Friends

As I was walking through the woods this fall there was such a rich yellow canopy of leaves that the air itself seemed golden. God’s healing balm was in that moment and I accepted it as grace and a call to remembrance. God is with us and will not abandon us.

Death seeks to consume all our attention: the horrible loss at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the media hyped horror of the ever lurking anthrax. Death rains from the sky in Afghanistan and from bullets and rockets on the ground. This air is filled with the expectation of even more death. This air suffocates life and hope with gloom and despair.

In this moment we are engaged in a struggle that is as much, if not more, inward than outward. The chaos that swirls around the globe might just find a home in your heart and mine if we fail to remember.

Remember Matthew 14:25ff? The story of Jesus walking on the water? Cynics may sneer that he knew where the rocks were but they miss the point of the story. Water is an ancient symbol for chaos. What Matthew is telling his listeners, people who lived in a world about as uncertain as our own, was that regardless of what calamities chaos might unleash on the world look up and you will see the One who rises above it all subduing chaos, and bringing peace, hope, and justice. Look up and breathe in the golden air of remembrance.

The power of remembrance can heal our broken world. The power of remembrance can sow hope where there is despair, joy where there is sadness, justice where the tyranny of chaos reigns.

You and I have a sacred mission. We signed up for it at our baptism. We are called to do a little walking; to follow Jesus out on the waves. Practicing remembrance let us not succumb to the chaos that threatens our world.

Let us bring a fresh breath of air to our weary world. In the power of remembrance let us make our stand against the minions of chaos – hatred, violence, and war. In the power of remembrance let us stand for justice, peace, and liberty. Breathing deep the remembrance of the One who rose let us grasp his hand and, rising above chaos, face this new day with the confidence that only faith, hope, and love can bring.

Joel t