“All Things New” - Bethany Lutheran Church

“All Things New” by Pastor Nate

Labor Day has always marked the end of summer for me. I know that the season of Summer actually extends for another 3 weeks or so, but Labor Day has always served as that announcement of summer’s end and school’s beginning.

Even now, as an adult, Labor Day still has that finality attached to it. As September begins so do a host of programs at the church; new things are beginning, and while all of this fall activity isn’t nearly as relaxing as summer, there is definitely something exciting about the new season that Labor Day ushers in.

Since my days in Elementary School, the beginning of the academic year always created this type of excitement within me too. Part of it was finally getting to wear my new shoes but an even bigger part was simply the chance to start something new. The new school year always seemed to bring that opportunity to re-invent myself– the chance to get things right this time around– the chance to start over.

I don’t think we live our lives with that type of first-day-of-school-excitement too often. Obviously, it’s hard to get excited about each and every new day, but isn’t this idea of starting over and new beginnings at the heart of God’s message?

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17

As Christians, our hope is found in Christ’s promises to make all things new. This isn’t just a new beginning tomorrow, or after Labor Day, this is a promise that God is not yet finished with you or me or Creation as a whole; in Christ, sins are forgiven, diseases are healed, suffering is ended, and new life begins.

What would it mean for us to actually believe this promise? So often, I am filled with real despair– I see all the ways the churches are alienating others or all the ways our political system is pitting neighbors against each other or all the ways that violence, injustice, and suffering are rampant. I see all of these things and wonder how long this will all go on.

But on my good days, I remember and cling to the hope that Christ is making all things new. I cling to the hope that God is not yet finished with this world, and that the power of the resurrection is still at work, slowly but surely bringing new life and a new creation.