Hope in our Brokenness.

If we have lived any length of time at all we know and understand that to be human is to experience more than a few of life’s struggles. We struggle with health, with career, with family, with relationships, with money, and yes, with faith. At every turn, the question is never if we will have struggles but rather how we will live through our struggles as people of faith, hope, and love following Jesus Christ.

Sometimes I wonder why, early in my life someone didn’t teach me that God and through him, Jesus occasionally says, “No. Stay away. Get back. This person here you bare not going to be able to help. So, step back. And it’s okay; let it go. You don’t have to feel guilty about this. Some people you can support and care for and even help. Some people you can’t. It’s just the way it is. And this one, this situation here, someone else is called to look after and it’s not you that’s called. Someone else may be able to help and care for this person. But it is not to be you. You are needed elsewhere.

It would seem, that in one of this week’s readings, the one from 2 Thessalonians 3 this is what is happening. Could it be that Paul is pointing out the fact that some people, even in the Church, are so broken and hurting, that they become stuck and wallow in such a way as they become a burden even to those in the community of faith. This passage seems to bring to light an underbelly in the body of Christ. We are all fallible creatures who will wander off ignoring the good example we have seen and the good teaching we have heard and received. We seem to want to avoid the pain of accountability and the responsibility for our actions. Make no mistake, when we indulge in such avoidance, God’s love does not disappear.

However, the fact remains that we cannot continue to recklessly disregard others in the community of faith without some consequence. Perhaps, we in the church could do something about addressing the “nice-ology” that can sometimes take precedence over our understanding of our relationship with God and our understanding of our community of faith (theology and ecclesiology). Grace and forgiveness are to me the bare bones of our Christian Doctrine and are essential in our life of faith. A life of faith that recognises and professes that we all fall short of God’s intention for us in the world.

Grace only becomes necessary if are fallen or fail to be what God calls us to be and forgiveness is only necessary if we have gone wrong and understand we have taken the wrong path. In all this, sometimes the brokenness of this world is unavoidable and we feel inept and are utterly inept to heal that brokenness. So, I wonder sometimes as I pass someone in need, God is saying to me, “I have got this, keep your distance.” It is something I constantly wrestle with, as I view the overwhelming need in our world. I wonder where others are.

If we continue and look at this week’s reading from Luke 21, we hear that truth is essential for hope and that hope is essential for life as a community of faith. Our choice is to trust that no matter how brutal life becomes, God chooses to love us, strengthen us, guide us, and even bless us no matter what. We live in the hope that despite difficulties, even persecution because of our faith, that will no doubt come to every one of us, we have hope and love in and through our God.

 When we do, make the choice to speak and act in faithful ways, trusting Jesus, living in hope then we can face life and all that it brings. Finally, the choice to follow Jesus and to embrace life’s challenging moments with faith has one further option: we need to choose to trust in God’s faithful presence?