SCRIPTURE: Hebrew Bible: Isaiah 1: 1, 10-20

August 11, 2013

SCRIPTURE: Hebrew Bible: Isaiah 1: 1, 10-20

Epistle: Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16

Gospel: Luke 12: 32-40

MEDITATION: Things Hoped For!

Do YOU know what you hope for? What are your dreams and aspirations for your life, for your community, for your world for that matter? Do you know what you hope for?

At this moment in time, I can’t say definitively what I hope for. I’m just not sure. What I do know is that I am sure of is this - I am weary of the wrong doing of the human race!

Sometimes I feel a deep despair that we humans will never learn to end all this pain and suffering so often inflicted with absolutely no reason or justification.

It has been a hard summer with a lot of tragedy and sorrow in our country and in the world. While I was in Victoria, I heard the news of the train derailment in LacMegnatic and that was so very sad. Then watching the corporate response had me scratching my head? Surely corporations are made up of human beings and surely human beings would be aghast at such an overwhelming horrific event. Not so I guess. Somehow the human beings involved in the rail company and the insurance companies could block out the tragic event of almost 50 deaths and a whole community left in ruins. How else could they go on “doing business” and not be moved to a deep sense of responsibility for what had happened.

Then follow that quickly with the train crash in Spain. Even more lives lost. It has flashed across our TV and computer screens and then pretty much vanished. But I am sure that is not the reality in Spain or in the lives of probably thousands of people as they grapple with grief and loss. Who knows what the real truth is but it appears that the engineer was playing some kind of Russian roulette with speed. Hard to imagine whathe could have been thinking!

And I don’t even want to think about two tiny boys killed by a snake, or the images of police brutality in Russia against people who are asking to be accepted for who they are.

I could go on and on couldn’t I. We have our own challenges and tragic situations right here in our own midst. I watch with awe, the courage and determination that we see in Roger and his family and I am humbled by the “goodness” of others. I tend to be the kind of person that sees the world through rose colored glasses but I must admit that I have experienced that vision as a little blurred as of late.

Even the scripture in the Hebrew Bible speaks of God becoming weary. I guess if God can become weary of human action then it is alright for me to feel the same way. Of course I am not God, but I want to cry out the same way:

Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong. learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

Those were all issues in those ancient times and most of them are still with us.

Have you noticed that commercial of late that depicts those lovely looking babies with a caption over there heads indicating the “wrong” they will do in the future. Like it says, no baby is born bad. We humans were born to be and do good. I think that commercial indicates just how fed up our society is with all the corruption and wrong doing that invaded us as a whole. We all long for something different. We all HOPE for something different. The question that I am left with is do we all work to make it different?

The author of Hebrews speaks of the faith of the ancestors. Faith that allowed Noah and Abraham to just simply obey with out asking for explanation. Faith that allowed Moses to accomplish the impossible. Faith that allowed the people to follow Moses even through the Red Sea. He even goes on to say that there are so many examples of faithful obedience that he does not have time to name them all. Can we think and remember our own examples of people who lived by faith? I can easily name many in our own community that have shown us the way of faith. Those courageous people who in the face of illness and even death, just put their trust in God and kept on doing all the good that they could while still here in our midst. Take a moment and think about the examples that come to your own mind.

If you glanced at the back of your bulletin this morning, you read FAITH: IS BEING SURE OF WHAT WE HOPE FOR AND CERTAIN OF WHAT WE DO NOT SEE. I didn’t ask Raycine to put that there and when I saw it I thought once again that the spirit does indeed work in mysterious ways.

I have been thinking a lot about those words this last week and Raycine in her brilliance put them on the back of the bulletin!

Faith is really equal to our trust in God. It is truly being sure even if we can not see or have no concrete proof that we can wave in the air like a flag. Our society is always asking for proof and God is telling us that you don’t NEED proof, you just need to believe. I can’t help but ask the question – is God impressed with us? Like Isaiah proclaims – is God fed up with our madness in our human behaviour. Isaiah portrays a God who says yes and then says even so I will not give up on you! God is always with us even when we don’t know it. God is always willing to give us another chance to try and get it right. God can appear, as in the Hebrew Bible, to be weary of our behaviour but somehow is NEVER weary of US!!!

It’s a pretty clear indication to us that we have a grave responsibility to respond to that kind of dedication and faith in us from our God.

Jesus states our responsibility pretty clearly. Do not be afraid little flock --- just do something very easy like sell all your possessions and give to the poor! There’s Jesus again going over the top in an exaggerated statement. It would have been no easier for the disciples of 2000 years ago then it would be for us in the here and now. Then when Jesus has there clear attention and probably startled eyes are looking at him, he explains a little more.

What really matters to you, he asks? Where you put your time and your energy and yes even your money, then that is where your heart is? Your actions speak about what you hope for. That is clear. The corporate mind wants to keep its treasure and not be responsible. The train engineer probably can’t even grasp what made him do what he did. The politicians in Russia and here, well who can explain all that! Jesus isn’t trying to “shame” us into being BETTER. Jesus is teaching a truth. Where the things are that you value, that you hope for, that you are willing to work for, despite all the odds – well there your heart is!

It is truly in those moments when nothing feels “safe” that faith cares us. It is truly in the challenge of making good and responsible decisions that we show where our heart is.

When we ARE what God would have us be we are BETTER, and our world is better and our lives are better, and even our faith is better. It is more real, more tangible, more accessible, and more treasured.

May it be so! AMEN