[Propertalk] FW: [propertalk.topic] Reflection for Pentecost 9 (Trinity 8)

[joeparrish at compuserve.com]

From: Allison Dean <aaclinedean at gmail.com> 
Sent: Saturday, August 10, 2019 12:50 PM
To: prcl-l at googlegroups.com; propertalk.topic at ecunet.org
Subject: [propertalk.topic] Reflection for Pentecost 9 (Trinity 8)

 

Greetings everyone.

 

Doing pulpit supply on Sunday in a parish which is searching for a new priest.  I have struggled to put this together as two readings really spoke to my heart.  If it does not make sense, please let me know so I can fix it.  With many thanks for your inspiration and thoughts this past week.

 

Allison Cline-Dean,

Lead Chaplain, East Suffolk & North Essex NHS Foundation Trust,

Based at Colchester Hospital, Colchester, Essex, UK

 

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”

 

This is such a familiar verse that many of us turn off when we hear it.  However let's take another look at and see where God is leading our hearts in our 21st century world, what makes up our faith, and what makes up hope.  

 

I’d like to invite you to take a moment to consider what does “treasure” mean to you in your heart of hearts?  For some it is wealth.  For others, it is all about family.  For still others, it is can be a combination of several things:  books, hobbies, health, a job.  Now add the rest of the sentence "there will your heart be also".  How true that phrase is!..If our job means everything to us, then we are passionate about it to the exclusion of everything else.  If our family is the greatest treasure, then we do whatever we can to keep our family happy and together.

 

For many people treasure is bound up in money and their heart is with the pound coins and plastic bills in their wallet, pocket or bank account.  Truly money can make life easier and we need it to put a roof over our heads, food on the table, and purchase other necessities.  However, if our heart and soul are rooted in how we spend or save our money, our health, and our family, then when do we make time to be with God?   

 

Throughout the scriptures we read that all of us are created by God as children of God and loved by God.  Psalm 139 states that God formed us in the womb, knit our bones together, knows the number of hairs on our head, as well as the lengths of our lives.  God has blown God’s breath into each us giving us life as God’s spirit lives in our hearts and minds.  We are all given the same opportunities as children of God to listen, read, meditate and pray on God’s word, to accept or reject it.  We are invited to worship the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbour as ourself.

 

However, we all make mistakes and often we turn our back on God, as we try to do things our way and in our time.  Yet when we realize how we have gone astray, hurting ourselves and others, when we open our heart, sincerely repent of what we have done, and ask God’s forgiveness, God does just that.  That is one of our treasures.  Other treasures are the faith and hope we have been given by God stated in Hebrews.

 

The writer of Hebrews states that “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."  The letter to the Hebrews was written to a small community experiencing much persecution.  At the time of the letter’s composition, things seemed even more fraught than when the community had faced explicit external pressure and duress, including the confiscation of property (10:32-34). In the time since, they had become less confident and their energy for the faith seems to have waned (10:35). The letter is written with the intention of offering encouragement and in the hope of re-awakening the community’s faith  I think many today can relate to this letter as we experience the fear and events that shake our world and our communities. 

 

So let change topic and ask a question:  "Who has seen the wind?”  We can feel it.  We can hear it (especially yesterday as it was blowing around and slamming windows shut).  We can see leaves being blown down the street by the wind but we cannot actually see the wind!  However, we know that it is there, created by God just as God created a baby or the moon and stars in the night skies.  We cannot see this Creator God but through faith we believe in God.  Faith is a good, wonderful, and undeserved gift that we cannot see or touch - a treasure that we have been given by God!

 

What has also stuck with me is that faith is not about evidence but about conviction and relationships.  Pastor Randy Hyde writes

 

. . . conviction is something we believe despite the evidence. Conviction is a living reality that permeates our actions and makes us move on in life when our courage has failed us, and compels us to live for others when it would be far easier to give up and withdraw unto ourselves. It picks us up and carries us when we cannot move on our own.

 

The Rev. Beth Johnston writes that to “have faith” is to have the courage to act in accordance with one’s beliefs, AND also not to expect “success” in the short term or even protection from harm.”

 

Faith is about relationships – a relationship with God, relationships with family and friends, relationships with people we encounter for a few moments, a day, a week, a season. Relationships are the way we live as parents, partners, siblings, as neighbours, as children of God, in the communities where we live, work, play, and worship.  It’s not the actions we do or the words we say but the way we make a person feel that reveals where God is in our hearts and lives.  Our names may not be as famous as Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jesus, Luke, Peter, and Paul, yet if we have the courage live out our faith in ways that bring hope, peace, and love in our relationships and to stand up for what we believe, then our names will be written on the hearts and minds of those with whom we come into contact.  

 

If faith is about conviction and relationships, an undeserved gift from God, where do we go from here?  Conviction and relationships may be what pick us up and carry us when times are tough and filled with fear however we also need hope.  All of us have hope:  some hope to live a productive and healthy life; others hope to be part of a loving family; still others hope to make a real difference in the lives of others through the work/volunteering that they do.  If we did not have hope, then we could not look forward living a life filled with love and experience the God’s blessings.  Hope is an integral part of faith in God.  Jan Richardson writes:

 

Hope asks us to open ourselves to what we do not know, to pray for illumination in this life, to imagine what is beyond our imagining, to bear what seems unbearable. It calls us to keep breathing when beloved lives have left us, to turn toward one another when we might prefer to turn away. Hope draws our eyes and hearts toward a more whole future but propels us also into the present, where Christ waits for us to work with him toward a more whole world now.

 

Our 21st century society demands that everything has to be planned ranging from today’s plans, to one year plans, five year plans, and ten year plans with goals, objectives, and where we will be.  We are supposed to be prepared to climb the corporate ladder regardless of who gets in our way.  Yet as people of God we are not called to work in this way.  We are called to remove the possessions, the preoccupations, and the selfish desires that clog our minds so that our hearts and spirits are open and ready to respond to God’s call.  We will know that our faith, our hope, and our heart are all in the right place when we long for the place where as Frederick Buechner wrote, “your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”  At that point, resting in God will suddenly be all we want or need.  

 

Let us pray that as our hearts rest in God, we will be able to “share that new life in relationship and service with others.” (David Lose)  When we do that then we will “find a deeper sense of self than we’d imagined possible.  And so I leave you with the words of Jan Richardson’s “Blessing of Hope”.

 

So may we know
the hope
that is not just
for someday
but for this day
here, now,
in this moment
that opens to us
hope not made
of wishes
but of substance
hope made of sinew
and muscle
and bone
hope that has breath
and a beating heart
hope that will not
keep quiet
and be polite
hope that knows
how to holler
when it is called for
hope that knows
how to sing
when there seems
little cause
hope that raises us
from the dead
not someday
but this day,
every day,
again and
again and
again.

-- 
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