Jon Fry

On Sunday in my All Saints sermon I said, “God, on earth in human form, weeps for his friend.  God is not unmoved by death and suffering in this world”. Theologian and activist Carlos A. Rodriguez, takes it one step further. Not only does God weeping show us the humanity of God, it also allows us to see ourselves as made in the image of God, even in our moments of grief and sorrow. 

We can have hope in the resurrection and feel our feelings, these are not mutually exclusive actions. Consider the 13th Psalm:

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

    How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I bear pain in my soul,

    and have sorrow in my heart all day long?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!

    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,

and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”;

    my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.

But I trusted in your steadfast love;

    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

    because [the Lord] has dealt bountifully with me.

The psalmist is simultaneously longing for the presence of the Lord, and singing praise to the Lord. We are complex creatures, in a complex world, able to carry complex emotions, and God has walked this earth and understands our struggle. God has given us faith communities to walk alongside us as we navigate this life, and has promised to be with us in eternal life. 

Gracious God, draw near to us. Fill us with your Holy Spirit as we navigate the complexities of our world. Remind us of your love and remind us we are never alone, in Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

By Intern Pr. Jon

Matthew 6:25-26 – 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,[a] or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly [Parent] feeds them.”

I stumbled across this photo on social media the other day, and it felt so timely. Most days I feel like I’m at the same time overreacting to the world around me and also not doing enough, I feel like I’m feeling the pain of the world and also not caring enough about my neighbor, and I feel like I’m well informed and missing so many important things. Maybe you can relate? 

The endless streams of news that we can easily access from all our electronic devices encourage us to overreact and get worked up, so that we continue consuming the product being marketed to us. There is a lot of injustice in the world that we can be rightfully upset about, and sometimes we need to take a moment to breathe and step away. 

This passage from Matthew’s Gospel has always been a tough one, for me. I worry a lot about the future and the world around me, and yet there is trust in God who provides for us and is present in our times of need. God isn’t saying there won’t be reason to worry and God isn’t saying that everything will work out the way we hope, but through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we can trust in the eternal promise that God will be with us until the end. 

Intern Pr. Jon