I came across some photographs the other day of our family and of Longville as they both looked in 1997. There’s always a lot of math involved in photography, and you know what they say about math—there are only three kinds of people in this world: those who can do math, and those who cannot. So the math of those pictures is that those people and objects were captured in time almost ten years ago. None of them look the same today as they were ten years ago, but Jesus Christ is the same today.
Exhibit A is my grandson Christian Isaac. He was only six months old when we moved here. Like all of us, not only does Christian Isaac not look like a baby any more, he doesn’t eat like a baby, talk like a baby, think like a baby or even act like a baby. Well, like most of us, he doesn’t always act like a baby most of the time anyway. Nothing in Christian Isaac’s appearance or personality is the same today as it was almost ten years ago: but Jesus Christ is the same today as He was back then.
Exhibit B is a group of photos of some of my parishioners from the same time period. To a person, none of them look the same today as they did 9.75 years ago. Some are a little grayer, some are a little heavier, some are a little lighter. Sadly, some are no longer with us. But Jesus Christ is the same today as He was back then.
Exhibit C is a book of photos of the Community Church building and grounds. And even though it still has the same white siding and the bell tower, the landscaping is substantially different. Some trees are gone; some trees have been planted. The wooden sign, where every wooden slat was fastened with four bolts EXCEPT for the slat that had my name on it, which was fastened with two bolts for easy removal, is gone. The sanctuary is no longer covered by that—what adjective shall I use?—ORANGE carpet. There are quite a few things that are the same, but there are many things that are not the same as they were 9.75 years ago. But Jesus Christ is the same today as He was back then.
And the folks who show up, week after week, in many ways are the same sweet, sweet, wonderful people I encountered 9.75 years ago, even though to a person, there’s not a one who is the same person that they were when I first came. And even though some of them are a little grumpier, some of them are a little more set in their ways, I would like to think the same ones are different because the Jesus Christ they encountered back then is working in their hearts and changing them more into His image, more into the essence of who He is.
The Greek language has two words for essence. One is morphe’. The morphe’ is the essence of a thing that does not change. A flower is always a flower. It is no less a flower when it's an embryo than when it's a young shoot. It stays a flower when it blooms. It re¬mains a flower when it wilts. It only ceases to be a flower when it dies.
But the Greek has another word for essence, and that is the word schema. The schema, like a schematic, is the outward appearance of something. So while the outward appearance, the schema of a flower changes, the inward morphe of a flower remains the same. So even though His appearance changed as He grew from infancy into adulthood, Jesus Christ always was and always will be today the same loving, compassionate, merciful and self-sacrificing God.
I am different, you are different; Longville is different. A hundred years from now, I know not what Longville will look like. A hundred years from now, none of us will be the same. But Jesus Christ will be the same because His yesterday is His today and His tomorrow is His today and His today is forever. And wouldn’t it be wonderful to see a photo of THAT?