By Pastor Craig Pederson
“Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’, into the future …”
From the song, “Fly Like An Eagle,” Steve Miller Band, 1976
In the synod office these days, we are living a kind of dual existence: We staff members are fully immersed in the ministry areas to which we have been called, while we are also fully engaged in transition planning for the future. In fewer than three months, a new bishop will be elected to lead our synod into its next chapter of ministry in partnership with congregations and with ELCA Churchwide.
These are significant times! We are filled with gratitude for the relationships we have developed over the years. We are reflecting on goals achieved and others that remain unmet. We are evaluating our policies, procedures, and workloads to determine how they can best be transferred to a new bishop and staff so they can decide what to keep and what to let go.
“Seasons of change can open the imagination to new opportunities, but can also raise uncertainty about a clear path forward.”
And these are holy times. Each of us is attentive to our own baptismal callings in life and ministry, discerning how the Spirit of the Living God is abiding with us in the present and guiding us into our futures.
And these are exciting times! Mostly, that is – seasons of change can open the imagination to new opportunities, but can also raise uncertainty about a clear path forward.
RECENTLY, I ATTENDED a worship service where I sat behind a lovely family. The mom and dad were late-middle aged, and their adult son appeared to be cognitively impaired. The interaction between them was quite sweet. The young man was fidgety, but he found various ways to occupy himself when he lost focus on the worship experience.
One activity that held his attention was scrolling through the calendar app on his mom’s iPhone. I was close enough that I could see the numbers on the calendar as he rapidly swiped hundreds of years into the future. Then, all of a sudden, he pressed his finger firmly on the screen to stop the scrolling. He had landed on the year 3041! He proudly showed his mom, who looked at it a few seconds, then turned her attention back to worship.
The young man resumed his aggressive scrolling then stopped again – this time on the year 4264. I was amazed – 2,200 years into the future and the Apple calendar still looked the same as it does today! Apple is a dominant global company; … do they know something about the future that we don’t?
“It would be reassuring to scroll ahead on our calendars a few days – or a few millennia – to see what will be happening in our world.”
As he continued, I grew worried about how much longer this scrolling exercise could last. His mom appeared to feel that way as well as she motioned for him to hand her the phone. He refused, then went back to his rapid time travel into the future.
But soon his swiping slowed, then finally ground to a stop. The calendar ceased to respond to his swipes somewhere in the year 8,000, and it wouldn’t go any further. He set the phone aside and looked disappointed that his futuristic journey had been halted.
Again, I wondered if this was a sign of some sort of apocalyptic reprieve: If the Apple calendar doesn’t end until well into the 8th millennium, does that mean we can chill out about the urgency of global warming, or concerns about starvation or overpopulation, or fear of mutually assured destruction between global military forces?
All kidding aside, it would be reassuring to scroll ahead on our calendars a few days – or a few millennia – to see what will be happening in our world. But we can’t do that. Instead, we entrust our present and our future to God.
IN THE MEANTIME, we would do well to heed the prophet Steve Miller (and later Seal) who sang:
I want to fly like an eagle
‘Til I’m free
Oh, Lord through the revolution.
Feed the babies
Who don’t have enough to eat
Shoe the children
With no shoes on their feet
House the people
Livin’ in the street
Oh, oh there’s a solution …
OK, neither Steve Miller nor Seal are canonical prophets of the Old Testament. But Isaiah is, and he wrote:
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. …
But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40: 28, 31)
Time keeps on slippin’ into the future. Praise be to the God who promises to lead us and meet us there.