Mar 11, 2022 |
Rector's Blog: Practicing Promise
| The Rev. Philip DeVaul
Rector's Blog: Practicing Promise
If you had not thought about that before, please take a moment simply to sit with it. Attainment of God’s promise is not found in the central narrative of God’s people. The bulk of the story is located in the wilderness - wandering, wrestling, and wrangling.
In this moment, it might be tempting for us as Christians to differentiate ourselves from the Israelites. But we’d be kidding ourselves. Even if we ignore for a moment the centrality of the Torah in Jesus’ life, we’d have to admit that our New Testament leaves us here on earth waiting on a promise. No, this Torah is our story, and we would be wise to locate ourselves within it.
We would be doubly wise to find ourselves in the wilderness alongside the Israelites, because it is in that wilderness that God’s people most consistently recognize God’s presence and power. While they, like us, are attracted to stability and seduced by certainty, they cannot deny that their most potent experience of God’s loving kindness comes to them in the wilderness of struggle and uncertainty. To take the narrative of the Torah seriously is to recognize where God shows up – and it’s not in the perfect places. Far from it.
Your life is not defined by the attainment of all your dreams. Your life is not shaped by the consummation of all your desires. Your life is composed of uncertainty and struggle.
