From Rev. Eric…
January 29, 2025
“…yet, not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) Jesus has had the last supper with his disciples. After going to the Mount of Olives, Jesus takes himself a “stone’s throw” from his followers and prays. He asks for “the cup” to be removed from him. In other words, is there any other way that can be lived such that he did not have to pass through the suffering inflicted by the ways of Rome?
Does God “will” suffering? Perhaps God, being fully human, must suffer so as to experience all the horrors that humanity can perpetrate upon humanity. Perhaps God is looking not at the cross but at the empty tomb on the other side of suffering. Perhaps. Theologians have many answers.
I often ask the question of God, “What is your will for me in the midst of this… mess?” Yes, the particulars matter in the infinite situations life presents each of us with, but scripture provides some broad themes to guide us through those situations: from the prophet Micah’s call “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8) to the words in Leviticus, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (19:18), to Jesus’s teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, showing what that love may look like (Matthew 5-7), to Paul’s words, “Pursue love” (1 Corinthians 14:1).
Not easy. Doable? Yes. Especially in these messy times.
Rev. Eric