Wednesday Wondering - July 26, 2023

Wednesday Wondering - July 26, 2023

Scripture

Proverbs 27: 1

Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth

Ecclesiastes 8: 7

If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen?

Reflection

I have been thinking a lot about faith lately. I suppose one might say that this is an interesting topic for a minister to ponder, but the reality is that I believe that faith is something that has many dimensions. What does it mean to be a person of faith? If we say that we have a faith, does that mean that we live our lives in certainty or do we live our lives in uncertainty? The scriptures that I picked speak to the uncertainty of life. These scriptures speak to this idea of not knowing and they speak to the fact that there are many things in our lives that we might never know. Yet, I think that there are many who profess to be Christians who do not live within the uncertainty of life. There are many among us who hold fast to what they understand to be the ‘truth’ of what they believe in the world. Quite often when we speak about our scriptures and sacred stories we struggle when others challenge our stories as 'truth.' There are those who struggle to see our scriptures as anything other than ‘truth’ but not truth in that they point to an important consideration, but rather truth in a factual historical sense. In doing this the subtleties of the scripture and the possibilities contained within. There are those who hold fast to what they believe as ‘truth’ that they can’t, or don’t, see any other perspective. I wonder if that is what we are called to do in our own lives or are we called to live our lives in uncertainty. Richard Rohr, American priest and writer on spirituality, speaks to certainty and faith in the following way, “My scientist friends have come up with things like 'principles of uncertainty' and dark holes. They're willing to live inside imagined hypotheses and theories. but many religious folks insist on answers that are always true. We love closure, resolution and clarity, while thinking that we are people of 'faith'! How strange that the very word 'faith' has come to mean its exact opposite.” There are many unknowns in science and these unknowns allow for a multitude of possibilities to exist. It is within these possibilities that imagination, research, and new theories can become reality. Our lives are much the same. The reality is that there are no certainties in life. Our lives ebb and flow with the circumstances that surround us and our lives have to adapt and as we adapt possibilities might just emerge. If we only live in what we understand to be the ‘truth’ we might just miss the possibilities that exist within our faith. So what do we hold tight too in our lives? To hold tight to God in the midst of the uncertainty of the world and our lives might just be what is important in our faith. In the midst of the not knowing, in the midst of the challenge, in the midst of the changing circumstances of our lives and the world, in the midst of all of this, we hold tight to God. It is God that give stability to our life. Our faith is not about some ‘truth’ that is written in a book of scriptures but rather it is about the ‘truth’ of God’s presence with us. If we live into this understanding of uncertainty, our faith, itself, can become dynamic and exciting as it grows and changes as the context of our lives changes. This is what I believe faith is truly about, a dynamic living experience that is open to, and opens us to new possibilities to experience God. So let us live a faith that grows and changes as we grow and change. Amen.

Prayer

God of uncertainty, help us to see the truth of faith. The truth that you are always with us throughout all of the changes that life brings. Give us the wisdom to see that when we hold tight to what we understand to be the ‘truth’ we close ourselves off from the possibilities of our faith. Give us the courage to truly live a faith that changes, grows, and adapts as our world and lives change. Help us to know that all we need to hold tight to is you for you are always with us. We ask this in the name of the one who came to change everything, your son, Jesus. Amen.

Wednesday Wondering - July 19, 2023

Wednesday Wondering - July 19, 2023

Scripture

Micah 6: 6 - 8

“With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

7

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

8

He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?

Reflection

I have been thinking a lot lately about life. Yes, I know that is quite the large subject. But I have been thinking about what is our purpose in life. In the reading from Micah the people are asking much the same kind of question. They are asking Micah what God requires them to do in order to live their lives as God desires. Although the people would expect that the response would have something about the offerings that they are bringing to God. Or maybe the response would be about keeping the purity laws and following all of the laws that have been set out. Micah, in his answer, brings up neither but rather speaks to living lives of humbleness, justice, and kindness. What I think is interesting is that Micah doesn’t even bring up the concept of being happy. Rather it is about how we ourselves carry ourselves in the world. What about us? How are we called to live our lives? The world tells us that the most important thing in our lives is to be happy, whatever that really means. The world tells us that to be happy we have to have certain things. We have to have a new, big, house to be happy. We need to have a new car to be happy. We need so many things in our lives to be happy. When we listen to these voices, we spend our lives trying to acquire those things that we think we need to be happy and in reality, it is all empty. Things cannot make us happy and so we stress and struggle to get those things that the world tells us we need, and we chase that elusive happiness. In reality our lives become solely focused on ourselves and our own happiness that we forget everything else and everybody else. We become personally focused, focused only our ourselves, and the world revolves around our own needs and wants. Is that really how we are called to live. Leo Roston, who was an essayist, scholar, and language expert, wrote, “The purpose of life, is not to be happy. The purpose of life is to matter, to have it make a difference that you lived at all.” To matter! If we understand that the purpose of life is not focused around our own happiness but rather it is externally focused on the world, so that we might make a difference in the world, we might make a difference in the lives of others. The purpose of our lives is live with true justice for all, to offer kindness to those around us, to the world, and to live in a humble manner, understanding that it is in seeing the needs of others gives our lives meaning. Our lives have meaning not because of what we own, but it is what we do. It is how we live our lives in the world that can truly make a difference and that give our lives deep meaning. Sometimes I believe that we get caught up in the magnitude of the issues facing the world and we think that we can’t make a difference. But as Micah reminds us that all God wants from us is to live lives that are humble, justice-filled, and filled with kindness. When we live this way, we make a difference and that truly matters. So let us all begin to live our lives making a difference and our lives might just change the world, and that matters. Amen.

Prayer

God, who calls us, open our ears, our minds, our hearts, to hear your call for us to come and be your people. Help us to see that the world tells us that in order to be happy we must ‘have’ things but you show us a different way. You show us a way that is based in your love and challenges us to look beyond ourselves to the world around us. Give us the courage to answer when you call and to see that true meaning does not come with the superficial happiness that the world says is important, but rather true meaning comes in making a difference in the lives of those around us. We ask all this in the name of the one who came bringing love and hope to a dark world, your son, Jesus. Amen.

Wednesday Wondering - July, 12, 2023

Scripture

2 Timothy 4:3-4

“A time will come when people will not listen to accurate teachings. Instead, they will follow their own desires and surround themselves with teachers who tell them what they want to hear. 4 People will refuse to listen to the truth and turn to myths.”

Romans 12:2

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Reflection

I have been thinking a lot lately about what has been happening in the world and as I was thinking the song “Land of Confusion” came to mind and in particular the following lyrics;

“Now, did you read the news today?

They say the danger has gone away

But I can see the fire's still alight

They're burning into the night

There's too many men, too many people

Making too many problems

And there's not much love to go around

Can't you see this is the land of confusion?

This is the world we live in

And these are the hands we're given

Use them and let's start trying

To make it a place worth living in”1

We truly seem to be living in a land of confusion. It was challenging enough these past couple of years with the way that the world has changed. Everything that we had known as ‘normal’ has changed and everything that we seemed to count on has changed and many of us feel like we have been cut adrift from those things that used to anchor us in our lives. Now it seems as if the world has gotten even more crazy. I was on the phone with someone the other day and they mentioned that it was like they no longer recognized the world in which we live. They lamented that fact that so much has changed and it is really difficult to even know what to think these days, let alone to know what we are supposed to do in response to what is happening in the world. They are correct! How do we respond in the midst of so much chaos and confusion in the world? What are we supposed to do in the face of all that is happening? I admit that I have been asking myself these same questions and, if I am honest with myself and with you, I have not done a good job of dealing with many situations with which I am faced. I have really begun to react to things rather than to stop for a moment and think.

I have a friend who lives in New York City and he has lived a life quite unlike many others. He is a small Puerto Rican man who grew up in the Bronx in New York City. Somehow, even he is not sure how, he worked himself into the music business and is one of the individuals who originally signed Metallica to their first record deal. He has pictures of himself with numerous famous individuals, and yet his life has been full of struggle, chaos, and confusion. He was successful, popular, and, in some ways, powerful, but his life was confusing and chaotic. Through a great deal of work his life is now calm, even in the face of confusion and chaos, and so I would like to share with you something that he wrote; “I must rely on God. I must trust in Him to the limit. I must depend on the Divine Power in all human relationships. I will wait and trust and hope, until God shows me the way. I will wait for guidance on each important decision. I will meet the test of waiting until a things seems right before I do it. Every work for God must meet this test of time. The guidance will come, if I wait for it.” To trust and wait for God in the midst of these confusing and chaotic times. To trust that God will show us the way through these times, that is what we are called to do as Christians. As I said, I have been reacting to this world in a rather negative way, maybe I need to take a step back, to wait with patience for clarity in the midst of the confusion and only then move forward as God calls me to move forward. It is about cultivating a sense of trust during these confusing times. It is about seeing the confusion and knowing that we will come through this time and that we, as Christians, might just be called to be the calm centre in the midst of the storm. To continue to speak words of truth in the midst of chaos. To continue to speak words of love in the midst of so much hatred. To continue to be God’s people in a world that needs a calming influence. That might just be who we are called to be during these times.

Prayer

God of watching and waiting, I pray today that I may meet the test of waiting for your guidance. I pray that I have the wisdom to slow down, to not react to the confusion in this world, that I will not go off on my own but rather cultivate a sense of patience as I wait for your guidance. Help me to see how others are suffering and to offer compassion instead of judgment. Give me the strength to be a calm centre in the midst of the storm, to continue to speak love and compassion in this world full of judgement and hatred. We ask this in the name of the one who faced the chaos and hatred of this world with love and compassion, your son, Jesus. Amen

1. Land of Confusion, written by Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, Anthony Banks, released October 31, 1986.