Hello Friends,  

    On Sunday we encountered Jesus’ comforting, if characteristically enigmatic, last directives to his friends, before dying.
    He promised that they (read “we”) would and will be comforted, and inspired, and most useful of all, guided, by the Holy Spirit—that anything we need by way of assurance could and would be granted, through Grace.
     So how come it’s still so hard, sometimes, to keep believing as Sister Julian of Norwich asserted that “all will be well”?   Why do we find it so challenging to stay centered in and act out of the blessed assurance of God’s love for all people?
    Jesus didn’t promise easy answers, or any answers at all, really, to our tough questions, our thorny issues, our programmed and entrenched prejudices and limitations of vision.
     We still have to seek out and slog through all kinds of imperfect (or perfectly human) processes of discernment, dialogue, trial and error, picking up pieces and moving on, in our journey of becoming fully human, individually and together.
   In retrospect we can usually look back and see how “obvious” the right answer is, to any given question of faith and holy living.
Yet people of faith disagree, still, on so many issues.   Right now, at this very moment, our denomination’s leaders from around the world are grappling with things me hoped we’d be done with, by now.
  Should homosexual persons be fully included in every aspect of the church’s life and work?   Many of us think so, and yet there’s struggle and dissension.
     Is war or violence of any sort against other human beings ever justified?  And what are the implications for self-defense, national safety, justice for victims of violence and oppression, locally and globally?
    What is a fair way for the world’s wealth to be distributed?  Hundreds of millions of people are desperately hungry today, and that epidemic of need is spreading at a truly alarming rate.  What is the role of government in caring for the needs of the human family?   How much it too much?  What about self-determination, and freedom of choice?  What about bearing one another’s burdens, living out the golden rule?
      Is it possible, really, for us to overcome our tribalisms, or at least move past them enough so as to generate some true and lasting manifestations of Desmond Tutu’s (and many others’) dream of our living as “family”?
      As followers of Christ’s way we really don’t have the option of opting out of the conversation, or of not participating faithfully in the messy human processes of working for resolution and healing, locally and globally.   We can’t just “positive think” our way into any kind of magic formula for self-centered serenity, while, to quote Huston Smith, “much of the world is in flames, and in pain.”
      So let’s hold on to Jesus’ assurance, and care patiently and tenderly for one another as we listen, and learn, and seek to become more compassionately conscious, together.  I don’t know answers, but I do trust the process, I do trust God, and I do trust and love you all.
     I look forward to learning with you this Sunday, and all our days to come.

Shalom,
Sarah