The world and the church...more angles and more comments.
...it is particularly important to remember that the world consists of those, including ourselves, who have chosen not to make the story of God their story. The world in us refuses to affirm that this is God's world and that, as loving Lord, God's care for creation is greater than our illusion of control. The world is those aspects of our individual and social lives where we live untruthfully by continuing to rely on violence to bring order.
It drives me nuts and I am embarrassed and I simply shake my head when I catch myself in the act of relying on violence in any of its shapes or forms. This even includes the mean words that are meant bite and stereotype...words that are meant to control others under the illusion of my rule. I know the life of the church and yet, I am so much of the world it sometimes causes me to turn red at my own actions or inaction. Then again, the church is also a community of forgiveness that teaches just such forgiveness by forgiving. The most difficult task seems to be forgiving myself in order to turn to the promise that is already my as part of God's "good" creation. The wrestling match is a daily endeavor. To live within the truth of God's creation is to resist every attempt to control the world so that all things go my way...or at least close to my way.
Connection: It is so easy to fall into the natural way of division and attempt to keep the divisions of the world in place by insisting on maintaining control. Ease up...rise up...and enter into God's Reign with an open invitation to all with whom you gather this week.
When you hold our lives in your hand, O God, you shape us so that we will remember whose we are and how that identity is the ground upon which we set up our tents and take on the day. We do not remember well - be our guide. Amen.
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