Our future is in God’s hands

What are your hopes and prayers for the future of our church and the preaching of the gospel? Whatever they are, I am sure they involve faith in Jesus Christ and our freedom in the gospel. That’s how the Lutheran church began, and that’s what brought it to this part of the world.

Faith and freedom have motivated Christians since New Testament times, just as they motivated Abraham and the prophets of the Old Testament. They have also motivated Lutherans since the Reformation, including the first Lutherans to arrive in Australia and in New Zealand who established congregations and schools. Many generations have put their lives on the line for their faith, resisting those who would restrict their freedom to worship and serve God according to that faith.

Such courageous faith is not wishful thinking, and such freedom is not licence to do as we please. Faith and freedom both come from God’s will for the world, that everyone should know Jesus Christ and believe in him. Faith is God’s gift so that we can live in trust and confidence and know the true freedom God’s children enjoy in serving him. The biblical gospels show us what that service looks like: acceptance of all, love for the neighbour, welcoming the stranger, serving those in need, praising God, and believing confidently in the future.

In 2017, this 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we have learned once again our key doctrines of justification by faith and the free forgiveness of sins. In 2016 we marked the 50th birthday of the Lutheran Church of Australia and honoured those who worked to bring about the union of the former churches. You might have seen our tagline for these two anniversaries: 50.500 Faith.Freedom.Future.

Now, with 2018 coming soon, we will look to the third of those: our future. Who are we going to be in the future? How will future generations remember us? Will it be for holding to the faith with confidence and practising our freedom to serve God and others? Or will we, as some fear, veer off on another course and somehow lose our way, failing to love others as God has loved us?

I am certain of one thing that doesn’t change whatever the outlook: our future is in God’s hands. Just as God provided for us in the past by giving us Jesus Christ as our Saviour, so God will provide for our faith in the future. That isn’t a promise to give us just what we want. It does not guarantee our physical wealth, comfort, safety, or even health. It doesn’t mean that things will stay the same as they were in the past, nor does it protect us from change. But it does mean that God will not abandon us, that God’s promises always hold true, and that our faith and our freedom are assured, whatever life in the world may hold.

So as we prepare for 2018, which, God willing, is just over the horizon, I invite you to share with me this confidence in our future. As St Paul writes in Romans 8:38,39, ’… I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’