Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Job 29:1-16
In this passage from Job, he remembers his past with nostalgia. He wishes to return to that – and who among us has not wished to return to a time when all seemed well, when people both liked and respected us, when we did what was right without having to struggle, and when it seemed obvious that we were blessed?
But then life happens. People we love are hurt. We behave in ways we regret. We grieve and find ourselves struggling just to get through each day. And there is no sense of G-d’s presence, no sense of accompaniment or blessing.
I can remember sitting in a church, not long after my husband was involved in a serious accident, and being so angry with G-d that I was shaking in the pew. Like Job, I wanted only to return to a time when I did what was right, when it felt like I was able to contribute in a meaningful way to the world. I did not want to be in this dark place where there was no rhyme or reason to the pain and such a deep sense of helplessness.
In that time, this poem, written by Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, became quite significant to me:
The Cry to God as ‘Father’
in the New Testament
is not a calm acknowledgement
of a universal truth about
God’s abstract fatherhood.
It is the Child’s cry
out of a nightmare.
it is the cry of outrage,
fear, shrinking away,
when faced with the horror
of the ‘world’
- yet not simply or exclusively
protest , but trust as well.
‘Abba Father’
all things are possible
to Thee…
We all have our own stories about how we move from the darkness of death and despair to renewed life. That is the story of how the resurrection becomes true in our own lives. What is your story? How have you been sustained? Or are you, like Job in today’s reading, in the midst of yearning for a return to life…?
- Rev'd Canon Megan Collings-Moore
---
No comments:
Post a Comment