When First Pres updated their hymnals from the 1955 edition to the 2013 edition, there were bound to be some changes. Something I noticed right away was it being less impressive than the 1990 edition. The 1990 edition still reigns supreme for me, but I digress. My snarky comment aside, the 2013 edition a was sizeable leap forward from the 1955 edition. What would a 58 year gap in editions look like? As with most changes to published works, there were areas of improvement and areas that did not make sense. The projection edition and the inclusion of several new hymns and/or hymn texts stand out in the improvement category. One area I struggle to comprehend is the naming of hymns by their opening lines. How Great Thou Art is now O Lord My God. It is Well with My Soul is now When Peace Like a River. Booo! 

Things change. That is a profound and simple truth we all are aware of, but are reluctant to embrace. Our instinct is to fight change at almost every turn. Ironically, every single one of Jesus’s teachings encourage change to take place! The parables he tells are constantly challenging us to change. For the benefit of ourselves and others, I might add. Our problems with change arise when it causes us to look at our memories and experiences. If we are not centered with our faith or general well-being, we assume that the changes being made will negate our own experiences, what we went through to get where we are. Change can create uncertainty, and uncertainty can create anxiety, and anxiety can take us to dark places.

When faced with changes that challenge me, I remind myself of the hymn Faith Begins By Letting Go. It was a new hymn for our congregation with the arrival of the 2013 hymnal edition. Here are the verses:

1 Faith begins by letting go,
giving up what had seemed sure,
taking risks and pressing on,
though the way feels less secure:
pilgrimage both right and odd,
trusting all our life to God.

2 Faith endures by holding on,
keeping memory’s roots alive
so that hope may bear its fruit;
promise-fed, our souls will thrive,
not through merit we possess
but by God’s great faithfulness.

3 Faith matures by reaching out,
stretching minds, enlarging hearts,
sharing struggles, living prayer,
binding up the broken parts;
till we find the commonplace
ripe with witness to God’s grace.

Faith begins by letting go. Faith endures by holding on, and faith matures by reaching out. As Master Yoda says, “You must unlearn what you have learned.” One reason I like the hymn so much is that it suggests sacrificing your faith for the sake of enlarging your faith. Another line of text I love from a different piece of music suggests something similar, “Each night the dream must die. See what’s on the other side.” In other words, humble yourself and what you think you know. Let it all go and see what comes back to you with an open heart and an open mind. Do this continually, and you will always be receptive to change while also bringing along the best experiences of your past.

During the season of Lent, we are examining the parables of Jesus. If I were to simplify Jesus’s parables and his teachings down to one takeaway, it would be this: the elimination of poverty. There are a plethora of ideas and inspirations to tackle the problem of poverty, but to eliminate it completely? That is going to require some dramatic changes. We will need to be cognizant of our uncertainties and anxieties related to those changes. We will need to remind ourselves that new ideas do not negate our previous experiences. We will also need to remind ourselves that what comes next will always and should always be different than what came before. No two lives or experiences are exactly alike. Faith begins by letting go. If there are previously used ideas or traditions we feel so deeply compelled to keep alive, we need to demonstrate the why of that and show how it helps others thrive. Faith endures by holding on. Finally, we need to do away with responses to poverty such as: “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” or “just keep trying”. I know many of us have heard these phrases, and for a multitude of reasons, succeeded in life by societal standards from hearing them. This is not, however, how Jesus calls on us to respond. Jesus calls us to eliminate poverty, full stop, not to justify why it exists for some and not others. The call to action is clear. Faith matures by reaching out.

My prayer for us all is that we will be part of a dramatic change to end poverty, full stop, rejecting any and every excuse that sees to justify poverty in any form for any person. Amen.

Adam