Tuesday Morning: Working the Problem

NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly addresses the audience in attendance at the rollout ceremonies of the Space Shuttle Orbiter Endeavour which occurred on April 25, 1991, at the Rockwell International facility, Palmdale, Calif.

One of my favorite television shows at this moment is For All Mankind of Apple +. The show is a take on the space race but with a twist.  The first episode opens in 1969 with an American astronaut listening to the radio as he drives his Corvette.  It’s July 1969 and the first moon landing is about to happen.  But instead of seeing Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong step onto the lunar surface, we see a man unfurl the flag of the Soviet Union.  We are seeing an alternate timeline where the Soviets beat America to the moon and the space race continues into the 1990s.

If you love alternate history, this show is for you because it creates a world that is similar to ours, but with some slight differences.  But I think where the show shines is in how it depicts NASA. The space agency we encounter is very much like the one that was depicted in the 1995 movie, Apollo 13.  This is the agency where people are trying to solve problems on the fly and more often than not this by the seat of our pants kind of thinking works.  The phrase you will hear at Mission Control is “work the problem.” One example of this is found in the second season finale where two astronauts (who were estranged but still friends) realize that they need to do something to prevent the nuclear reactor at America’s moonbase from melting down. The switch they need to turn off is outside and they don’t have space suits.  But they do have duct tape which they wrap around each other tightly.  The former husband and wife run out into the environment of the moon in just duct tape and…they are able to prevent the meltdown.  But it comes at a cost.  The two astronauts die as a result of being in the harshness of the moon’s environment without much protection.  They worked on the problem, but it came at the expense of their lives.

Ministry is in many ways living by the seat of your pants, or at least it should be.  Walking in faith and trusting that God will work through us is risky and dangerous.  You might even lose your life.

This year, First Christian Church of St. Paul celebrates 140 years of ministry.  But did you know that we could be celebrating our 149th year?  In the book, A History of the Christian Church and Church of Christ in Minnesota by Ada Foster which details the history of the Disciples of Christ in Minnesota, a church in Saint Paul was started in 1873.  The church endured many trials in those early years and in 1877, the church closed.  Things were put up for storage until the church could start again.  In 1882, a group of local Disciples tried again and First Christian St. Paul was born (again?).  

A century and a half ago, a group of believers saw the need to plant a new church and did just that.  But the first time around wasn’t successful.  They worked the problem, but it didn’t work out.  Luckily, it did work a few years later.

Working the problem doesn’t mean everything will work out.  It doesn’t mean there will always be a happy ending.  In the space program, problem-solving can end up with people dead.   

Being God’s people doesn’t mean everything will work out.  It doesn’t mean everything will be successful.  First Christian tried the first time and it didn’t work.  Being faithful doesn’t mean we will be successful.  Right now, we are at the crossroads where we are taking a chance.  We’ve sold our building and moving to a new place.  Will be successful?  I have no idea.  We could move and begin a renaissance.  We also could move and end up closing a few years from now.  Working on the problem doesn’t ensure a happy ending.

When God calls Abraham and Sarah to leave their homeland, there was no certainty that things would work out.  God was calling them to leave everything that was familiar to move to a new land AND also be the father and mother of a nation: even though they were waaaaay past child-bearing age.

Hebrews 11 says that faith is “the assurance[a] of things hoped for, the conviction[b] of things not seen.”  The writer goes on to say later in the chapter that many of the people who took a step of faith never saw what God had promised them. At best they only saw it from a distance. “Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised,” says the writer of Hebrews.  But he concludes the chapter by saying, “since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.”

We may not be successful in keeping First Christian going.  I hope we are.  I want us to grow and be reborn.  But even if that doesn’t happen, God provides us with something better. What is that?  I don’t know, but what matters is that being faithful, giving God joy be by following Jesus is truly a great reward.

Once we move to Roseville Lutheran Church we will start working on learning how we are and maybe learn how to be church anew.  We will be working the problem.  May God be with us in the attempt.

Tuesday Morning is a weekly column written by leaders of First Christian Church. You can receive it in your email inbox by sending an email to info@fccsaintpaul.org.