This week.
I’ve so much to do. Perhaps you’ve found yourself saying that to a friend this week, or recently. No matter who we are, we find ourselves perpetually short on time with so much to do. In our gospel reading for this past Sunday (Luke 21.5-19) I hear Jesus asking us, ‘so what if it doesn’t get done?’ He’s talking about the temple, a particular place, a location, where one went in order to be in the presence of God. Imagine, Jesus rhetorically asks us, if the meaning of our life with God is bigger than one location and if that location, that thing, wasn’t there would your life fall apart? Imagine, if your worth, success, competence, are bigger than one project, one paper, one test.
Religion, all too often, gets reduced to a set of beliefs that we think we either have or don’t. And well-intentioned people think those beliefs (all of them, some of them?) are deeply important; without the right beliefs, everything would fall apart. While I don’t wish to suggest that our beliefs don’t matter, it would be a mistake to define us and our life with God as a set of beliefs any more than it makes sense to reduce the meaning of our lives to one task or assignment.
We had an awesome supper after our worship service yesterday. Thank you for the wonderful food and for hanging out with us!
Join us next Sunday, 11/24, at 6 pm for worship, and supper following!
When Isaiah speaks to the people of Israel, back home after decades of being in exile, they find they can’t quite just pick up where they left off. Time has moved on, there’s too much that’s changed, and they have to find a way to live and work with the new time they have. That’s true for all of us who find ourselves burdened with a long list of seemingly crucial things to do. And yet the question hangs in the air, what if it doesn’t get done? This is a busy time, but the meaning of your life isn’t defined by what you do, or don’t do; it’s defined by the relationships with God and others that we take the time to nurture. May this week be an invitation for you to see yourself and others in a way that doesn’t include worrying about time, assignments, and obligations; and may you cultivate joy by time with God and in life together which is faith, hope, and trust.
–Thomas
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Trinity Commons 