06-18-23

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
June 18, 2023
Yesterday, after making a couple of visits, I went to the church to get some work done. It was a little before 2pm, and I checked the temperature on my phone, and it said 101, with a "real feel" temperature of 115. Ugh!! I went into the Forum Building, and it immediately felt so good. Since there was nothing happening at the church, I was surprised the AC was set so low. I don’t want to waste money. So I went to the thermostat and was a bit surprised to see that it was 86 degrees in the Activity Room. Isn’t it interesting how our bodies can change, becoming used to something that only a few months earlier would have been considered uncomfortably hot inside any building? But yesterday, 86 felt pretty good.

How is it that we can find ourselves becoming more and more comfortable with things we would have found oppressive a short time before? Now, I’m not talking about good progress in regard to race, gender, sexuality, etc. I’m talking about a strange comfort when it comes to suffering, violence, hatred, bullying, and discrimination. We act as if we are powerless to bring real change to situations that are decimating individual lives and communities. It’s as if the reverse has occurred with regard to the temperature. It has slowly been intensifying without us even noticing, yet as long as it doesn’t impact me directly, I’m ok sweating. Jesus offered us a glimpse into the perfect existence we often call the Kin(g)dom of God or Kin(g)dom of Heaven. It is the vision that is revealed in the life and teachings of Jesus, and according to him, it already exists around us and in us. I believe we are called to be the change agents, the people who shift a mindset of helplessness in the current world, by simply being the people we are called to be… to be Kin(g)dom agents in the world — cooling down the hate and heating the merciful kindness.

​We are not called to be consumed with hopelessness, O God, yet we must confess how easily it occurs. Put before us the Jesus-vision of a world where grace, mercy, peace, and justice abound, and then empower us to reflect such a world in our daily living. Amen.