© 2004-2007 Joyce Ellen Weinstein. Used with permission of the artist. www.joyceellenweinstein.com The work you are viewing, part of a series called "Shadow Man" can be interpreted in many ways. Primarily it is about the human condition; how people hide, wear masks, have secret selves and don't always permit themselves to "see". In a broader sense this and the other works of Joyce Ellen Weinstein are concerned with the understanding of human relationships, beginning with ourselves and extending outward to include family, community, ethnicity, and nationality.  Although at first glance her works appear disparate, after closer examination one can find her inspiration in the personal and emotional, as well as the interaction developed through self, family, and community - all of which are parts making up the whole of her unified body of work.  Her works do not sentimentalize, but speak of the human measure and human condition.  The works of Joyce Ellen Weinstein ask the universal question: "who am I and where am I going?"

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult . . .

German theologian and reformer Martin Luther was inspired by this verse when he wrote the great hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” One rumor is that Luther wrote this hymn in 1527 when his friend was burned at the stake. In the midst of the Reformation, when to seek change in the Church was to put one’s life at risk, Luther imagined God as a “bulwark never failing.” God was for him, as was true for the psalmist, “our present help amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.”

Change can be hard. New ideas that challenge structures can be resisted with extreme force. Through his studies of scripture, especially the works of Paul, Luther developed ideas that threatened the status quo. He felt strongly that humans needed no priest to mediate God’s Grace, and that salvation was a gift of God’s Grace received through faith. The sale of indulgences — the remission of sins — brought the church a great revenue in the early 16th century, and his ideas posed both an economic threat and a theological threat to the status quo. Luther posted his famous 95 Theses on a church at Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517, criticizing the Doctrine of Indulgences and other papal policies. Copies of the document were shared around Europe and the Reformation was born. Luther is known as the Father of Protestantism. His brave, bold vision changed the Church.

Change can be hard. Wars were — and are fought — about change.

When I was a teenager in our gospel choir in Chicago, we learned a great arrangement of that hymn. The image in the hymn is of a great flood of mortal ills crashing over Luther and the church. God was the breakwater that held back the torrent.

Sometimes change makes us feel as though a flood is coming or as though the mountains are shaking in the midst of the sea. Large momentous changes make us lose our sense of equilibrium. We can feel off balance and shaken, as shaken as the image of the mountains in this Psalm. It seems to me that America, and American religion, is in a time of enormous change. We are postmodern, post-technology, some even say post-Christian. Islam is the fastest growing religion in our country, technology has changed how we do work, relationships, and congregational life. And we are much less certain, as people of faith, about what God is up to and our role in that. Sometimes that uncertainty can be frightening, but any of us who have had the church persecute us most likely think a little uncertainty is a good thing!

When there is so much uncertainty and newness, even small things can rock us. Church life can sometimes feel like the one thing that must remain the same. We can feel threatened by transitions and wonder about our place in a new thing. Change is hard for some of us, even as we acknowledge that new ideas, new ways of being, and new life all come with difficulty. In fact, some churches play on that fear. They stay steady for congregants, almost like rocking them to sleep in the midst of life’s upheavals.

Middle Church is not that way. Our leaders, and so many of you, are trying to be responsive to what is changing in the world. Because there is famine, because there is war, because there is a widening gap between the wealthy and the poor, we need to change. We change in response to what humans are doing. We change in response to what God is doing. We are dynamic, we are responsive, some would even say we are prophetic because the world turns once every day! The East Village, the city of New York, America, and a global community are all changing, so we need to re-form our commitment to be salt and light in the same dynamic way. Our work on Vision 2010, which began in January 2004 is a dynamic project. It is a living document that shapes our staffing, our resourcing, and our programming. We ask always, what is God doing and what do we need to do to be faithful?

In order to be faithful, we need to change.

Martin Luther was a reformer. John Calvin, whose theology shapes much of ours as reformed folk, was a reformer.

Jesus was a reformer. He, like they, did not intend to start a new religion. He came to share a new world view. The first shall be last, the last shall be first. God cares for the least of us and we should care about them, too. When we care about the least, we are caring for God. Love God, love neighbor, love self with equal passion. Jesus not only reformed thinking about status, and religiosity, he also crossed cultic boundaries — he decided to talk to women, to put children in a prominent role, to make heroes out of the scorned, like tax collectors and mixed-race people like the Samaritans. He broke the rules, and made difficult changes.

Change can be very hard. And the one thing we can count on in life is that things will change.

Well, there are two things: the other thing we can count on is that although life changes, God does not. James described God as “the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1.17) We get another famous hymn, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” from that verse in scripture.

The Psalmist ends this one with the assurance that the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.

It seems to me that these things are true: Change is hard and we can fear it; many very good things come from change; and God is with us always, staying the same and keeping us safe while the waters of change come.

I love you,
Jacqui

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