Musings Along Life's Way: To discover God’s realm, even in great loss.
Jesus taught using parables. All summer we have been looking at the parables as we have tried to re-imagine the world that Jesus himself envisioned. As we study the parables we find that Jesus was addressing the very concerns that we long to have addressed in our world. Things like: how is it that one is accepted by God? Who is acceptable? How far do God’s blessings reach? What does one have to do? This week we will be looking at two parables concerning “losing things.” We all know what it is to lose things. In the Parable of the Lost Coin we have a story about a woman who loses a coin and goes to great lengths to find it. Jesus is saying that the realm of God is just like that.
In the gospel of Thomas there is an account of another type of loss the loss that is permanent, the sort of loss where what is lost is not restored. A woman buys grain at the market. On her way home the grain runs out of the jar and she has no inkling that anything is happening. When she gets home, she finds that the grain has all leaked out. And that is the end of the parable! The question for us is: when we lose everything, what is left? What is there? How might the realm of God be perceived in emptiness, in absence?
In the parable of the empty jar we are confronted by a reality that we all must face: when someone we love dies; when we lose a job; when we ourselves suffer a permanent loss through illness or injury we ask ourselves what is there, what is left? In the face of such loss we might even ask ourselves, “without this thing that I have lost, who am I?” This is where Jesus leaves us in the parable of the empty jar, inviting us to discover God’s realm, even in great loss.
I will be in church this Sunday the 13th , out of the office for a bit of vacation the 14th to 19th and back in church on the 20th to send-off our youth for the National Youth Event. If there are any emergencies during my absence, please call the church office and Carmen will be able to reach me.
Blessings, David
In the gospel of Thomas there is an account of another type of loss the loss that is permanent, the sort of loss where what is lost is not restored. A woman buys grain at the market. On her way home the grain runs out of the jar and she has no inkling that anything is happening. When she gets home, she finds that the grain has all leaked out. And that is the end of the parable! The question for us is: when we lose everything, what is left? What is there? How might the realm of God be perceived in emptiness, in absence?
In the parable of the empty jar we are confronted by a reality that we all must face: when someone we love dies; when we lose a job; when we ourselves suffer a permanent loss through illness or injury we ask ourselves what is there, what is left? In the face of such loss we might even ask ourselves, “without this thing that I have lost, who am I?” This is where Jesus leaves us in the parable of the empty jar, inviting us to discover God’s realm, even in great loss.
I will be in church this Sunday the 13th , out of the office for a bit of vacation the 14th to 19th and back in church on the 20th to send-off our youth for the National Youth Event. If there are any emergencies during my absence, please call the church office and Carmen will be able to reach me.
Blessings, David
posted by FirstUCCSR at Thursday, July 10, 2008
0 Comments:
Post a Comment