Yearning

Isaiah 64:1-9

There was a video which was on Facebook this week from an organization called, The Work of the People. In it the Rev. Becca Stevens says, "unrequited love is not bad," she goes on to describe the longing which it sets in our hearts. This longing is all a part of our spiritual journey and we need to learn to embrace it. This is because it drives us forward searching.

This is what the people are experiencing today. There are accusations made that God has gone far away, hid God's face and isn't around for the people anymore. They remember when God shook the mountains (gave the ten commandments to Moses). They know God can be known and they don't understand why God has deserted them. Like us they think it may be their own transgressions, something they did wrong because there has to be some explanation for this yearning. Maybe its even that they have forgotten God. There has to be a reason.

We like reasons, they make us feel safe. As though we have a handle on our world, and on the God who is infinite and more than we can imagine. Yearning brings us into the really unexplored territories though. Just like it will for Isaiah. There will be promise and hope and amazing deeds which will come, which all people yearn for. We yearn for healing, for wholeness, for peace in a world which doesn't seem to have it. It is so easy to yearn for the easy answers instead of letting this longing drive us to drink of the cup and propel us forward into this desolate landscape.

There was a series of books a long time ago called, "The Singer, The Song and The Finale" by someone with the last name of Miller. In these books is the story of Jesus' (the singers) beginning, life, death and resurrection told in terms of music and philosophy. They awaken this yearning because there is so much in the words. They can mean so many different things and every time you read it, there is more which you connect with. It follows different characters, like the man who was healed from having a legion of demons and his grief, loss, and yearning for the man who made him whole. Who clothed him and put his mind to right. It is powerful because it conveys the grief, anger, and resolution into acceptance of this character and then the joy once the Singer sings once again.

This year and many years we yearn for so much. For God to stop people from hurting one another, for there to be peace between nations, for there to be healing in people's lives from disease and from grief. We long for God to intervene and make it easier for us and yet in the parable in Mark we are told each member of the house has a work to do while they are watching, waiting and longing. This is not idle waiting. This is something participatory and it was also for the people of Isaiah. To not forget, to not give up, to not loose faith and dive into the longing of being close to God. It is a work not for the faint of heart because we have to intentionally look for the signs of God's in breaking into our world and lives.

It is like a good piece of music which makes you yearn to hear its strains and notes. Driving from dissonance to harmony, leaving us hanging for the next note we can hear in our mind. Our ears are trained to hear it. This is all we are doing with God, training ourselves to keep looking for the resolution of all, planting hope in places where it doesn't exist, giving peace to others by listening to their concerns and ideas without condemnation, to be God's light in this world by blessing others. This is all Israel is called to do. Show God's abundant blessing to a world so in need and it starts with us. You are God's child you are this blessing, yearn to be the blessing you have been shown and given. We just may help create this longing in others and help to heal a broken world.


Please support this ministry. Thank you.
https://causemomentum.org/projects/jubilee-ministries-bright-futures-partnership

Comments