Waiting on the Lord

With all the advantages of instant communication, we can know about events happening on the other side of the world before we know what is happening next door!  There is an appetite to consume information which will feed our view of the world and what needs to happen. The difficulty with this level of access is that rather than developing an open and enquiring mind it can rush us into a formation of an opinion which may be only partially true. This may well lead to the growing scepticism of level of scrutiny that is made of the facts to rather an impression about what the facts mean for our lives and our own circumstances. The news is shifted through certain preset criteria which cause us to respond to events in a way which can be disproportionate to their importance. We start to be formed by the news reports rather by the Good News that can lead us into life. Rather than becoming aware of how each person makes a contribution to the good of the whole, we can splinter ourselves into the diffusion of light which does not stand out against the darkness. We stop listening to the voice of God in the midst of the community but start to state how one person's opinion differs from our own. We can start to form factions and politicise the various gifts that are needed to strengthen and uphold the commonwealth that is entrusted to us.

This is bought into sharp relief at the beginning of the Gospel of look when Jesus talks about proclaiming good news to the poor, liberty to captives, new sight to those who are blind, freedom to the downtrodden and a sabbatical year! This recognises that we cannot just judge others from the position in which we stand but rather we need to grapple with the struggles which affect the whole body. No one person on their own can proclaim the solution to a problem but neither can we dismiss what another person says simply because it makes us uncomfortable. Rather we need to look at ways in which we can build up the dignity of each person by recognising that while gifts differ Christ draws us together as a whole. This means that as people who belong to Christian communities we need to listen attentively to how God's voice may speak both through the life of another but also through the scriptural traditions of our faith. I believe that attempts to divide people into orthodox and orthopraxis, liberal and conservative, compassionate and faithful can be too easily used to group people into a splintering of the truth. We are not called to follow Jesus Christ created in our own image and likeness but rather the person who draws us together from many different languages, abilities and nations to listen to a deeper communion with God. When we emphasise the differences between us we will find them and the darkness will overcome us. Rather we look for what draws us together and allows us to proclaim the Good News in our own time and space. We need to be people who look for the face of Christ in each other!