Christ Church Rockville Lenten Devotion
Jer. 16:10-21
Rom. 7:1-12
John 6:1-15
Isaiah 65:17-25
John 4:43-54
The way the world is, is not be the way the world will always be. God challenges us to imagine beyond the present. When life is settled for some; when certain groups or communities believe that God has given them everything, and so it will always be regardless of how or whether they love and care for each other—then disaster cannot be too far in the future. We banish our peacemakers; we kill our dreamers; we marginalize our visionaries. Still, this is not the last word.
When a society is fractured; when war rages; when there is violence and derision; racism and bigotry—when the weak; the fragile; the vulnerable, the marginalized—those who depend on us who are lost and forgotten, those who disappear in smoke and dust—Yet, this is not the last word.
When I see a child starving for want of bread and parched for a sip of water; when I look into the eyes of the most vulnerable of our world and realize that their very eyes pierce our souls; when I see an infant die long before he/she should die, this vision of the prophet takes hold assuredly. This is not the last word.
There will come a time when all of creation will come together—all of God’s people, here, there, everywhere will come together. Newness almost always is borne out of contexts where there is, or has been pain, suffering, tragedy, grief, wilderness, exile. How we care, systemically and individually is the measure of a society, of the world. Lent is a striking reminder that the darkness is not the last word and finally there is newness in the resurrection.
