There is a lot of anxiety in the world today. It’s understandable given the state of things. It feels like the world is out of control, nothing and no one is safe. I count the number of those who have died a violent death in the last few weeks and it is enough to make me despair. It makes me wrestle with God in new ways and old ways. The perennial questions of the nature of “Why do bad things happen?” and “Why do I get to go on while others don’t?” are some of my well-worn questions. Some of the new one are things like “Are we safe in the Chapel?” and “What’s the point?”
This is the second time since I started at St. A’s in September that there have been dozens of people killed for no reason. I still don’t have any answers to the questions. I’m still heart-broken. There have been no satisfactory answers given to the big questions of the day by any civic or ecclesiastic authority. There are a million things I want to say and do, but I’m also angry and tired and frustrated, and I know I’m not the only one. I want to jump up and down, scream like a prophet at the world, make things different RIGHT NOW.
But that’s not how the world is. So I will recommit to the action steps I made in a different post on this blog. I’ll keep working to make my life reflect the Way of Jesus and a toward a world that’s more loving and kind, and I know I’m not the only one. Togehter, slowly, but hopefully not too slowly, we will build a world that is the beloved community of God’s dream that John of Patmos so beautifully describes in Revelation:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Rev 21.1-6
Jesus asks us to participate in making this vision a reality. What will I do? What will you do? How will we make this vision a realily together?
St. Augustine's Chapel 