Last week we began our Theological Banquet Series and Janet Gear, the mastermind behind the work, preached eloquently about the way our lives, even more that our words, speak our most true, authentic theology. Read your life, your loves, your passions, your actions and you will understand what you truly believe.
And then life happened this week: marchers took to the streets, more unmarked graves in residential schools were revealed, seniors gathered again, study groups and choirs began, and a myriad of moments created quite a week of life. What did it say about what we believe? And then Janet’s words came back to me: “There’s so much at stake - in the challenges of your own life and the lives of those you love, in the world beyond our reach but not beyond our care. To flourish in the vitality of a community built of difference becomes a way of writing a life-saving message between the lines of hostility and grief of OUR time…”
Did you catch that? We are to write a life-saving message between the lines of hostility and grief of our time. And we write that message with the love we offer every day.
It is not an easy calling, and sometimes it feels like it is all up to us, and it is just too much. But there is a beautiful stream of theology within our church that Janet has labeled “Evangelical” that reminds us, it is not actually all up to us. Yes, we are called to love in the midst of a sometimes hostile and grieving world. But we have a capacity to love only because God has first loved us. Following the Way of Jesus, allowing that love to change and transform us, carrying that love in our hearts and sharing it- this is how the life-saving message gets written.
This week, the theological stream we will swim in is the evangelical stream. It exists within the lived faith of some of our dear members. Come and celebrate the “life-saving message” as it is written and shared in the lives of our community, and witness the life-saving difference it makes.
Blessings
Will.