I love music and enjoy an eclectic mix of styles and artists (ask me about Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats some time). Over this last year, music has become an even greater means of expressing and engaging all the emotional turmoil in my heart. One song on my playlist that I’ve listened to repeatedly is an older song by Sam Cooke entitled “A Change Is Gonna Come”. Written out of Cooke’s experience of racial prejudice, the verses express the hurt and pain which came from that. But in a plaintive cry, the chorus conveys a hope for something better. Cooke sings:
It’s been a long
Long time comin’, but I know
A change gon’ come
Oh, yes it will
I daresay all of us are ready for a change when it comes to this global pandemic. There are other areas in our lives perhaps where we are hoping and praying for a change. We might like a new job, a clean bill of health after an illness, or to start a new relationship. But at the same time, we also don’t like change. We may not want to have to deal with a job change or we are anxious about what the test results will reveal, or we are concerned that we may be losing a friendship.
We all know that change is a part of life. We have experienced that as a church community. Over the past two years, we have welcomed one new pastor (Hi!) and sent out three pastors into new fields of ministry in the Lord’s kingdom. Some have moved on to other communities while others have joined us here. Certainly, our worship, our small groups, and our ministry look very different than they did at the beginning of 2020.
But not only is change a part of what it means to be human but it is also part of what it means to be a Christian. We have had a change of heart, with God granting us a heart of flesh that is responsive to Him to replace our heart of stone which was disobedient. We have had a change in master, no longer under the reign of sin and the evil one but now living under the rule of King Jesus. We have had a change of record since our record of sin and guilt has been removed from us and been replaced by Christ’s perfect record of righteousness.
And with all of that change, we are called to a life of change, of transformation. The Biblical word for that is sanctification. God’s Spirit is at work in us to change us, so that we love sin less and less and we love Jesus more and more. The Apostle Paul tells us that “we all...are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). The ultimate goal of this change is that we would “be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29). We may often think we are not seeing much change in this regard but as Sam Cooke reminds us, “A Change Is Gonna Come”.
With all of this change going on in us and around us, it can leave us feeling unsettled and fearful. Is there nothing solid and unchanging or is everything shifting and changing? The same God who assures us that He is changing us, also assures us that He Himself will never change. This is why the Psalms often picture God as a rock (e.g. Psalm 18:2). It’s why the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews declares that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (13:8). Standing on the reality of the unchangeable nature and purpose of our God, we can face and embrace the changes we experience in our lives and in our circumstances.
And so we worship. In this world, we are bombarded with change and it is easy to get overwhelmed. This can be from change that has been ongoing or from change that comes unexpectedly. So, once a week, we step away from that and gather as God’s people to be reminded of deeper realities. In worship, our hearts are reoriented to the truth that God never changes and that He is sovereign over ALL the changes we experience. So, let us worship together each Sunday and find comfort in words such as these we sing:
Thou changest not
Thy compassions they fail not
As thou hast been
Thou forever wilt be.
