And All Will Be Well.

“Let us therefore approach the

throne of grace with boldness,

so that we may receive mercy and

find grace to help in time of need.”

(from Heb. 4:12-16)

Empathizing with the suffering experienced by the people devastated by the hurricanes is beyond my capacity.

I see the damage, I watch evacuating traffic, I hear the stories of people coping with unimaginable situations.

What must it be like to dig through the rubble and mud to search for remnants of one’s life?

This morning in my devotional reading I came across a quote from Julian of Norwich: “But all will be well, and all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well”.

This often-quoted passage is from her book, Showings, where she deals with the concept of sin.

Why, she asks did God allow sin in the first place?

The question I ask is, “Why, God?”

Why have you allowed the suffering and devastation of so many people?

When I look at the world and into my own soul, it’s hard to believe “All will be well,” that we will receive grace to help in time of need.

Yet I believe we will receive grace to help in time of need, in God’s time and God’s way.

I believe that because I trust God that Jesus has already suffered “the sins of the world” and already overcome them though the Resurrection.

Jesus, the Son of God, is touched by the feelings and experiences of our pain, suffering, and sorrow and comforted us.

And so I have hope that beyond the brokenness of the world and our lives, in God’s time and in God’s way, “everything will be well” 

Embraced by Jesus

“Truly I tell you,

whoever does not receive the kingdom of God

as a little child will never enter it.”

And he took them up in his arms,

laid his hands on them, and blessed them.”

(from Mk 10:2-16)

Kids Say the Darndest Things a television program that ran 1959 to 1967 and hosted by Art Linkletter would begin by asking a child question about a life topic, such as “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

The child usually responded with their own innocent, timeless wit and wisdom often comical perspective of life through a child’s eyes.

Previously, Jesus heard the disciples arguing about who was the greatest, so he scolds the disciples, takes a child – a first century image of having little rights, seen as a nuisance, and merely tolerated – takes it in his arms and says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”

Here, Jesus does something else.

Children are approaching Jesus who welcomes them scolding the disciples who try keeping them away.

In the Kingdom of God, one welcomes others like welcoming children who are vulnerable and low in status.

In Jesus’ day of an honor and shame society, people eagerly welcomed those of high status by provide banquets increasing their own honor.

Children were of low status, so there was no benefit in providing a banquet for children.

When Jesus takes a child in his arms he is saying, again, God is experienced in weakness, not in power.

To enter God’s Kingdom is to faithfully serve the last and least in Jesus’ name.

Beginning with Genesis, the Bible stories tell us that God has embraced us and remained faithful.

That is the Good News.

The World Seen Differently

"The law of the LORD is perfect,

    reviving the soul;

decrees of the LORD are sure,

    making wise the simple;"

(From Psalm 19:7-14)

On our way to Brattleboro, VT, we were following directions I downloaded from Google Maps. 

We had been following Rt.9 when it seemed as though we had made a wrong turn when we came to an intersection where we had to turn right or left. 

I knew this was wrong, but realized our accommodations were on Main Street.

Following that prompting of the Spirit, we turned left and in faith we kept on eventually we arriving at our accommodations. 

Psalm 19 celebrates God’s ordering activity through the use of two different literary elements.

The heavens give witness

The psalms' initial claim is that the heavens provide a witness to God’s establishment of order (verses 1–6). 

Though the heavens cannot speak the words of humans, they tell a clear story nevertheless. The sky stays high above the world. The movement of the heavens can be seen as regular and orderly because the sun rises and sets and the constellations move about

 

The power of God’s law 

The God-ordained movement of the heavenly bodies resonates with the order that God gives the community through the law. 

This order emerges through the words of the 10 Commandments which arrange the life of God's People.

Seeing the world differently 

We can also see the ordering work of the law embodied in Jesus Christ.

Jesus brings the order of God to us in the most immediate way.

And in Jesus, God speaks a new word, the Word made flesh. Order comes to the world through Christ’s very life, death, and resurrection. And the Word made flesh issues commands that still go out through all the earth.