God’s New Normal (Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost)

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I was hoping that, by now, we might be living in the “new normal.”  Maybe a bunch of you were hoping for that, too!  But, it still feels like we’re in the middle of getting through Covid and moving towards whatever it is that the “new normal” will look like.

And frankly, I’m tired of having to live through the transition!  I’m tired of mask mandates.  I’m tired of having to pay attention to infection statistics.  And I’m really tired of all the nastiness and fighting that’s accompanied this process.  I’m ready to be done with it, and get on to whatever the “new normal” turns out to be.  Probably, most of you are as well.

And I suppose that’s a normal human reaction to any long, drawn out process, when we’re looking towards something new.  In fact, I think that’s really what’s beneath the question of James and John in today’s Gospel reading.

While they’ve clearly missed a lot of what Jesus has been saying, James and John have picked up on the idea that Jesus is ushering in a new age.  God is doing a new thing in Jesus, and in the age to come, there’s going to be a “new normal” when God and God’s will are going to reign supreme.  They’re not there yet, but James and John (like probably many others) are tired of the transition.

So they go to Jesus and say – effectively – “Jesus, let’s get on to the new normal.  Let’s set up the seating arrangements for how things will be in the new normal.”  After all, think James and John, the new normal has to be just around the corner.  And in any event, focusing on the new normal can be a good way to escape the present reality!

But they’re not in the new normal yet.  And in fact, Jesus responds by pointing out that they actually have a lot of work to do before they get there.  For James and John, and indeed for all the disciples, living into God’s “new normal” is going to require a deeper commitment to:

• Listening and learning from Jesus – “you don’t know what you’re asking” says Jesus.  It’s kind of a nice way of saying, “haven’t you been paying any attention?!”  Not two chapters ago, Jesus had upbraided the disciples for arguing about who was the greatest.  And yet, here come James and John, who apparently think that meant, “we shouldn’t argue about who’s the greatest, because we KNOW we’re the greatest – so let’s get the good seats!”  Living into God’s new normal will mean paying greater attention and thinking more deeply about what the inbreaking of God’s kingdom really means in their lives…

• Enduring discomfort and disruption – Jesus asks, “are you able to drink the cup that I drink?”, to which James and John quickly reply, “Sure, how hard could that be?!”  And yet, in the verses right before this question, Jesus has been talking about betrayal, death and crucifixion. Were James and John just not paying attention?  Or were they simply not emotionally willing to invest in the necessary pain and suffering that transitions to new normals often take?  Jesus points out that living into God’s new normal will mean a commitment of all of them, not just Jesus, to endure the pain that comes with the disruption of what is…

• Practicing now how they’re going to live in the new normal – James and John want to take seats in glory.  But Jesus tells all of them that if they want to get going on the new normal right now it means practicing living in the new ways of the kingdom of God.  “It is not so among you”, Jesus says.  Present tense.  Not, “it will not be like this in the new normal, so begin to get used to it in your hearts.”   Rather, it is not like this right now.  Practice it.  And often, living into any new normal – and especially living into God’s new normal – means putting into action right now in our lives the ways of living we know are coming …

We also, are not in the new normal yet.  And in fact, while Covid seems to be bringing about a more significant new normal than most we’ve lived through before, in many ways, we’re always living into new normals in our lives.  And as we live into a new normal now, we’re also being called by Jesus to live into God’s new normal – the coming reign of God’s kingdom in our lives.

And the new normals arrive when they arrive.  We can’t just take our seats in them now.  But as for James and John and the rest of those early disciples, living into a new normal – whether post-covid new normal or God’s new normal – requires us to be people who are willing to invest ourselves in:

• Listening and learning – and often, that takes time.  I know for me, I’ve had many moments in the last few months where I’ve thought, “Oh, this is what I’m hearing and learning.  Maybe this is the way things will be.”  But even a few months later, that’s not necessarily the way things are working out.  And I’ve realized that living into this new normal means constant listening, learning and tweaking my expectations…The same thing goes for how we’ll live as a church community in this new normal – it’s clear that things are already different.  But figuring out what “church life” will look like is going to take all of us listening to each other, learning more about what works and what doesn’t and being willing to tweak stuff as we go along.  What I’m certain about, however, is that Jesus is still speaking to us, and calling us to continue to listen and learn through this time of transition to a new normal…

• The disruption and discomfort that comes with transitional times – I often like to focus on the things that I’m glad have changed.  For instance, it’s great that we can now connect to people online who can’t be with us in person.  It’s been great for many people to give up the daily struggle to commute when they work at home.  But those things also mean that connections with people are harder now than they used to be.  That’s painful.  And we’ve got to figure out how to deal with those kinds of situations.  Nobody yet has all the answers.  What I’m certain about, however, is that, as with the first disciples, Jesus is promising to be with us and help us through the disruption and the discomfort of the transition…

• Practicing now for the new normal – sometimes, part of that is simply learning to get comfortable with the fact that the old routines won’t be coming back.  I’m doing things now that I’ve been doing for months.  But now, as I’m doing them, I’m considering that this way – or something like it – isn’t simply a temporary thing, but practice for permanently living in a new way.  Jesus called his first disciples to live in a new way – the way of the kingdom of God – even though they weren’t there yet.  And that’s what Jesus is still calling us to do – to practice living as we believe Jesus is calling us to live even, and maybe especially, when it doesn’t seem that those ways are popular or going to change the world in the near future.  What I’m certain about, however, is that God’s new normal is going to finally be our reality.  And so Jesus calls us, as he called his first disciples, to start living into that new normal now…

Living into new normals is hard.  I want the transition to be over.  I want to know exactly how things will be.  I’d like to be able to finally relax and sit in some glory.  I get James and John. 

And yet, Jesus calls us to a life of promised new normal, not realized new normal.  And so Jesus calls us to be people who know his presence with us in the midst of the transition, who trust in the promise of his help, and who practice now living into God’s new normal.

Martin Luther put it like this:

“This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.”

Amen.