Synod 2025 concluded with a word of encouragement from president Steven Terpstra and worshipping together in song.
Terpstra, preached from the end of the Luke 24:13-35 passage, the Emmaus Road story that synod used through the week in its theme “Journey with Jesus.”
Focusing on the phrase “their eyes were opened” (v. 31), Terpstra said that theme runs through all of humanity, starting with Adam and Eve, who were “created to hear and see and live by the Word of God, but they opened their eyes and ears to the lies of the serpent.” He said, “Eyes open to sin, are shut off from God.”
Terpstra said, when people “stop looking at God and look inside” they deny their identity of image bearer and “as those who can see and hear and respond to the Word of God.” He said when we look inward, rather than at God, “the beast within us suppresses the truth” and it “makes us unable to see—unable to hear—the God who is before us.”
But, as in the passage from Luke, “Jesus is in the ‘opening business,’” Terpstra said, “and therefore so is his church.” The church can help open eyes.
Asking, “How do we respond to this cultural moment?” Terpstra pointed to the text and Christ’s power “being made manifest through the extra-ordinary ordinary means of grace.” Terpstra said Jesus “is the answer to all the crises of our age.”
“We are called, as we go as Christ’s representatives,” Terpstra said, “to meet other people on the road—people who are walking confused with rejected hearts. And what do we do? We open the word and show them Christ.”
He told delegates, “I want us to go home with overwhelming confidence, hope, and expectation of what God is doing and what God will do.”
Synod 2025, the annual general assembly of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, is meeting June 13-19 on the campus of Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ont. Find daily coverage from The Banner at TheBanner.org/synod. Visit crcna.org/synod for the agenda, advisory reports, recordings of plenary sessions, and to subscribe to the daily Synod News email.
About the Author
Kristen Parker is a freelance writer. She has a passion for words and creativity. Kristen and her husband Chris, enjoy board games and thrift shopping. They attend Stratford CRC in Stratford, Ont.