Palm Sunday 2020


    Today would be a perfect day to continue the St. John's and Grace Lent series: Lent is Not Rocket Science with another familiar and yet confusing scientific principle, Chaos Theory. Chaos Theory is an interdisciplinary theory, which means it applies to almost every known realm of study. The Chaos Theory is usually summarized like this: "When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future." Underneath the summary is mathematics which show that even chaos has patterns and interconnectedness which cannot be seen. It is Chaos Theory which makes so much of good science fiction writing possible. We can write about a future which COULD happen, but that doesn't mean it necessarily will. 
    However, on the surface, even Chaos Theory looks like it's name: chaotic. And if there is one thing we feel from today's Passion Gospel it usually can be classified in the same realm: chaos, confusion, turmoil. The Passion Gospel defies all our ability to close it in and compartmentalize it. As a story, it is turmoil, chaos, and hubris. As the hearers of the story, we go through many emotions and states just listening to the story! Not to mention what the people going through it must have felt. 
    I think we all have a little better understanding of what it means to be living in turmoil right now. Every day brings something new and nothing feels the way it should. Fear and anger and discomfort seem to have taken over all sensibilities. While we usually like to ignore these types of feelings, we do need to acknowledge them and put them into God's hands.
    Similarly to the situation in the Passion Gospel, God did not cause the chaos and turmoil in the human realm right now. Yet again, similarly, God works through the chaos and turmoil. God is in the midst of all this confusion, finding ways to share with us the Good News of Love, even as God works through the crucifixion of Christ to show us the Good News of Love. 
    The journey is not a straight one. No journey through chaos is. It is not a easily mapped out or seen journey. Thankfully, it is a journey with God. God walks with us through the chaos, the turmoil, the confusion. It is more of one of those epic journeys written about in fantasy legends, The Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings. Journeys through chaos, which do have a pattern and a richness, and a trajectory towards good.
    Life is full of complexity. In times of complexity and chaos, it is helpful to remember that we are not to judge, we are called to serve God and walk on his way. Though we cannot see where this journey is leading us, like the journey of the cross, we are called to put our faith in Jesus and walk with him, so that in the end, we might find the resurrection. We journey to follow Jesus and his way of love.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nutritional Wellness

Image
I love food.  The tastes, the smells, the experience of eating.  I even like gardening and the creation of food. The cooking and baking processes of making individual items into marvelous meals.  My digestive system has a much more complicated relationship with food. There are many things my digestive system overreacts to or feels the need to attack.  Over the years of trying to figure out what my digestive system will tolerate I've had to change my focus on eating for wellness  and learn to create the things I like with the ingredients my body also likes. Its not an immediate change in mindset. It takes time and energy and reminders. Because eating is such a communal experience, it has also taken community adjustment. Finding family and friends who will support my journey and focus on wellness.  I have found that my focus on wellness has been a little bit contagious.  As others have supported me in focusing on digestive wellness, others have been inspired to focus on their own nut
Read more

Book Review: Radiant Rebellion: Reclaim Aging, Practice Joy, And Raise A Little Hell, by Karen Walrond

Image
This isn't a scientific book about aging. It isn't a book about how to age well or what you should do as you are aging. It is a book about aging into who you want to be.  It is a book about looking into the mirror and seeing the smile on your face and light in your eyes. Karen Walrond guides us on the journey she took leading up to her year of aging anniversaries and milestones. She explains how she took the time and space in her life to reflect on what it means to age, to acknowledge and combat internalized ageism, and to figure out who she wanted to be as she grew older. She shares some research, tips, tricks, and lessons learned from professionals and elders in her life. As in her previous books, her conversational writing style, easy prose, and gift of storytelling makes this an interesting and engaging read. She offers thoughtful challenges to the 'normal' ways we think about age and what it means to grow older.  Karen Walrond doesn't take the reader on this jo
Read more

The Question of Faith

  What do you have faith in? Now I know the parables are good today, And I'm not going to talk about them Because one of the most basic things about religion is faith. You can blame St. Paul for today's sermon. All religions require faith. Faith is the belief in things not seen. In some ways, all the ideals we aspire to love, justice, charity, hope they are the bedrock on which any religion is created, including some things we don't think of as religion, but could be construed that way, are things we cannot see. We can't see justice, certainly these days we don't see a lot of evidence for it. We can't see equality or freedom or peace because they are ways of talking about systems in which everyone belongs and feels comfortable being themselves and we know we have not achieved that kind of world. Anyway, without faith, there is no religion no Christianity, no Judaism, no Islam, no Jainism, no pantheism. In the passage from Paul to the Romans, he writes, "Now
Read more