Not easy

SAVING PARADISE 

Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker 

page 121 

“So I have been reading this book for years now,   It can be taken quickly I suppose but each time I pick it up I find myself unable to move very far in it before a line over two just stops. Me,   That just happened.    

“Cyril knew that Christian life was not for the faint of heart.” 

And there it was this morning,  I couldn’t go further,   Yes I read the part on baptism and Constantine and his mother Helena and restoring Jerusalem perhaps to distract from a scandal.   But this line stopped me because I feel like we are living in an age where the thoughts are that being a Christian means we walk on easy street,   That to be a Christian is to confess our loyalty and then sit back and gather the perks.   I say  “ I am and Christian therefore i am a good person and deserve reward.”   

When I worked with the Jr High youth at a Presbyterian church in Paradise Valley, AZ 

 I had lead them through the Confirmation Process.   They had been recognized In worship and then gathered in the patio area for a reception,   The minister got up and said some good words…unremarkable… he closed with this. “OK, well, you are done now, good bye.” 

I jumped up in the back.and yelled,  

“ NO! No! You are not done!  YOU ARE JUST GETTING STARTED!”  

I wonder sometimes what happened to those kids,  Here we will teach you what it means to confirm the promises made on your behalf by your parents to help you come to take the promises of faithfulness,   To  follow Jesus and to embody him in this world. This world that so needs to know all are beloved children of God.   That God knows us through and through and lives us even still.   

I know some of them who now say that they are spiritual not religious,   I know they didn’t raise their children to believe that God has plans for their lives that are plans are for good.  That is not to imply they aren’t good people but that they say, “Well we really don’t believe in God.” 

It is true I believe that to be a Christian takes some work.  That to be a faithful person takes some energy.  One of the ordination vows is to serve God with energy, intelligence, imagination and love.   That is pretty much what I think all off Christian life is about,  serving God.   John and I had a statement after our wedding in 1972 saying we planned to serve God by serving others.  (What were we thinking? That’s for another reflection I think.) 

As Christians we are called  to be 

the hope-bearers, 

the truth-tellers, 

the justice-witnesses, 

the love-exemplars, 

the non-compromisers.   

Perhaps that is why our hearts these days seem to ache. The whole creation is groaning in labor.  And yet…and yet… I believe that nothing in creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. 

God abides 

bobbie giltz mcgarey

@may2030 

Excerpts from Romans 8 

18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.

. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 

24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes  with sighs too deep for words. 

27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 

28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to God’s purpose.  God’s Love in Christ Jesus

31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 

35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through God who loved us. 

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.