The Apostle to the Samaritans

As our country has decided to upend everything in the Middle East by bombing Iran, killing schoolchildren and teachers at an elementary school, and blowing through a billion dollars a day in munitions...it is a grim reminder to me that the world would likely look a whole lot different if we had elected a Hilary Clinton or a Kamala Harris instead of this mad old man as our president. 

And Christianity in the United States would probably be a lot better off if the loudest mouthpieces for the faith weren't the ones who have mistaken the flag for the cross.

I don't dive into all of that in this sermon. However I couldn't help but delight in the realization that the Gospel story of the Samaritan woman at the well happened to fall on International Women's Day this year. And that the multiple symbolic elements in this story spoke to a story of how women are at the center of reconciliation.

See what you think.
 

Text: John 4: 5-42

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It’s not every time that the Gospel assigned for a given Sunday pairs so nicely with the celebrations happening in the secular world.

But this is one time where all things fell into alignment so that we in the church experience this long dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman on the same day that people throughout the world are marking International Women’s Day.

And wouldn’t you know the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day…Give to Gain… is about “sustainability.”

And we just heard about “living water.”

Isn’t that an amazing occurrence?!

God never seems to waste a moment to remind us that the spiritual and the secular live in the same world.

Time to prick up our ears and pay attention.

And we have a lot to think about here in this reading.

 As I told the people in the Midrash class the other night…this exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is the longest…and deepest…conversations Jesus has with anyone in all of the Gospels.

That it happens between Jesus…a Jew of the Jerusalem Temple sect…and this Samaritan Jew adds a whole other layer to what John is wanting us to see.

The Jews and the Samaritans are not friends.

The bitter rift happened centuries earlier with the conquest of the Assyrians…the various exiles…and disagreements over the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple.

When Assyria took over an area…they were known for bringing a bunch of other tribes into it.

As a result…Samaria had a mix of various pagan groups who then became enmeshed with the remnant of Jews who were not carried off to foreign lands.

Because of this syncretism…they adopted a type of Judaism that was foreign to the Jews who returned to Jerusalem…and tensions frequently stayed at the boiling point between the two groups.

Jesus and the disciples had been out in the Judean countryside and were going north toward Galilee.

Now…they could have taken a longer route around…but the direct path to Galilee went through Samaria…so off they went.

This trek was tiresome…and Jesus decides to send the disciples off to find food while he takes a break in the middle of the day at Jacob’s well.

Along comes this woman with her water jug.

Most women would have gone to the well earlier when it wasn’t so hot…but she’s by herself.

She sees Jesus…not one of her kinfolk…sitting there without a bucket.

I want to take a pause here…because even this small detail of the story is an interesting set up…for what’s going to happen.

When I pray our Eucharistic Prayer C…I intentionally…and with the bishop’s permission…I expand the language in the Prayer Book to not just list the God of our Fathers…as written in the Prayer Book…but I say the names of the God of our Mothers.

And when I do…I note that Jacob has two women who were his wives….and technically also had two more women.

And where did he first meet his wife Rachel?

At a well.

And this well…. out in the Samarian countryside…. is on land that holds special meaning for those who first heard John’s Gospel.

Because this is the land where Jacob…who had stolen his twin brother Esau’s birthright…came in great fear and worry to meet his brother…the big red-headed hunter… after so many years of separation.

Jacob was ready for the worst.

But Esau surprised him with a hug and a kiss.

And the two men were reconciled at this spot where Jacob would then place this well.

So here we are again….this time…a Jewish man and a Samaritan woman…two people from opposing sides…meeting in this place of forgiveness.

Jesus looks at her.

Sweat is dripping from his brow…and he’s feeling his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth.

“Give me a drink?”

We can imagine the shock on her face.

First…he’s a Jew.

Second…he just talked to her like he knew her.

And third…where’s his bucket?

She probably looked at him with suspicion.

But soon suspicion turns to curiosity as this conversation goes from, “Give me a drink from this well water” to “Let’s talk about living water.”

Now…just like Nicodemus last week…this Samaritan woman is thinking Jesus is talking about living water…as in… flowing water…y’know…like what’s in the well.

She could have walked away…but instead…she wants to know what he’s talking about?

“Living water?

This is our ancestor Jacob’s well here.

What living water are you talking about?”

“Oh, my dear woman. This water only quenches the thirst of the mouth. But there’s a much deeper well…a stream of living water…that once you drink from it…you’ll have water that will change your life forever!”

The way Jesus presents this living water…that idea of a never-ending spring that bubbles and flows so abundantly that one never thinks about thirst again…this was intriguing.

Of course she wants some of this water.

“Go, call your husband,” says Jesus.

Ahem.

Here the truth comes out.

She doesn’t have a husband.

In fact…she’s had five husbands.

And right now…the one she’s hanging with…isn’t even really her husband.

We might imagine that this is why she’s not joining other women to fetch water in the morning.

Perhaps she’s one that others whisper and gossip about.

But Jesus isn’t hung up on her personal life…and most scholars agree that the reason we learn this factoid about her is to highlight his prophetic wisdom.

But for her…the fact that he knows this…and doesn’t shame her…but remains in conversation and community opens her up.

She is now even more curious about this Jewish man.

For centuries…her people and his people haven’t seen eye to eye on anything…even though they both have religious roots that sprung from the same tree.

And yet…he has said things to her that clearly means he sees her…he knows her…he accepts her.

Is this the Messiah?

Is this guy really him?

The barriers between these two cultures have crumbled.

Ancient hatreds no longer matter.

This man has met her…in her perfect imperfection…and she has met him in his tired yet unconditional love.

And this conversation has filled them both up so much that neither Jesus nor this Samaritan woman have any need for water out of the well…or that food brought back by the disciples.

In fact…she’s so over this need for well water that she left her water jar behind!

She rushes back to her people…her fellow Samaritans…her mind and her heart overflowing with amazement at this stranger…this Jew…that she met at Jacob’s well.

She wants others to know what just happened to her.

This Samaritan woman is telling her people “Come and see!”

“Come and see this man, this man who met me at our well…and met me as I am without harsh judgment. This man whose words are like living water.”

The Samaritan woman is as much an apostle to this group as Mary Magdalene will be later in the story to the disciples.

Both of these women…having had an experience of Jesus…are moved to share this incredible encounter with others.

Both having met… and been met by Jesus in their own circumstances…these women have been changed in profound and invisible ways to help sustain them through their difficulties.

He has given them a taste of that drink of wisdom that will never leave them thirsty again.

 

Through their testimony… that wisdom of God…the living water…begins to spread.

Seems women might be important players in shaping and moving the world toward mercy…compassion…and justice.

Both Mary Magdalene and this Samaritan woman have brought many others…both then and now…to taste and see that there is something nourishing and sustaining…loving…life-giving and liberating in this One who was sent to teach us to care for ourselves and each other and the resources all around us.

Come and see.

Go and share.

In the name of Our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

 

 

 

Forgiveness: A Sermon for 16A Pentecost

 Really, this sermon is sort of a "Part Two" from last week's and it comes at a crucial time in my particular journey. 

I have been struggling for several years with how, or even if, I can forgive a family member who did serious damage to me and my wife. Events at St. Barnabas recently reopened that wound. I didn't bleed out all over the congregation, but I did realize that if I don't do some things to address this wound, it has the potential to hamper my ability to function well as a priest. 

And so I am doing what I need to do. And offering what I can offer in my sermon... which began with my honest gut reaction to the Gospel. See what you think.

Text: Matthew 18:21-35

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I don’t know about y’all….but when I read the first two verses of this Gospel…with Peter asking “How many times must I forgive…” and Jesus was saying, “Not seven times…but seventy-seven times…” my initial response was…

Really, Jesus? Really?!

Because that’s how hard it can be to be forgiving.

Truly forgiving from the heart.

For anyone who has ever been used or abused in any way….anyone who has ever felt the sting of discrimination…this idea of forgiveness and getting to that place of forgiving the one who has committed the wrong against us can feel that the task is as an impossible as Sisyphus pushing that huge boulder up a hill.

And this passage has been misused by some in the church to wrongly chastise people living in abusive relationships.

To be clear: not any part of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit condones abusive behavior of any kind.

To wrap our minds around today’s reading…it’s important to remember last week’s Gospel.

I wish the two parts had been read together…but they weren’t.

So…quick review of what we called “The Rule of Christ” from this past Sunday:

When we last left Jesus and the disciples…Jesus was laying out for them the way to live in harmony in community…and managing the conflicts that inevitably arise in community.

An example of this: let’s say a member has done something… broke some kind of trust with another member. The first thing that must happen is that the offended person goes to the offender and says,

“You hurt me…and this is how you hurt me.”

The offender listens…perhaps didn’t realize what they had done.

Maybe they give their perspective.

Perhaps there’s more listening…more discussion…and in the end… the offender makes apology… and the relationship can be reconciled.

If that doesn’t happen… and there’s still conflict… or perhaps the issue has escalated…bring in two or three others to work out a resolution and get the offender to right their behavior.

If that still doesn’t stop the wrong behavior… it’s time for the whole church to get in on the issue.

And then… if things are really not going to change… then the person who is the disruptor will ‘be as a Gentile or tax collector’… a First Century way of saying to this Jewish audience hearing all of this… “this one is not one of us.”

This system is a way of giving the one who has been hurt a chance to air their grievance…while establishing a system that insures that the one accused of committing a wrong isn’t simply thrown out without bringing in cooler minds to hear the whole story.

The church back in Matthew’s days… and in some ways still … remains a fragile community,

Nobody wanted to just toss aside people whenever there was disagreement.

This Rule of Christ sets up boundaries for behavior…and how to manage the conflict.

That brings us up to speed with Peter and Jesus and today’s Gospel.

Peter isn’t talking about any old person who he might need to forgive.

He says “if another member of the church”…in other words…if one of my kin folk here does me wrong… do I need to forgive them seven times?”

Seven… meaning “perfection.”

So does my forgiveness need to be perfect?

And Jesus’ answer is basically… it needs to be more than perfect.

We are to live… knowing that we are a forgiven people.

But forgiveness doesn’t happen without the acknowledgement…and the recognition that a wrong… a sin… has happened.

We can’t forgive something where there isn’t a wrong that has occurred.

And forgiveness can only come from the person who has been wronged.

To make this point abundantly clear… Jesus tells a parable of the servant and the king.

And it’s a really over the top story!

As Eugene Boring notes… in the economy of Jesus’ day… a talent is the largest monetary unit.

Just one talent is the equivalent of the wages of fifteen years.

In the parable… this servant owes the king ten thousand talents….in other words… an impossibly high number.

It would be like saying that a person working at a fast-food restaurant for minimum wage must pay back a debt of one trillion dollars or be thrown in jail and their family members sold into perpetual slavery.

It’s just not possible for the worker with that sort of salary to make the payment.

In the story…when the servant begs for mercy… the king (who knew the guy would never be able to pay him back)… cancels the whole debt and sends him away.

Again… this is an extravagant move… an unexpected gesture of kindness.

But that servant never acknowledges the grace granted to him.

Instead… when he runs into a fellow servant…a guy who owes him basically the equivalent of maybe fifty or sixty dollars…not only does the fortunate and forgiven one demand the money right there on the spot… when this other servant also begs for mercy… this guy starts to choke him…before having his colleague thrown in jail.

Others see what’s happened.

We might call these others “the church”.

They run to the king: “Your lordship… oh benevolent mighty one… this man who you forgave of his debt has lashed out at another!”

The king explodes in anger.

He revokes his mercy.

And he has the man tortured for the cruelty shown to a fellow servant.

Again…this is another outrageous action.

If we are to follow what seems to be Matthew’s logic… that “the King” is a representation of God… do we believe that the God who is “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” as we hear often in our psalms…can be so vicious as to demand torture of those who fail to show forgiveness?

Would God really cancel mercy?

Remember…this parable is full of extremes.

Extremes that are meant to shake us up and get our attention.

So…perhaps rather than get so bogged down in the details of the parable itself… we should take it as answering Peter’s question about how perfect does he need to be in his forgiveness?

Or to personalize it… how perfect do we need to be in forgiving others?

Maybe instead of seeking to be perfect in our ability to forgive others… we need to get back to that idea that we have been granted grace… and mercy…and forgiveness from a God who knows us better than ourselves…and that includes those parts of us that we aren’t proud of.

It’s interesting to me that we have these examinations of forgiveness in our tradition at this time of year while our siblings in Judaism are entering those days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur… The Days of Awe…a period where Jews throughout the world are expected to do a self-assessment at how well are they doing at tikkun olam…the work of healing, repairing, and transforming their communities.

Like us…wrestling with forgiveness… this involves admitting that there are short-comings in that effort to repair breaches.

That work will require heartfelt apologies and seeking forgiveness.

And it is on-going.

It may never be perfect… but it is necessary to keep engaging and never giving in to despair.

At the Rosh Hashanah service I attended with my wife yesterday… her rabbi mentioned in his sermon that perfection is an expectation we place on ourselves.

 To be “perfect” leads to disappointment and loneliness.

Because God alone is perfect.

We can only do our best to live into that Golden Rule of “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.”

Or… in the words we say each Sunday with the Lord’s Prayer… “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Forgiveness is hard work.

But when a person makes a true apology…seeks mercy… and changes their actions to right their past mistakes… forgiveness is the appropriate response.

It’s not that we forget…or gloss over what has happened.

But our forgiveness is a way to liberate ourselves…the ones offering forgiveness… from the need to seek revenge.

Freeing us to live more in love rather than stewing in hate…and it helps us to return to right relationship with God and each other. 

In the name of God…F/S/HS.

 

Freedom from Possessing People: A Sermon for the 13th Sunday After Pentecost

How fun to have Philemon appear in the lectionary! While I do reference a sentence from the Gospel lesson, I enjoyed tackling something other than the Gospel to talk about in a sermon.  

Text: Philemon 1-21; Luke 14:25-33

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There’s a story that my mom and dad used to tell about my maternal grandmother.

It seems that whenever my parents were with her at her apartment, my Nana would inevitably have something that she would want my father do to for her. And she would always preface the request with, “Bud, if you would be a nice boy…” and then the ask… get something down from a top shelf, carry something from one room to the next.

And, of course, my dad would be “a nice boy” and do whatever it was that she wanted.

In a way, this letter from Paul to the wealthy, Hellenistic Christian named Philemon has a little bit of that, “if you would be a nice boy” tone to it.

I can hear in this letter…”Philemon, if you would be a nice boy, you’d release Onesimus… and allow the young man to live into his namesake… which means ‘useful’.”

There are some scholars who speculate that Paul is fawning over this slave owner, suggesting that he’s not “commanding” him to do the right thing, but rather “appealing to him in love.” I suppose fawning is one way to look at this letter, but I think Paul really is making a more sincere argument to this powerful and influential member of the Colossae (koh-LOSS-ee) society.

Let’s step back a second here and give some background on this letter.

First of all… fun fact: this is Paul’s shortest letter included in the Bible…roughly 335 words in Greek. We heard almost all of it this morning. The lectionary left off the last three verses where Paul asks Philemon to prepare a room for him upon his release… though it’s doubtful Paul ever made it to Philemon’s house.

And scholars believe Paul DID write this one.  

(Really… he wrote it, not a scribe.)

Other things that we DO know:

Paul is in prison… again… although it’s not clear which one.

The letter is addressed primarily to Philemon… and a couple of others. It appears that Philemon’s house was large enough to be one of the churches in Colossae, which was a city in what is today modern Turkey. So he was probably writing  to Philemon and the leaders of Philemon’s church.

And we know Philemon owned a slave named Onesimus (oh-NEE-see-mus).

It appears Onesimus has run away and taken some of Philemon’s property with him.

Somehow, Onesimus has ended up with Paul in whatever prison he's in… and Paul has converted him to Christianity.

Now the apostle is appealing to Philemon on Onesimus’ account.

This letter is by far… the most personal and heartfelt of all of Paul’s writings.

He’s attempting to broker a reconciliation and relationship between these two men…and he’s doing it as he himself sits in a prison cell.

Paul recognizes the delicate nature of this relationship… and he knows there is a high cost involved.

In the world of the First Century, for a man of such wealth and privilege as Philemon to grant freedom to a run away slave and forgive Onesimus the debt he owed his master would bring ridicule and shame on Philemon in his social circles. Forgiveness to such a bad actor?

Unthinkable!

Heck, even in our own society of the here and now… we argue over whether it’s right to forgive people their debts!

Onesimus also faces a cost.

There’s a risk in going back to Philemon…even with this letter from Paul in his hand.

Will Philemon listen to the appeal and see Onesimus not as a slave, but as a beloved brother in Christ… an actual kinfolk and not a stranger?

Will Philemon trust that Onesimus’ conversion to Christianity is real?

I can almost see these two being like the person in the Gospel story… weighing out the cost of their decisions the same way the builder of a tower does the calculations of the cost before starting construction.

That thought of “What do I have to gain or lose in this transaction?” weighs heavily on both of them, but most especially on Philemon.

If there’s going to be a peaceable resolution to their conflict, he’s the one who must give up the privilege and the need to possess Onesimus…and suffer whatever economic loss and social humiliation that might come his way.

And what I hear Paul saying to Philemon … in the most pastoral way possible is…

Yes…there’s a cost. That’s what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

And yet whatever price you think you’re paying among your friend circle, Philemon,  there’s a greater gain: a freedom and a liberty that is like nothing one can get from family or “things.”

It’s interesting that this letter…which seldom ever shows up in the lectionary… was one that got used by both sides during the heated debates over slavery in this country in the 19^th century. Slave owners seemed to stay fixated on the idea that Paul never condemned the institution of slavery. And he did encourage Onesimus to return to his master Philemon.

What the slave owners failed to see was Paul’s emphasis on treating Onesimus as a beloved brother… a point not lost on abolitionists and freedom fighters.

So while Paul doesn’t outright slam the institution of slavery… I think we can see in this letter that he does have an unexpressed opinion when he talks so sweetly and kindly of Onesimus as a “brother” and that this brother represents “my own heart.”

This is a window into Paul’s ethics that are the same Jesus’ view on possessions.

When Jesus says at the end of our Gospel lesson, “None of you can be my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions,” (14:33) he’s not strictly speaking of your clothes or your books. He’s talking about those other possessions, those things we cling to in order to justify ourselves: our jealousies, our need to measure ourselves against another person, or put other people beneath us in order to feel important.

He’s talking about our ego.

The ego… that small self… which worries about the cost of losing privilege and status.

Maybe it’s because Paul is sitting in a prison cell and has lost his privilege that he’s now seeing a crack in a system where one person gets to possess another human being.

Maybe he’s spent some time listening to Onesimus’ story… and has come to recognize him as a brother and an equal in Christ… and wants Philemon to see that, too.

Paul challenges Philemon to see the light shining through that crack… trust the Holy Spirit… even if it means he loses face in the respectable society of Colossae.

That would seem to be the lesson we can take away from this for our own times.

To live out our lives as followers of Jesus means looking for those cracks in the systems in our society that create inequities…levels heavy debt and burdens.. and turn people into possessions.

Our job is to call attention to those things… and like Paul… encourage forgiveness and a remedy to the situation.

We are doing such good works when we address the needs of the hungry.

At the same time… we should step back… and ask ourselves what is keeping people in that place of need?

Are there food deserts in our city?

What are the obstacles that get in the way of people having enough food?

These are the questions that get back to what I said last week about “What is breaking God’s heart in our area and what can we do about it?”

Sometimes… it takes the willingness to accept the costs of the cross that comes with speaking up to those in places of power and privilege… and asking those questions.

Be bold enough to appeal to a leader’s duty to serve all people… and not just the people who can repay them with the nicest seat at the banquet table.

Encourage them to see the light shining through the cracks in the systems as a chance to make a change that lifts all people up.

To truly live into the prayer,“Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is heaven” may not make us popular and it does come with a cost. But it’s well worth the effort if it means we can all live free.

In the name of God… F/S/HS.

 

The Difficult Work of Forgiveness

Sermon for 17 Pentecost, Year C

October 6, 2019   SMJEC

Texts: Hab. 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Ps. 37: 1-10; 2 Tim 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10

Increase our faith! That’s what the apostles are demanding from Jesus, but why are they asking this question? I feel as though I have just walked up in the middle of a conversation. Because…well…I have. 

For whatever reason…maybe to save time…or to reign in the preacher…our lectionary diviners decided to simply pick up basically in mid-thought with our Gospel passage. So I looked a little further back in Chapter 17 to see what exactly made the apostles so concerned that they would need to increase their faith.

Here’s a quick summary of verses one through four:

Jesus lays down some hard truths about what it is to be one of his followers. To draw nearer to God through Jesus we must realize that we are going to fall short of perfection…a lot. And while we are apt to stumble along the way…anyone who causes another to trip and fall and falter in their journey with God…that one might as well be prepared to die because a great millstone will be tied around their neck. That’s harsh. But then Jesus goes on to tell the apostles that if a person does them wrong…and then that same person repents and asks for forgiveness…the expectation is that the offended one will forgive their offender. And if the offender then sins against them again…and again…oh, and again and again and again and again and again? If the offender turns around and asks for forgiveness…the offended has to forgive. Not “ought to.” They have to.

I think we can now see why this might cause the apostles to swallow hard. In the days of Luke’s writing…the way of justice was one of retribution and revenge, not repentance and mercy. Even in our own litigious society, we would rather haul someone into court and seek judgment against the wrong doer than to engage in an act of forgiveness. Think about it: we’re less than a mile from the Capitol Building and the U.S. Supreme Court. Can you imagine if every contentious debate would invoke this Jesus model of forgiveness and mercy? 

If you have been following the news in Dallas with the trial of the white police officer who shot and killed her black neighbor, you might have heard that Officer Guyger broke down in tears and admitted that she had shot an innocent man. In her initial phone call to 9-1-1, she had openly worried that her actions would cost her in her career. That doesn’t exactly sound remorseful for the fact that she shot a guy who was in his own apartment eating ice cream because she had mistakenly thought she was at her own door. But at the trial, she expressed sorrow and openly wished that she had died. The jury found Amber Guyger guilty of murder. The victim’s family members were then allowed to give testimony about the life of Botham Jean which had been cut short. He was a happy man. He sang beautifully and was a member of his church choir. He loved people and they loved him. His death was like a crater in their lives. I’m sure many of us can relate to that feeling when a sudden or unexpected death plunges us into the numbing other worldliness of grief.

But then in one of those rare instances that happens in a murder case, Botham Jean’s brother, Brandt, looked at his brother’s killer and forgave her in open court. He did not excuse her crime. But what he expressed later is that he did not want to spend the rest of his life saying, “I hate you.” He wanted to free himself and his heart knowing that he had settled this matter with her conviction. And he hoped that she would find Christ. He then asked the judge if he could hug her. The two bee-lined toward each other and embraced. How much faith did that take for him to offer forgiveness to his brother’s murderer and to believe her repentance? How much faith did it take for her to embrace his act of mercy? Meanwhile, outside the courtroom, the protestors, who were deeply hurt and angry at the 10-year sentence in this case, chanted “No Justice! No Peace!”  And yesterday, news broke that one of the key witnesses who helped to convict Officer Guyger…one of Botham Jean’s neighbors…was shot to death. “Increase our faith.”

The ability to acknowledge that we’ve done something wrong, that we have caused hurt to another person… and to say we’re sorry requires humility. And the act of having the compassion to offer mercy also requires us to step down from a seat of judgment and stand on that floor of forgiveness. 

Increase our faith indeed!

I can imagine on most days, when we’ve been wronged or violated we might feel more like the prophet Habakkuk. Rather than asking for more faith, we wail to God “Where are you?! Why are you making me witness this?!”  

I know I am upset every time I hear of yet another shooting, or when I hear the newscaster say that each month is “the hottest we’ve had on record” as scientists confirm that—yes--the temperature of the planet is rising. Yes, we are losing more species of birds. 

Such tragedies and hardships can leave us feeling powerless and hopeless in the face of what seems to be a cruel and unjust world.  In the words of the theologian Howard Thurman, “Why does the evilness of evil seem to be more dynamic than the goodness of good?”  Such a force can feel too difficult for us to handle.

Here’s the thing: it is too difficult for us to handle! That’s what Habakkuk realizes in his complaint. God answers him: “There is still a vision for an appointed time.”  God is not going to say when that time is, but he is telling the prophet Habakkuk to have faith and keep watch. In other words: stick with me and I will get you to the other side of this troublesome time. 

Spoiler alert: the book ends with Habakkuk singing a victory hymn and declaring God’s glory.

All the evil and the brokenness in the world is too much for us, but it is not too much for God. That’s Jesus’ point when he answers the apostles.  Note that he tells them they don’t need to have faith the size of a boulder; just faith the size of a mustard seed…just a jot of faith…just a small amount of humility to trust in God. 

Putting trust in God is a way of finding inner peace and strength in times of difficulty. Wecan’t solve all the problems of the world or our community. But if we gave even one ounce of our energy to connecting to the Source of Light and Love that became Flesh through Jesus Christ…the promise of God is to meet us and strengthen us for God’s service to free our hearts to bring more love into our world. It’s about making our faith so strong and free that we could uproot a mulberry tree and toss it into the sea. 

There’s a closing sentence in our daily morning office that I have found to be a helpful reminder of this as I head out the door to start my day: 

“Glory to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation and in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever.”