For a Future
of Peace
Saturday, November 4, 2023
Looking for a Future.
Isaiah 66:13
As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
John 16:24
Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
…
Words of Grace For Today
We are baptized, all that we were to that point drowned out, dead.
So we learn that in the Kingdom of God what we thought was valuable is worthless. In there go all our dreams of greatness and grandeur. Instead what we thought was nearly bereft of worth or even notice without scorn is actually what God treasures and would have us treasure as well.
We learn to set aside our ambitions, hopes, and dreams in order to understand and embrace God’s ambitions, hopes and dreams for us. We learn not to ask for anything, but to beg to see and understand God’s will for us.
Not that our past dreams and expectations die out or that baptism actually kills off the great sinners that we were (and still are.) We live on dreaming, expecting, and hoping for our own ‘success’ in life. And God keeps bringing us back down to the reality of Jesus’ way of sacrifice for others, so that others will share God’s blessings (as we give to them what God has entrusted to us as stewards.)
Now Jesus reminds us, that we are not totally lost to our old sinful selves, lively as they may still be. In us the Spirit moves and we can and should ask for what we see is needed … by and for others,
…
and sometimes even by and for ourselves.
So
We
beg
this day
for peace
especially in the Middle East,
that we may be comforted in also Jerusalem, in the West Bank, and in Gaza,
for all people there are also God’s people,
with hopes, dreams, and expectations of a future
that is
better
than this today.