter, Gabriella Bachara. As we did, I spoke about the faithfulness of our people and how they always respond when we need their help. Virginia spoke about how “God has been with St. Luke’s congregation for 125 years and has seen them through all kinds of difficulties. God will continue to be there for us in the present and the future.” Unfortunately, the reporter did not use Virginia’s comments, but used only mine. But the combination of “Faithful God, Faithful People” I like very much as that which will carry us through the crisis.
We have just gone through an unprecedented Holy Week and Easter. For the first time we had to celebrate worship not at church, but at home. But think about all of the we have gathered and sang songs like, “Great is Thy Faithfulness” right next to our extended family or friends or fellow members, and have been bolstered by their own faith. We can be sure that experience of our faithfulness strengthens us now and gives us hope for the future together again. What we have done in the past—what we have experienced when worship was a taken-for-granted-- goes with us as we face the future. Because we have celebrated God’s grace and mercy and have emphasized a response of faith, I am quite sure that faithfulness will be the response of most people. To get personal, God has blessed you in the past. Although it is hard to understand the present, and it leads us to ask many questions of God, we can trust in Someone who has always been there for us and will be with us in the future.
God’s steadfast love endures forever. We know we have so many blessings. If we are experiencing difficulty right now, although we cannot totally understand that, we know that God’s grace will prevail. God has us in the palm of his hand. As one writer puts it, “God Holds Our Tomorrows.”
We don’t know how long this Coronavirus thing will keep us from gathering. As a staff we will continue to work for you. We will continue to produce services online and, on your app, and on You Tube. We do know that God will continue to help us and that you will continue to support us. We have a faithful God and faithful people. We also know that “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. On this we can depend!
“Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed thy hand hath provided; great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.”
Pastor Roger Black
