Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. – Hebrew 13:8

Today's Scripture Reading (May 20, 2021): Hebrews 13

Thomas Bertram Lance is thought to be the one who came up with the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." At the time, Lance was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget during the Jimmy Carter presidency. Lance was convinced that the United States could save billions of dollars if they would just stop tinkering with things that weren't broke. Lance declared, "that's the trouble with government: Fixing things that aren't broken and not fixing things that are broken." 

I want to say that we live in a changing world. The world around us is changing faster than it ever has before. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" might have made sense in the past, but I am not sure that it works anymore because we seem to be continually reinventing the future. And it has become a problem for the worship of the church. For the older generations, there is a love for the stability of the past and the hymns written by prior generations. But for younger worshippers, the conversation around church music often includes the phrase "shelf life." Songs are no longer permanent. Some music may have more extended periods of use than others, but all music seems to wear out. As a result, there is a continual drive to develop more music, music that can replace the worn-out songs of only a few years ago. One young woman once admitted that she had a closet full of CDs from which she no longer gets any enjoyment. And as she spoke, my mind traveled to what I have been listening to from my Spotify account. It is the same music that I was listening to as a teenager; Supertramp, Aerosmith, and Styx still feature prominently, among others, in my playlists.

I want to say that we live in a changing world, but if there is something that Thomas Bertram Lance discovered decades ago, it is that we like to tinker with things. We always have. Change is part of what it means to be human or not God. Maybe the pace of change has been enhanced in recent times, but it has always been a part of who we are.

That is why we need the stability that can only come from God. It is an old idea. Moses, in numbers, says that –

God is not human, that he should lie,
    not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
    Does he promise and not fulfill (Numbers 23:19)?

Part of the nature of God is that he will do what he says he will do. When he speaks, he acts. When he promises something, he follows through on the promise.

In Psalm 102, the psalmist clings to this promise. Written during the Babylonian exile, possibly by Daniel, Nehemiah, or even Jeremiah, the author looks at the city of Jerusalem lying in ruins and laments about everything that has changed. But amid this lament, he clings to this hope; "But you remain the same, and your years will never end (Psalm 102:27)."

And as the author of Hebrews finishes the letter, it is that assertion he or she wants to make. Everything might be changing on the outside, but Jesus is not changing. Because he is God, he remains the same today as he was yesterday, and he will be the same in the changing tomorrow as he is today. In a changing world, he is the stability that we need.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jude 1

Personal Note: Happy Birthday to my daughter-in-law, Michelle.