Good and Eternal

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Rev. Molly F. James, PhD
DFMS Noonday Prayer via Zoom
April 27, 2020
Psalm 36 & 39; Col. 1:1-14; Matt. 3:7-12

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Many of you know that I have a hard time with these passages on Judgment. And I feel like saying, “God, life is hard enough right now. I don’t need these kinds of passages. There are days when producing any fruit - whether it be the laundry, the groceries, the schoolwork or my own work - is hard enough. Now you are telling me it has to be “good” fruit or else? Nope. Can’t take it.”

That is always my first instinct. To read this passage as some kind of impossible standard God is holding up for us to attain. Somehow we have to be perfect or the consequences will be dire. Then I take a deep breath, and I look again. And I hear the voices of wise and wonderful people in my life. I hear them gently asking me to look at the text again and to wonder whether the image of a wrathful, vengeful God holding me to an impossibly high standard is really what this text is saying or does it fit with the God I know and love.

Um, no, it doesn’t. It doesn’t fit with what I know of God. And I also think about the resources I have valued when I have grappled with these texts previously. One of my favorite resources that really helped to transform my thinking about these judgment texts is a collection of essays written by Eugene Kennedy in the wake of 9/11. Kennedy writes of those who died on 9-11 (and I think this could apply equally to many large scale and individual losses in our lives and our world): “Their voices, taken from phone calls and emails and the recollections of friends, blend now into one message, one voice like a canyon echo coming back to us out of the ruins: ‘I love you,’ said in a thousand ways is the true harvest of these good people’s lives. The good grain so overflowed that it covered over the patches of human stubble in their lives . . . They defined themselves and what life and faith are all about in the commitment to the relationships in their lives.” When we look at all those people from all sorts of walks a life - a real cross section of humanity - who perished on 9/11 or in any other context, we should see the good - the overwhelming good in them, for as Kennedy goes on to say, that is what ultimately matters to God. Kennedy writes, “What is good and bad in us grows together. On judgment day, God harvests only what is good in us, for that is what is eternal, and ignores the weeds that belong to time.”

Right. There is where our focus should be. On what is good and eternal. It is so easy in these times (or any time when we feel stretched thin or overwhelmed or fearful) for those voices to be dominant in our minds and hearts. It is so easy to focus on what is wrong, on what is missing, on what is lost. But as wise people know, that is not a life-giving place to be. Endlessly focusing on what is missing will leave us disheartened, and we will miss out on the abundance that is right in front of us.

Of course, in these times we are aware of what is missing. We cannot be with our friends. We cannot gather as the faithful people of God in person. We cannot just hop in our car or on the subway and go about what used to be a regular routine. Those are the losses of our daily lives. We are also grappling with the more significant grief of losing people we know or to whom we are connected in some way. The losses of this pandemic are not merely numbers on a screen. They have human faces and lives that tell stories just like those who died on 9/11. The losses are significant and real in these days.

And while we can and must acknowledge the magnitude of our grief, we cannot live in that place. We cannot stay there. We must not allow our vision to be solely focused on loss. There are many, many blessings in our lives for which we can be grateful even in this time. Technology to stay connected. Not just having jobs, but having the opportunity to do inspiring and meaningful work. The gifts of collegiality and friendship. As our General Thanksgiving says, “the loving care which surrounds us on every side.” Health, enough to eat, the beauty of the natural world. The list goes on and on.

Mystic and theologian Meister Eckhart is known for saying that if our only prayer is “Thank you” that will be enough. Indeed. In the midst of all the challenges we are facing, in the midst of all the fear and uncertainty, may we keep finding the words and the ways to express our gratitude. May our eyes and hearts continue to be open to see the tremendous beauty of our world and the resiliency of the human spirit. AMEN.