These last few weeks in our Nation have been intense. Between the COVID-19 cases remaining high, the scramble around vaccines, and the threats of violence following the riot at our Nation's Capitol we have collectively shared a lot of worry and fear. This collective anxiety can translate into exhaustion. Paring the experience of these last few weeks with this Sunday's gospel reading from the book of Mark in which Jesus calls his first disciples brings to mind the old phrase: "My get up and go, got up and went." President Joe Biden has chosen a theme for the beginning of his Presidency it is the refrain from a poem by Irish Poet Seames Heaney. The refrain of his 1991 Poem "The Cure at Troy" is: "justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme." The poem points out the often harsh reality of being human: that we hurt one another and sometimes we misplace our hope in death. The poem points beyond this to hope, encouraging us to "Believe in miracles. And cures and healing wells." For us as Christians, hope is a well known place, even if we have trouble getting there from time to time. We all know there is work to be done, Jesus calls us all to the work of building the reign of God, and after four years of active work against environmental protections there is a lot our Nation and world need to do for creation. This Sunday we will spend time with the story of the Prophet Jonah and Jesus' call to his first disciples, as we seek to better understand our own call and work in this world for God's glory.
In Faith,
Rev. Amanda
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