I wrote last week about a post-it note that was on my desk. When I came to this church there was a whole stack of those yellow notes in the desk and I have grown a habit of writing thoughts, quotes, and reminders down and sticking them on my desk (I am aware that other people do this too).
I want to write about another note that has been on my desk for a while. Once I do I will be one tiny square closer to having a clean desk!
The message isn’t Christmas related, but it fits perfectly in this season, and I’m going to tell you why. The note says, “Jesus is coming to redeem this world. All of it!”
I wrote it as an encouragement for moments of struggle or even doubt. This pandemic has weighed on the minds and spirits of almost all of us. I have had to think about things and consider perspectives that are completely new to me. I’ve heard it estimated that pastoring during this crisis has been at least twice as hard as pastoring in normal times. I don’t know how someone would quantify that, but it is true that we pastors have had to make completely foreign decisions on a daily basis for months. Things that we were never trained for, and have no real reference to base our decisions on. I performed a wedding this weekend with a mask on. At the end I got to say, “You may now remove those masks and kiss your bride.”
So I guess I was mulling the strain of this present reality when I was reminded that God is not surprised or stressed by this mess. In fact, as I wrote, Jesus is still the redeemer! I added that second sentence to the note, “All of it!”, to emphasize that nothing (even COVID) is outside of the realm of what Jesus can make right, restore, heal, and recover.
When God put in motion the sacred birth of a baby boy in Bethlehem scripture assures us that His purpose was to save “All of it!” John 3:16 tells us that “For God so loved THE WORLD that He gave His one and only Son that WHOSOEVER believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life!”
That means that the plan was always for all of us! And it is a reminder that brings peace when we remember that there is no power, principality, or even virus with the strength to stop what God has put in motion!
We all know people and situations that we are tempted to label ‘hopeless’ but to do so would be to disagree with the whole of scripture! The thing that breaks your heart, that you long to change, that you dream of being restored can be made whole. It can be redeemed. It can be saved. And Jesus’ plan and desire is to do just that! The free will of people will not be taken away, so everyone still has the choice to reject God’s plan, but the purpose of Jesus coming as a baby so long ago, and Him coming again someday is to redeem “all of it!”
Jeremy Alger is the pastor of the New Cumberland Church of the Nazarene. For more information please visit www.newcumberlandnazarene.com