Isaiah 1: 17
Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
Ephesians 2: 10
10For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Reflection
The scripture passages today speak to the work that we are called to do as God’s followers in the world. It speaks to what we, as humanity, were created for in the world and in many ways it speaks to the creation of a world that is much different from the one in which we currently live. So often in this world it is easy to just go along with the way things are going, it sometimes seems easier to just go with the status quo. I have been wondering about this idea of status quo and what the means for us, I wonder if, in some ways, it stops us from thinking in a new way. I wonder if it stops us from embracing change because we just sit back and say that “this is just the way it has always been.” I wonder if it stops us from dreaming of something different for ourselves, for others, for the world. I would like to share with you this quote from Harriet Tubman; “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars and to change the world.” Harriet Tubman was born in 1822 into a life of slavery. She escaped and made 13 missions to save 70 others who were, at that time, slaves. She was a political activist and ardent abolitionist. She dreamed of a new life for herself and others and she found the strength and courage within her to life into that new life.
In our scriptures we read the stories of the prophets, those who were chosen by God to speak truth to power and to the people. Yet I believe that we, too, are called to speak words of truth to the world. Walter Brueggemann, the American Old Testament Scholar and Theologian, speaks to our call in the following way, “The prophetic tasks of the church are to tell the truth in a society that lives in illusion, grieve in a society that practices denial, and express hope in a society that lives in despair.” It is in doing all of these things that we speak of something new in a world that seems so tied to the status quo of anger, hatred, war, and violence. It is to speak in a new way to the world and to envision a new lift, not only for ourselves, but for the world.
That is what I believe God has created us for, to live into a new life that God has created, and is creating. for each and every one of us. A life that is based in God’s love, compassion, care, justice, and mercy. We have been created in love, to live into that love each and every day of our lives. We need to trust that we have the strength, the patience, and the passion, to do this important work in the world. We are challenged to approach all of this work, trusting in God to guide us, so that we might live into what God calls us to be each and every day. We are called to live into, not the status quo, but rather our dreams for our lives where we truly reach for what God desires for each of us. We are called to the prophetic task of offering a new vision of the world so that we might see that something else is not just possible, but that it is desperately needed in our world today. To live into God’s call for our lives, to speak prophetically to the world about a new future, for us all, and to be people who transform rather than live the status quo, that is doing God’s work and that is work that might just change the world.
Prayer
God who created all things, help us to live into the life that you dream for each and every one of us. Help us to not be satisfied with the status quo but rather always dream of a new world. Be with us as we continue to work to live into the world that you have called us to make, guiding us, offering us strength, and companionship. We ask all of this in the name of the one who came to make all things new, Jesus. Amen.