So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)

This is the theme Bible passage for the ELCA’s 25th anniversary. It’s where the phrase “Always Being Made New” stems from. While I hesitate to use catchphrases, I think it is a helpful perspective for us in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. As Pastor Joe Chu, Associate Program Director for Lutheran Disaster Response reminded me, the challenge with all of the words we use in disaster response (Response, Renew, Restore, etc.) is the “re-.” With that prefix, we hear the expectation that something will be repeated—that things will go back to how they were before, homes will return in the same way, and communities will recover and be identical to their previous forms.

Instead, we hear in 2 Corinthians, that we have a God who makes all things new. This doesn’t necessarily mean bigger and better, but different, and new. As we’ve witnessed and experienced, this change, this making all things new, doesn’t necessarily happen overnight. Rather, homes and individuals and communities are transformed by everyday people who are proclaiming the gospel with their words and actions. People whose vocation it is to build, or care for children, or administer, or volunteer. People who share from the abundance or scarcity of their resources for the good of God’s world. People who pray daily for their neighbors. People who are engaged within their own communities and who do the work of God in their daily lives. “In Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”

O God of new creation, thank you for creating us and for making each new day. Amen.
Originally written for “Along the Way,”
a prayer ministry for the ELCA New Jersey Synod Hurricane Relief

Contributed by Pastor Becky
Monday September 16, 2013
Liturgical Year C: Week 42
Liturgical Color: Green
Sunday Gospel reading: Proper 22
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost