Scripture: Joshua 5:9-12 (NRSV)
Changes coming upon us
It keeps moving, moving around us
Got to keep dancing knowing
He loves us
Got to keep joy in our hearts
— song lyrics from “Changes” by Jim Croegaert (listen to the whole song here)
The winds of change are indeed swirling around us on every level. You can notice it in your own decreased energy. You can feel it after a telephone call from a friend who just lost her job. You can hear it in the news from Wall Street and the White House. You can wonder about it as flowers begin to bloom and robins appear in January in Northern Indiana.
The fear of change can overwhelm us, paralyze us and keep us from living. But that is not our only option.
Changes on this journey to the Promised Land – even when the rules change and nothing is predictable anymore – also mean that everything is about to become new. Life is about to emerge from death. That is God’s promise.
Even as change sweeps over us, can we be ashamed no more? Can we give up what is holding us back or holding us down? Can we move towards the Good News of Jesus Christ? Can we keep joy in our hearts?
Scripture: Joshua 5:9-12 (NRSV)
The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.” And so that place is called Gilgal to this day.
10While the Israelites were camped in Gilgal they kept the passover in the evening on the fourteenth day of the month in the plains of Jericho. 11On the day after the passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. 12The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year.