“Hope,” says Walter Brueggemann, “is the conviction that this out-of-sync world will not last and cannot finally refuse God’s intent….We belong to the company of those who have not blinked!” (SOJOURNERS, July 2019, p.36) I’m weary of headlines and “breaking news”. Was there really an age where William Wordsworth could wander lonely as a cloud and dance with the daffodils? Contemporary pew-sitters hunger for encouraging and quieting words which can announce with audacity that despite the perceived chaos God is yet in charge! Scriptures for the upcoming weekend lift up three crises which were resolved through unmerited Grace.
The prophet Joel, who spoke sometime between 530 & 330 BC, observed that the Children of Zion had gone through a bad spell of locusts and drought, attributed near & far to a God who was angry about lax worship. (2:23-32) But better days are at hand: “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God….You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other.” Not only does Joel announce God’s reconciling love, he forsees a day in which ALL people are recipients and channels of the Holy Spirit, and a divine drought will be no more.
The second crisis is that of Paul’s impending trial and execution, as relayed in II Timothy 4:6-8,16-18. Paul–or someone standing in for him–bravely asserts that his ministry can bear fruit even after his death: a libation is a drink for thirsty people. To the anxious he points out three benefits of ministry: there is joy in perseverance in hardship; God is in the midst of strife; and there’s a legacy in our words and actions which lasts far beyond our meager years of actual service. In the greater picture, we’re not forsaken, even when the snows are piled high around our door.
The third crisis is one of getting right with God, set forth in Luke’s Gospel, 18:9-14. Jesus tells of two men, polar opposites, who go to the temple to pray. The first was a Pharisee, a pride to his community, a rule-keeper and a great man in his own eyes. “God, I thank you that I’m not like other people: rogues, adulterers,or even like this (eww) tax-collector.” He fasted and he tithed; he didn’t smoke and he didn’t chew and he didn’t go out with the girls that do… The other fella was indeed a tax collector; and his neighbors probably crossed the street to avoid meeting him. HIS prayer was real: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Thus HE was the one made right with God. The Good News for us who yearn for stability is that “all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
We small and vulnerable creatures fear the dark and all that may go bump in the night. There’s no doubt that we’re surrounded by terrors and hatred that eat our hearts away. Julian of Norwich (England) was a 13th-century anchorite saint who was prone to visions. It seems to me that her visionary teachings can be summed up in three words, “All is Well”. “And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long, steals on the ear the distant triumph song, and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong–Alleluia! Alleluia!”
God Bless Us, Every One Horace Brown King
My encounter with lessons assigned to the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook, or at horacebrownking.com
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