Last Try

Dear Family,

I have blogged this week, or at least i have written the blog, three times, but each time i try to post it; something happens, and i lose the message. I am hoping this works.

The beauty of having so many opportunities to write, rewrite, and rethink the blog is that i can return to the message and rework my thoughts into a more coherent stream. Maybe third time is a charm. Or it could be that God is trying to show me something by making it so difficult to post the blog, maybe i am just missing the obvious signs?

It seems there are always a lot of signs, but some times we have to orient the eyes of our hearts in order to see them for what they are, God's attempt to reveal God's glory and love. But truth is the signs God gives us, other than the whole three days later, and the stone being rolled away, and Jesus resurrecting, the signs that God chooses are, more times than not, what we take for run of the mill, ordinary events. But for God, it is a chance for God to share God's being with us. We just cant see, truly see. And that makes us look for other more significant signs, but that often leaves us wanting, doubting, and sometimes following false teachers.

When we spend our time looking to the sky for signs, hoping and praying for something divine, we can get lost, easily. We want so badly to experience something wonderful that we will follow paths that normally we would have seen and known to be false, even ones that proclaim the end is near, like October 21st. There are other serious hurdles too.

If we find ourselves comfortable and enjoying life, maybe even growing wealthy and powerful, then we can follow those teachers, in the church, whose teaching doesn't mesh with what Jesus would have us do, in fact some of the teachings can be downright contrary to what is true, true in the essence of Jesus. How do we determine what is true and what is false? That is a question that has plagued the church for two thousand years.

One answer, though it is not purely the only answer, is to judge the teachings of the church/religious leaders with the teachings of Jesus. If there are no differences, if the teachings of the church stand in solidarity with the teachings of Jesus, as written down in the Gospels, then we can have faith that what is being taught is true. But if the teachings stand against Jesus then, like Jesus warning his disciples of the Pharisees false yeast, the church can and has injured many a persons with false teachings.

It is our job to wrestle with truth and falsehood, and only through the lens of faith can that be done in a way to honor Jesus and the world. We have to do what is right, in the name of Jesus, even if that carries life changing consequences with it, and maybe those changes are the signs that God intended all along. Amen.

Shalom,
jerry