Rector’s Reflection - January 2024

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence! (Isaiah 64:1-2)

As a new year begins, and we are still celebrating Christmas, I am wondering about beginnings and expectations. I am wondering if we are eager to let hope take root in our hearts or if we are afraid of what might happen if we do. Do we really want God to tear open the heavens and come down so that the nations might tremble at God’s presence?

I am not sure I am ready for that. I want to be, but when it comes down to it, I am not sure I want my world rocked quite that much. I enjoy my comfortable existence, and while I wish everyone on the planet could enjoy the same – beauty and relative peace and prosperity – I also wish I could be sure that would come at no great expense to me. It is easier to wish for someone else’s reality to change than for my own, and if the heavens open up and the nations tremble, I am pretty sure that is going to have life-changing ramifications for us all.

Perhaps this is one reason Christians have come to focus more on salvation as an after-life thing. Those who are truly suffering have only a dim hope of salvation in their lifetimes, and those who live largely untouched by suffering have only a dim desire to participate in the salvation of others.

Jesus shows us that we are already “saved,” that is, that our after-life is not in question, so that we can walk in his way of salvation every day, without fear. And yet I remain afraid. Not of death, but of suffering.

I hear so many people say, “my suffering is nothing compared to others.” Hear me on this – suffering is not a competition. We are not winning, we are not losing. We are all in this together. The whole world groans in labor pains. Maybe we just don’t acknowledge our suffering. Because if other people need God’s healing grace so much more than we do, we feel justified not asking for it. And we don’t take the chance that our salvation will actually change us.

At Jesus’ baptism, the heavens were torn apart and the Spirit of God descended like a dove. We know what that meant for Jesus, and for those who gave up everything to follow him. I invite you to reflect on this question: Am I willing to pray for God to tear the heavens and come down?

Peace,

Pastor Kristine