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At this writing, we do not know if the call for senior pastor has been accepted or not. We’ve been challenged to wait for many things in recent years. We had plans, specific designs, motivation, growing funds, and anticipation of Phase 2 of our school and ministries building. Voting to proceed with this project led to increased excitement, even if some trepidation and inconvenience followed.
Building upon last week’s expanded understanding of the word remember (zakar in Hebrew and mnaomai in Greek), let’s look at an opposite word. What’s it like to forget? James 1:22-25 says, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like."
The Greek defines the word "forget" in two ways. First, as we use the word commonly, it simply means to lose track of an idea, but an alternate meaning could be "to ignore." This last meaning can convict us for sure. The "works of the flesh" listed in Galatians 5 include what many of us would consider dire and dangerous — like idolatry and immorality — but what about more subtle works? What about "strife," "enmity," "dissensions," "jealousy," "fits of anger," "rivalries," "divisions," and "envy"!
Even if we are mindful of these temptations during the steady pulse of everyday living, what happens when we’re thrown off balance? A shocking job loss, a family emergency, or a severe act of nature can tap into that tender and untested area in our flesh. We’ve never walked this path before! Further in Galatians (5:24), we in the church who "belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." The fruit of that Holy Spirit, which now resides in us by grace, is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."
Therefore, for instance, when waiting for a senior pastor to receive and accept a call, it would be a terrible witness to fall into dissensions and factions. Our enemy Satan would love it, as he constantly looks for ways to divide and weaken the church. Galatians 6:10 proclaims, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith."
Let us therefore remember and not forget our Lord’s promise to enable that spiritual fruit to surface! To be “faithful in the waiting” is impossible to do on our own, but "thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:57)! We have Word and Sacrament to equip us with Jesus' comfort and power!
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