Monday evenng in the Fifth Week of Easter

                 ________________________Psalm 65:3_

Our  

   sins 

      are 

strong-

er than 
 we are
      but you will blot them out. 

                               “Windows of Opportunity”   
  by Emilia Rose, my Cousin Diane’s  granddaughter.

     Can you imagine the courage (or stupidity) it took for Paul and Barnabas to tell the priest of Zeus that he worshiped idols, and this at the very moment he was prepared to offer a sacrifice to do them? Of course we also offer a sacrifice to those who are of the “same nature “as us. It is impossible to read the news and not recognize the idolatry of nationalism is becoming more virulent every month. To name a few places: Brazil, Hungry, India, Israel, Italy, Myanmar, Pakistan, Poland, the United States… The world is mired in tragedy born of tribalism. How is this not an idol to which we sacrifice our children and our treasure?

     I suspect the surge in nationalism is an instinctive defense against global realities that have rendered the age of the nation-state untenable. Refugees, destabilization, desertification, flooding of farmland, rising seas, scarcity of food and water:  a litany that screams the need for unity in the face of common challenges, many of our own making…

     God gave us free will and allowed us to go our own way and so we choose the proud unity of Babel over the humble unity of Christ, whose fidelity redeemed all of creation. The miracle of the Easter season is it’s reminder that God does not give up on us, and this yearly time of “nourishment and gladness” can lead us away from idolatry to once again no and exult in the living God who calls us to freedom. May we have ears to hear. Rachel Limmer, God gave us free will and allowed us to go our own way and so we choose the pro unity of Babel over the humble unity of Christ, he who is fidelity redeemed all of creation. The miracle of the Easter season is it’s reminder that God does not give up on us, and this yearly time of “nourishment and gladness, can lead us away from idolatry to once again know and exult in the living God who calls us to freedom. 

     May we have ears to hear.

        Rachel Limner from  5/11/20 Give US This Day

        meditation on The Acts of the  Apostles 14:5-18

                                  ___***___

          May we have a like courage. (Or stupidity.)