Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Luke 7: 18-35

Today’s reading begins with a question from John (the Baptist), imprisoned for his obedience to God.  He is looking forward to the One he has been speaking about - the One sent by God.  His question?  Are you that One? Are you the Answer to our searching?

Jesus answers first not with words, but with actions: he heals, he restores, he makes whole.  Then, only then, does he speak, and that is just to tell John (through his followers) to look at the results and test those results against what his expectations of God’s Messiah are.  John has to do the work of figuring it out - there is no easy answer, no easy faith.

I wonder what that means for me individually, for us as the Church of St John the Evangelist in Kitchener, for our country in whose anthem we sign “God keep our land.”

For those who look at me/us, what do they see?  What conclusions will they draw about what is important to me/us, about what motivates me/us, about my/our faith? 

How I spend my day, how I spend my time, how I spend my resources says more about my values than anything I say (or write!)

How St. John’s uses its resources, the welcome it extends to all who seek, the way it gets involved in issues of the day such as poverty, injustice, homelessness, the way it cares for the planet, all these are good indications of our idea of God’s call to us.

How Canada responds to those who are “blind, lame, hungry, imprisoned” (are these more than physical states? perhaps mental, emotional, spiritual as well?) might make our request to God to “keep our land” a true prayer or a selfish mockery.

I cannot myself “heal the lame”, but I can share my resources with those who do - Doctors Without Borders, the various Societies or Foundations which research health issues, for example.  I cannot perform miracles, but I can share God’s love for everyone with everyone I am in contact with, through acts of kindness, through material generosity, through gentleness and welcoming.  Those all help to restore wholeness: in both directions because my brokenness is healed when I seek to restore someone else to wholeness.

The same is true for us as a church community.  People who are hurting, people who are seeking restoration, people who long for God’s love will ask the same question as John did: Is this a place where I will find what I am longing for? What will they see? Can they expect to be restored, to have material and spiritual needs met?

John’s question and Jesus’s answer challenge us all, individually and corporately. What are we seeking? What are we expecting?  What do our actions say?  

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. (Luke 7:35  The Message)

- Ann Kelland