Loading...Just when you think you’ve got everything figured out, [flip] everything goes topsy turvy! And sometimes that “change of plans” can leave you breathless
with its radical redirection.
For example, a friend of mine was doing the work she loved as a professional musician, but then squabbles and bad treatment by the management towards the musicians caused great anguish, angst, and anger. Suddenly, another kind of job opportunity became available, one that would be a sideways move and would mean a change of work identity. She made the move that entailed lots of changes, and ended up in a much healthier work environment. But, phew!
Another example: what seems to be a decent marriage, but then suddenly the rug is pulled out from under it resulting in divorce, a child custody battle, and a significant change in finances.
Or, maybe the change of plans is a move to a new country or place for any number of reasons, including a family needs, escaping violence as a refugee, a work opportunity, or a vocational discernment.
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In Jesus’ time and a generation later, as Paul was writing,
the lives of those who learned from and followed Jesus and the Way of life to which he invited them changed rapidly and frequently:
• First of all, the followers were generally NOT from the elite or moneyed classes. In other words, they didn’t have much power over their societal situations.
• Secondly, Jesus’ Way was so radically different than what the world around them said was the way to be, act, and think. Jesus’ Way called them to love their enemies, forgive those who hurt them, serve everyone even the outcasts and at the same time resist The Powers That Be and their clamoring, greedy, one-up-manship, and soul killing ways.
Jesus talked about this way of life using parables and metaphors:
•the tiny mustard seed that turned into an uncontrollable, invasive, and undesirable (and huge) weed;
•leaven, considered an impurity and not what you would want in the flour as it would taint the loaves;
•buying a field with buried treasure in it without letting the seller know that the treasure is there (an act which may be shrewd, but it could also be dishonest); and
•selling all that you own in order to buy a pearl? But, then what?!?
Being a follower of Jesus is demanding.
God’s good news lays claim to your whole life, not just a part
and that can be disconcerting before it is comforting.
It can even feel disconcerting after you’ve experienced
the freedom and joy of God’s claim on you
because sometimes we forget or get distracted –
we wander or feel anxious or fearful.
It’s not easy to have your life disrupted and turned upside-down by God and because you’re living in God’s vision for the world.
Yet, the promise of God remains the same:
the promise made at creation and throughout all of history
the promise made through Jesus’ life, his ministry, his death and resurrection
the promise made to you in your baptism –
nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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This beautiful passage from Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome (people who knew the pain, difficulty, and price of following Jesus and living in God’s kingdom through their words and actions) is, I think, one of the most encouraging and life-giving parts of Paul’s writings:
When we don’t know what to say, the Spirit intercedes
When we can only sigh, the Spirit receives those sighs as prayers
Even when we’re not sure what’s unfolding around us,
we know that we are part of the family of God predestined to be called, loved, and included.
Paul then goes on with his rhetorical questions:
If God is for us, who is against us?
Since God, through Jesus, gave up all the glory of divinity to be human, does it not follow that God would give up everything else for you?
Who can speak badly against God’s chosen (e.g. you)?
Who could condemn God’s beloved?
Who (or what) could separate us from the love of Christ?
Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else [ANYTHING, even our own selves!] in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
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Today, you are invited to pray for healing for
yourself, family, another, the community, the nation, our world,
brokenness, hurt, “irreconcilable differences”, illness, disease, famine, greed, hatred, meanness, etc.
Pray for healing, wholeness, shalom, peace, reconciliation, forgiveness, kindness, compassion, and hope.
Pray by kneeling, sitting, coming forward.
Pray with singing, in silence, by anointing.
Pray, remembering and clinging to words of joy, hope, and peace:
nothing, NOTHING, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord
Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen!
