Monday 4 May 2009

This will be the last week on M.L. King, Jr.'s book "The Strength to Love."





Religion endows us with the conviction that we are not alone in the vast, uncertain universe. Beneath and above the shifting sands of time, the uncertainties that darken our days, and the vicissitudes that cloud our nights is a wise and loving God. This universe is not a tragic expression of meaningless chaos but a marvelous display of orderly cosmos - "The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding that he established the heavens." Man is not a wisp of smoke from a limitless smoldering, but a child of God created "a little lower than the angels." Above the manyness of time stands the one eternal God, with wisdom to guide us, strength to protect us, and love to keep us. His boundless love supports and contains us as a mighty ocean contains and supports the tiny drops of every wave. With a surging fullness he is forever moving toward us, seeking to fill the little creeks and bays of our lives with unlimited resources. This is religion's everlasting diapason, its eternal answer to the enigma of existence. Any man who finds this cosmic sustenance can walk the highways of life without the fatigue of pessimism and the weight of morbid fears.



I am always drawn to statements like this: "(God's) boundless love supports and contains us as a mighty ocean contains and supports the tiny drops of every wave." It is a love that cannot be calculated and therefore, we can never know when or if it ever ends. Rather, we can be quite sure it never ends - those wave never stop coming and the drops within them are beyond anything we can picture. This is a love that will not go away. It will persist so that even the rocks of intolerance and bitterness and hatred are worn down to bits of sand and stone. This is a grand love we trust when we say we live within the Reign of God. To be washed by the endless surging of God's love is to be shaped by this endless power that will not vanish or cease to be. When we are reminded of this love - and it happens to us all in many and various ways - we are empowered by this love to become a part of this love that will not let us go...any of us.



Connection: A daily reminder of this life power that comes through God's love is as available as each time we touch our hands to the water that flows through this day. From the water we use in bathroom upon waking - to hands submerged in dishwater - to making coffee to wake us up - to a splash in the face to refresh us....we can remind ourselves of this love that is meant to see us through all things.



Wash us again, O Lord, so we might always see in this moment the way of your loving embrace and in that, see the many ways we can embrace the world and being the work of peace making in a world that thrives on violence. Amen.