Bad News

Today's paper has the usual complement of bad news - parents who seemingly perpetuated a hoax about their 6 year old son being wafted away in a large helium balloon, and about a father who was shooting at his children and was subsequently shot by two sheriff's deputies. In addition, there are ongoing wars within and between countries. Iran was in the news because a suicide bomber killed five senior commanders of the Revolutionary Guard. In Pakistan both government forces and the Taliban were claiming victory in a battle near the Afghan border. Meanwhile the United States is still at war in two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, and has military bases in dozens of others.

At the same time, I heard from one of my sisters last night that she and her husband had to close their little cafe in Tucson, Arizona because too many of their former customers were unemployed or had members of their family out of work and no longer have the money to eat meals out of the home. She said that almost all of the businesses in the area of the cafe have closed in the last few months. She and her husband have been trying to sell their place for months, are now behind in their mortgage payments, and are waiting to see what comes next; a buyer or foreclosure.

In one of the blogs I follow, mompriest writes about resigning from her position, her reasons for and her feelings about that. Her reflections on Job - current revised common lectionary readings - point to one possible way to hope and pray.

Perhaps I can learn from Job and trust that God is a part of all of this, the good, the hard, the painful. I don’t believe that God causes these challenging times in life. Loosely based on the systematic theology of John MacQuarrie, I’ve come to think that because of free will God allows life to unfold, the good, the hard, the painful. I also think that, as God did in the beginning of creation, when God created order out of chaos, that God helps us move through the chaos into a new created sense of order.

Perhaps as women we play an important role, at this particular time in history, helping God re-create from the chaos of the world. Perhaps God is speaking into the world in a particular way, through the voices of women and the way we lead. Perhaps in time relational leadership will pull order out of disorder and create new ways of being church? Perhaps we are called to lead in this challenging time so that the world can more fully understand what Jesus means when he says, “the first will be last and the last will be first.”

My prayer is that the leadership of nations and churches will take that relational, orderly and peaceful path that we so badly need. I pray that such relational leaders, both woman and men, will be raised up and empowered to guide us on this path. I pray that we will create new ways to be church, to be family, to be community and nations. I pray especially for those whom Jesus called the least of these my brothers and sisters. They are those of us who have no jobs, little safety, and those caught in addictions, family violence, warfare and poverty. I pray that each one will be healed, fed, clothed, sheltered, set free, and given a share in the resources he or she needs to survive and even flourish. AMEN.