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.

Wednesday Wondering - Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Wednesday Wondering - Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Scripture

James 2: 14 - 17

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Luke 8: 43 - 48

Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years; and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could cure her. 44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. 45 Then Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and press in on you.” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me.” 47 When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. 48 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

Reflection

I have been thinking a lot about our faith and what it actually means to be a person of faith in the world today. Richard Rohr, who is an American priest and the former head of the Center for Action and Contemplation, has said, “We worshiped Jesus instead of following him on his same path. We made Jesus into a mere religion instead of a journey toward union with God and everything else. This shift made us into a religion of 'belonging and believing' instead of a religion of transformation.” We often ask what people believe, but I think that Jesus requires us to ask something far more important, what do you do? The reading that I chose from James is familiar to many of us as it speaks to the idea that faith alone is not enough, it is what we do with our faith that makes it important. I have paired this with Luke’s version of the interaction between Jesus and the hemorrhaging woman. There is a reason that I chose this reading. If we look at this reading it is full of verbs, action words; suffering, touched, press, trembling, falling, declaring, healed. In this reading there is action by people and power and healing of the Spirit. It is a reading that is filled with action, with people taking initiative and that is what our faith is really about, isn’t it? Terry Tempest Williams, an American writer, educator, conservationist, and activist, says the following about faith, "This is my living faith, an active faith, a faith of verbs: to question, explore, experiment, experience, walk, run, dance, play, eat, love, learn, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, sin, repent, cry, kneel, pray, bow, rise, stand, look, laugh, cajole, create, confront, confound, walk back, walk forward, circle, hide, and seek.” Our faith is more than just something that we think or believe, our faith has to be something that we do. If we don’t do, if our faith does not bring us to action in the world then we will never become people of transformation in the world. Jesus came to show us the way. It was not a way of believing, but rather it was a new way of being in the world. Jesus came to show us a new way of doing, a way that envisioned, not just churches, but a world that is based in love, compassion, true justice, forgiveness, and mercy for all people so that all persons might thrive. Jesus came to change the world and without action on our part are we really following Jesus? So what is our faith? Our faith is dynamic, exciting, energizing, and challenges us to move out into the world bringing the love, compassion, true justice, forgiveness, and mercy of God to a world that needs it, right now. So let us truly be people of faith, let us be people of action. Amen.

Prayer

God of inspiration and energy, open our ears that we might hear your call to action, open our hearts that we might feel your Spirit guiding us out beyond the walls of our churches, open our minds so that we might discern where our gifts will make the most difference, open our souls so that we can become more like Christ in all that we do, so that we might truly transform this world and your kingdom might truly come. We ask this in the name of the one who came to show us the way, your son, Jesus. Amen.