We spoke last week of prophecy and prophets which move us on in the Advent cycle to the candle that symbolises faith, peace and the journey into a place of new beginnings, Bethlehem. John cried out in the wilderness to a people who had lost their faith and were living in a time of violence. A prophet at a specific time and place calling in a setting bereft of life to bring new meaning and new life into the lives of the people of the covenant. A call from the deserted places of our lives to incarnate a faith that glows with the power of love and peace. In moving towards the incarnation we recognise that our faith journey often ends up in the wilderness. The wilderness of disappointment and solitude. A wilderness that is founded upon our own deserted dreams and aspirations burnt to dust by the grind of daily life in an era that does not understand faith and its fulfilment in our lives. In looking at John's call from the wilderness there is a point where we need to understand that the call that comes from God often comes from a wilderness experience.
The present day is perhaps very similar to the Middle East at the time of the incarnation in terms of violence and division. The nations of the world are divided in terms of how or what peace means; on how to manage or support environmental change and other needs that affect all peoples. There is no possibility of dialogue within the true meaning of listening but rather a continual babble of wants and desires that affect the world's abilities to respond together as humanity; rather than individual needs and requirements for advancement or perceived progress in wealth and prosperity for a few. There are numbers that call from the devastation of their lives who live in deserts created by selfish others who look only to profit from the misery of others. We just have to look at the response to efforts to bring the world back to some semblance of normality in the aftermath of COVID to see how sense is a small voice that is besieged in the desert winds of denialists and those that are anti anything to do with ensuring health and well being. In many respects the faith groups of the world are just as divided and are unable to bring some sort of hope and peace to those who have been devastated by the ravages of COVID and war.
In the deserted places of our hearts we have no peace and we yearn for something to fill the emptiness. Our hope that we carried over from last week is a nascent shoot in the middle of nothingness that we supply with our faith to help it to grow in a manner that brings peace rather than confrontation. God calls us towards peace not towards violence and as people who journey in faith we need to understand that our relationships need to be built on peace. Our current age allows and encourages us towards confrontation by giving us binary decisions to make rather than seeing new beginnings in an atmosphere of listening and understanding. The desert allows us to remove all the clamouring from our lives and allows us to listen for the persistent voice that is quietly calling us to freedom and peace. A call that has resounded through the ages and is culminated in the incarnation of Christ who shows us the way forward through acceptance and dialogue.
We ourselves cannot be complacent when we hear God call to us and just accept the status quo. Rather we must actively seek God's blessing upon us so that we can embark towards new ministries and new ways of doing things for God's rule. Only when we manifest God's love in our lives and open the dialogue that is necessary to bring reconciliation and healing between peoples in our communities will we begin the enact God's call. It is all very well for us to pray and speak about how wonderful God is but without changing how we act in our lives we will be no closer to bringing God's peace and encouraging our faith to burgeon and lighten the load that is on the community in which we live. We face a new world out there, one that has been forged in the fires of COVID and denial of change. In facing that new world we need to place our faith in God's presence and listen to God's voice leading us towards God's peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment