The Newspaper Lectionary for Oct 28

This isn’t exactly an approved spiritual discipline, but lately I’ve been reading the Saturday religion articles in my local newspaper as lectionary readings. As you’d expect with a lectionary, each Saturday brings three main articles, and the topics are only loosely connected—or not at all. The point is to read them prayerfully and see what bubbles to the surface.

Here’s what came out of today’s “readings”:

• A column about the more difficult side of the Bible, particularly familial conflicts and God’s action therein: Abraham, Sarah and Hagar, Jacob and Esau, etc. The writer, Phyllis Trible of Wake Forest University Divinity School, notes, “As disturbing as they are, these stories disclose life in all its configurations. They give voice to struggle, hurt and fear. They permit railings at God. They also show ‘more excellent ways,’ through contrast and juxtaposition, and offer an authentic narrative by which to measure life.”
• An article about a Kenyan pastor building an orphanage for children who have lost parents to AIDS. His quote: “Christianity isn’t just about going to church; it’s about living as Jesus did and demonstrating his good deeds through yourself. I’m getting up there in years and want to give my energy to people all over the world, before it runs out.”
• A brief report of an online survey in which 97 percent of respondents say they speak to God—and more than 90 percent say God speaks to them.
  

Disconnected? Sure, somewhat. But there is a thread here. The God we worship is utterly mysterious and sometimes disturbing. His actions in the world often baffle us, as when he is present—or absent?—amid terrible conflict. Moreover, following this God requires a complete conversion of our lives: a giving over of ourselves to the service of others.

And yet—and yet—nearly everyone continues to seek connection with this God.

I suspect there are two reasons. One harks back to St. Peter’s timeless phrase: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Indeed, there is no one else who encompasses the world and every creature therein.

Somehow, that encompassing brings profound comfort to the soul. And perhaps it is because we sense, more deeply than anything else, that this presence loves us, deeply, completely. Which is the other reason why we never seem to give up on union with God: because we know, without knowing, that the world is all about God, and God is love.