Lord Jesus Christ, our support and defense in every need, continue to preserve Your Church in safety, govern her by Your goodness, and bless her with your peace; for You live and reign with the Father the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
It is canning season at my house. Oregon is a particularly good place to be a gardener. Its mild winters and abundant summer sunshine make for a bountiful crop of many things. As I write these words, I am keeping my eye on a timer which will tell me when to take some jars out of the canner. We will enjoy spiced plums on cold winter days.
We pray in this prayer that God preserves His church. Just what are you asking for when you prayed those words on Sunday? I think sometimes we imagine God’s preserving work to be akin to preserving a batch of plums. We prepare and treat them in order that that they do not change (go bad) over the next months. We want to enjoy them beyond their season, so we preserve them.
But is this really the way God preserves the church? Does He keep it from change? We are going through a time of great change in Christendom. The church I served as a newly minted pastor thirty years ago is hardly recognizable in some ways. That parish was a vibrant and joyful community. It was able to pay me to be its pastor. Now it is barely hanging on with less than 20 folks on a Sunday showing up. It feels like God is not preserving the Church. But God does not promise that the Church will not change. There are countless ruinous buildings across the European landscape which attest to the fact that Christians once worshiped in that place.
The picture is of Melrose Abbey in Scotland. These buildings stand empty today, visited by tourists occasionally. Yet, we also must say that God preserves the Church. For all its ruins, people still are gathered, still worship, serve, and bear witness to Christ and his resurrection. I honestly do not know exactly what God is up to in these tumultuous days. I am not always sure that I like it. But I trust Him. He has promised to preserve His Church. In His way, He is doing it. We will not be a changeless, museum item, observed through glass and admired for what once was. The Church is a living and breathing community which God calls into existence through His Word. He is preserving that, governing the Church in His goodness, and blessing her with His peace.