Eastertide

April 14, 2023

Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 1:3-9
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

For some reason recently, I have sensed that my soul is being attacked by all the negativity and divisiveness that exists in our country today. While aging brings its physical challenges, I pray more often for God to heal my soul.  We must grow in resilience while we are called by Christ to face the world with love.

I watched the Thunder basketball game last night, (they won!) A player on the opposing team hit one of the Thunder players in a very sensitive place knocking the player to the ground. His immediate response was to jump up and charge toward the culprit. One of the player’s teammates walked up to the injured player and wrapped his arms around him hugging him and stopping him from making matters work for himself. The injured player calmed down immediately, and the culprit was charged with a technical file.

We have a lot of people, leaders particularly, hitting people where it hurts: making parents think the public schools are their enemy while not providing the funding required to offer quality public education, interfering with personal medical decisions without regard to various complications, deciding what books people can or cannot read, and the right for everyone to own a gun making that ownership more important than life itself.  Our challenge is to redirect to the real problems of poverty, earning a living wage, the need for health and mental health care, and providing restorative justice while living our love as Jesus Christ modeled for us.

The best response to distraction is investing time in redirecting our energies to the real issues that must be addressed.

Prayer: Lord, heal our souls so we can be the love needed to heal our world. Help us find our place in that process. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.