Just a word before we go…Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time…July 3, 2022

Just a word...Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time...July 3. 2022

 Cleo Wade writes, in her poem entitled, “tired:”           

 “I was tired of worrying, so I gave myself my peace back

I was tired of feeling intimidated by what I should do

So I pulled up my sleeves and got to work on what I could do

I was tired of not knowing, so I found out—about myself, my family, my ancestors, my government, and the struggles of others

I was tired of seeing evil everywhere

So I found the heavenly spots and showed my neighbors where they were

I was tired of looking at the world as one big mess

So I decided to start cleaning it up

And when people ask me if I am exhausted

I tell them no because more than anything

What I got the most tired of was being tired”

  The situations in our nation, even as we celebrate our independence, and in our church, even as we celebrate the Eucharist together, are less than ideal.  Whatever your stand on any of the issues that plague country and church, it is easy to become tired, exhausted with the rancor and intransigence of ideologies on every side.  How are we to embody our mission, in country or in church, when feelings are running so high wherever you look?

Looking for answers, I began thinking about what country and church might hold in common.  In the country we have our founding documents, written as they were by people with a vision, but formed by their own education and life experiences. In the church, preeminently we have the life and example of Jesus, but we also have founding documents, inspired by God, written from the perspective of people with a vision but again, formed by their education and life experiences. These founding documents entrust us with sacred messages; one of a dream of freedom and justice for all people; the other of God’s love for humanity, God’s dream of a just and peaceful society.  Since the promulgation of these documents, they have been subject to interpretation, being shaped by the vision and experiences of those people who followed the originators. Eventually it falls to us to be the carriers of both these sacred messages. These days, I am not at all certain we are giving either message its due.

Perhaps one way forward, toward that peaceable kingdom proclaimed by Isaiah and echoed in our readings today, is to reevaluate the ways in which we view one another and the conditions in our country and our church.  Perhaps, inspired by these sacred messages we might try harder to embody their common goals of peace and harmony, by receiving what has been entrusted to us with gratitude, listening to one another with open minds and hearts and keeping that vision of the kingdom close.  Such a vision can inspire us to work toward a future of reconciliation and peace, where the lion will lie with the lamb, and the conservative with the liberal, recognizing that what binds us together is far greater than what attempts to divide us.  The kingdom of God is at hand; we have just to develop the eyes to see it, and the hearts to embrace it.

So, on this celebration of our independence, let us find our heavenly spot, be refreshed, and tired no more, begin anew to reach for that promised kingdom.