From Dust you have come
On Wednesday evening, one hundred and fifty two of us gathered in person (with many more of you online) to remember that we came from the dust of the earth in creation and that someday we will all go back to becoming dust again. It isn’t a warm and fuzzy message but it is a true one. And in a way, it is a good message. On those days when my problems seem so large, to be reminded of my smallness and the inevitability of death puts those problems into perspective. I recently read about a woman who was struggling and someone gave her the advice to participate in something that will outlast her. They suggested gardening. By planting a tree, she would know that it would exist long after her. The same could go for bulbs that are hidden under the earth and miraculously pop up year after year. My yard is filled with daffodils that have peeked out from the soil announcing that spring is almost here. I didn’t plant those bulbs but I love watching them break through. Someone else put the love and care into hiding them underground and they are no longer here, but the work that they did still goes on and on.
Sometimes our servant work feels like that person who planted the bulbs. We do the tending but we may not see the fruit for some time, if at all. But that doesn’t mean that we stop doing the servant work that we are called to do. We are part of something that extends before we existed and will continue after we are gone. We are partners with the Holy One to bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth. Not everyone will agree on the best way to do that, but if we are all working toward the messages that Jesus gave us, there is bound to be change. In my lifetime, there has been significant change in who has a voice and a seat at the table. Yet, sometimes it seems too slow and that change does not come fast enough.
This first Sunday of Lent, we will be discussing strangers or neighbors. Sometimes our neighbors are also strangers. And sometimes strangers are also our neighbors who we see at the school pick up line or in our favorite grocery store. Sometimes strangers are people that have the same worries that we do about their jobs and their aging parents. Where we find God is in the strangers AND neighbors who are also made in the image of God. Ghandi said “He who does not see God in the next person he meets, need to look no further.” Our scriptural focus for Sunday will be the Good Samaritan. This familiar story reminds us that Jesus talks about what the Samaritan does. His actions are more important than the label he has been given or the groups that he belongs to. And what he does, is profound and loving and risky. Let us be more like the Samaritan.
Love,
