Turning Towards God

Beloved in Christ, 

Every morning at almost exactly 6:00 am, I sit down for twenty minutes of centering prayer. This time is simply about resting in God’s presence. Every time my mind starts to wander, or floods with thoughts and worries, I gently let them pass and return to resting in God. It’s consistently amazing how hard it is not try to be, do, or accomplish anything at all for twenty minutes. 

This daily practice is a microcosm for the whole life of discipleship: returning to God, over and over and over; turning our lives, our worries, our challenges, our families, our jobs, and our whole world back over to God’s power and God’s care. Just as every morning I repeat the pattern of distraction and presence, distraction and presence, each moment of our lives is about surrendering to Jesus, letting God be God and doing our best to get out of God’s way.

In the gospel appointed for this coming Sunday, Jesus, in true Jesus fashion, lays down some hard teaching about how one comes to know the kingdom of God. Sell everything you own and give it to the poor. It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. Thankfully there’s a punchline: “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God. For God all things are possible.’

As you face the challenges in your life, as we together face the challenges of being the church in this moment, as we feel the weight of a nation torn apart, and as we mark a full year since the abhorrent attacks in Israel and the following devastation and destruction that continues to rain down on the people of Palestine, Jesus invites us to remember that we are not the ultimate agents of the world salvation. It won’t happen because of our goodness, or our intelligence, or our efforts. Which doesn’t mean we can simply be passive. We must, always and always, speak boldly in the face of injustice. We must, always and always, live the way of love, which always seeks good for the other. 

But we do so by turning ourselves, our lives, and our world over to God’s power. We don’t take the weight of the world on our shoulders, we yoke ourselves to God’s never failing shoulders of power and love. Breath by loving breath, moment by tiny moment, we return again, we surrender, we offer up. For mortals it is impossible, but not for God. For God all things are possible

Grace and Peace,

The Right Reverend Craig Loya