It was good, preparing for the last Sunday in May, to find, in the Bible Readings for Worship, marvelous expressions of hope.
I don't ned to tell you that it is easy to be consumed by worry these days. Where do we turn for hope? The Psalm reading said this: "Put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore" (Psalm 131:3).
The fabric of the American conomy looks like it might be unraveling. The Gospel reading came from the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says: "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear" (Matthew 6:25). Look at the birds of the air, Jesus continues. Consider the lilies. God feeds them well and clothes them in splendor and you are much more valuable than they. Seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Hard times could come. We might find ourselves repeating the words of Zion in Isaiah 49, the Old Testament reading: "Zion said, 'The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.' " Here is God's reply: "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49: 14-16).
These are not promises that hard times will not come. But they are promises that in hard times, God will sustain those who place their trust in God. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," we read in Psalm 23:3. "I will fear no evil, for thou art with me."
Recently, I visited a lady who perhaps might have needed some encouragement in hr circumstances. She was an encouragement to me. She told me that she had lived through the Depression and World War 2. God was with her through those hard times, she exclaimed, and God was with her now. Her faith was strong, her spirits high. She did not understand how people could live without faith. She wonderd how younger generations (including mine) that have not experienced truly hard times would fare should hard times come.
Good question, I thought. For my generation, the illusion was noted by the sixties rock band, The Mothers of Invention: "It couldn't happen here." That illusion, it seems to me, still has a pretty firm hold despite 9/11, Katrina, and this year's tornadoes and flooding. If it does happen here, what will we do?
The lady of strong faith has a powerful recommendation: "Put your hope i the LORD both now and forevemore."
Sunday, June 15, 2008
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