How often do you find yourself looking for God?
Though we will certainly never really understand God – For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor
are your ways my ways, the Lord tells Isaiah – we certainly can appreciate
the wonderful benefits of relationship with the God who loved us into
existence. And while we may turn our
back on God, shutting ourselves off, forsaking
God, God, for his part, encourages us always to return: Seek
the Lord while he may be found, Isaiah reminds the people of Israel, for it
is with God that we ultimately find life and love, mercy and forgiveness. Psalm 145 reminds us of God’s qualities that
make this so: The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness…
To sing God’s praises in this way is to make a confession of our acceptance
of the terms of covenant, recognizing our desire for relationship, allowing the
connection, restoring it if need be. God
wants us to seek that relationship,
one in which we will find compassion
and justice on our journey.
Yet it is not necessarily ours to understand God’s justice either, as our gospel reading from
Matthew demonstrates. When a vineyard
owner pays the workes who arrive an hour before closing time the same wage as
the workers who arrived in the early morning, our human hackles start to
rise. That’s not fair! But again, my thoughts are not your thoughts:
God makes it possible for all to live, the first to come to God as
well as the last. Is it up to us to
begrudge the on who comes at the last hour, or will we rejoice because they
love the Lord? After all, they are
following Isaiah’s directive: Seek the Lord… And God’s love is open to them as well.
God’s love is a free gift – wherever we might be. Paul tells the Philippians that whether he
lives or dies, his desire is that Christ
be magnified in his body; he has dedicated himself to the
love of God revealed in Jesus, and spends his every waking hour sharing that
Good News, fruitful labor that helps
Paul to maintain his connection with the God who created him. Through obedience – conducting himself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, Paul
demonstrates how to seek the Lord while
he may be found… We, too, are called
to seek the Lord through our
attention to relationship, with God, with other, preaching the good news so
long as we are able, magnifying Christ
with our bodies, so that those
who seek him may find him in the love we share.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
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