Friday Connection October 9, 2024
The Friday Connection is coming out early today in anticipation that many of us may not have power for a few days after Hurricane Milton arrives.
Today we are on pause waiting for this monster hurricane to possibly devastate
portions of Florida. It almost makes you ache inside knowing that some folks did not evacuate for many reasons that made sense to them, and now their lives are at risk. We also ache because so many people are still hurting from the loss they experienced from Hurricane Helene just a week ago. It is in these times that I am deeply aware that Scripture does not give us all the answers we need.
Why is there so much pain and suffering? Why is there so much evil in our world? Why is God allowing these bad things to keep occurring? It is the same ache we feel for the people of Ukraine or the innocent citizens of Gaza. Why is Florida getting hit again with so much devastation?
There is a passage in Luke 19:41-44 that describes Jesus having this same kind of internal ache over what was coming to His beloved city of Jerusalem:
“And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Jesus is most likely grieving the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem that will occur forty years after his death and resurrection in 70 CE during the time of the Roman-Jewish war, when Rome reclaimed the city and destroyed the temple and the city leaving only a portion of the western wall remaining of the temple. Jesus understands the pain that is coming, and He cries, and He aches for those it will impact.
I think there is a theological truth here. We are called to feel and to suffer with each other. We are never meant to live above the heartache of this world. We are meant to be in and among it. Crying for those in pain and feeling the ache of this unjust world. We are also called to do what we can for those who are hurting. Checking in on our neighbors, sharing of our resources. Doing whatever we can to ease another’s pain and suffering.
Remember, Jesus had both human eyes and divine eyes. He knew about the joy we would experience after death one day, but that did not mean he dismissed the suffering here on this earth. There is work to be done here and so we get ready, as we wait for this storm, to push up our sleeves and help our neighbors.
Note: As of now, we have plans to have our regularly scheduled worship services on Sunday, October 13 unless you hear otherwise on via email or social media. (Or, unless Pastor Gary does not finish his sermon in time for Sunday. *Smile)
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