From the Pulpit: Good news at the intersections

Summer is not relaxing. I know this because as someone who has served families and youth in this community for five years now, I pay attention. There are activities for kids of ALL ages. Trust me, Oskar’s 6 and already in a couple of them. There are things that we northern people can only do for so many months of the year (boating, golfing, camping, bonfires, etc.). Most people make time for family vacations; the term itself is a contradiction, there is nothing restful about spending nights away from home with a 3- and 6-year-old.  

The path through summer often feels like a freeway/highway; on ramps, interchanges, merge lanes, over passes, under passes all going in many directions. The paths cross, they zig, they zag and get all tangled and we can wonder if we are headed in the right direction at all. 

In scripture we hear Jesus talk about a “narrow way” (see Matt. 7:13) and sometimes in church circles we have heard it called even “straight and narrow” (though a better translation is for “straight” is “hard” in that context). But sometimes I think that we misunderstand the nature then of how it is we, as the Church, are called to move through the world.

You see the narrow way of Christ is a path of discipleship and self-denial; it is a life lived in love and service in Jesus’ name. It is not a life that is lived in seclusion or separation from the rest of the world but rather right in the middle of it. A life of faith is a life filled with intersections.

In each season we are challenged as a people of God to bring the Good News into the places we are, to bear witness to God’s grace for us at the moments when our lives intersect with lives, needs and cares of others. 

If you read the book of Acts you will hear the continuation of Jesus’ ministry after Easter and how he sent the disciples out into the world. We hear how they preached in the places where the Gospel path intersected with the lives and communities they encountered. Sometimes these intersections looked more like crashes, sometimes a chaotic exchange but in every intersection, the Holy Spirit was creating new pathways and places for God’s redemption in Christ to intersect with people traveling many different paths.

Watch for those intersections where God’s work meets your reality and see them as places where the Good News of the resurrection meets creation with grace and hope in Jesus’ name. 

Peace for the journey and be sure to watch those intersections.