Predictive Maintenance

Rev. Dr. Scott K. Seidler

“…because He was teaching His disciples.  Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.  They will kill Him, and after three days He will rise.”—Mark 9:31

One of our congregation members at Concordia, Kirkwood, Joe Ramseyer owns a company that specializes in predictive maintenance.  His job is to contract with really big companies to help them maintain and anticipate the maintenance of their high-dollar, high-stress machinery.  He gets paid, in a sense, to be a mechanical prophet and thwart mechanical failure by knowing how stuff falls apart before it does.

Our Lord has a pretty keen aptitude when it comes to predictive maintenance for the human soul.  Even as He predicts his death and resurrection, He knows where the heart of spiritual failure lies:  doubting the capacity of God to do the miraculous for our well-being.  And so, anticipating the flight of the disciples from the shadow of the cross only five chapters later, Jesus tells them (predicts) the very work which will ultimately keep them safe.  He cares for the machinery of faith before it ever reaches maximum stress.

Our Father through His Holy Spirit doesn’t deviate from that same predictive work today.  We are told he creates in advance the works in which we are to walk (Ephesians 2:10).  We are His temple in which the Spirit dwells and does His groaning, prayerful work on our behalf (II Corinthians 4-6).

As a pastor I am often called upon to help people navigate a cloudy future.  Disappointingly, I can’t predict much.  Thankfully, we all call on One who readies our tomorrows and whose grace is new every morning.  And that’s not a prediction, that’s reality right now.