The God of Each (mid-week Message)

 

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

June 23, 2021

The God of Each

 

“Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.  Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy Name, through Christ our Lord. Amen.”    Collect for Purity, BCP p. 355.    

 

“Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.” –Robin Williams

“So have no fear of [those who would harm you]; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.  What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops” (Matt 10:26-27).

I have been struck in recent weeks at the way that most of us, if not all, have secrets we keep mainly out of fear of others using them against us.  We need to trust someone before we share our hidden stuff with them.  This is one of the great reasons for the seal of the confessional and keeping pastoral confidences:  losing the trust needed for sharing is the most direct effect of violations of such confidences.  Yet I have also noted that even secrets we take to the grave eventually have a way of becoming known. 

 

We are social creatures, and establish mutual boundaries of trust and confidence through the life-long process of sharing a common life.   We hold our norms so deeply that on occasion, we ascribe them to God, thinking that the Almighty shares them completely, and agrees with our judgment of others.  

 

But the curious thing is that the Bible’s basic story arc, for all its communal, “people chosen by God” discourse, is one where the All Nurturing One engages with individual people first, and only then with the groups to which they belong.   Yahweh calls Abram from his family and homeland, and then makes a covenant with him after telling him to "look to the stars and see if you can count them."  The covenant establishes his descendants as special heritage, and God continues to engage and covenant with individuals among them.  That’s why he is called the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” or the “God of Israel [Jacob and his descendants].”       

 

Jesus calls God our Father in Heaven.  He does not call him “Grandfather” or “Great Uncle.”  To think that somehow our personal relationship with God is of more value than God’s relationship with all other individual people is just plain wrong.  To think that somehow if we pass a tradition of faith on to others, that makes their experience God derivative to and measured by our own, deeply misses the truth that each and every person is in the image of God, and that God calls each person and speaks to their heart directly.  

 

We simply do not know what burdens, battles, and scars others bear.  All desires are known to God alone; and it is only from God that no secrets are hid.  That’s why we must not judge, and “be swift to love, make haste to be kind.” 

 

Grace and Peace. 

Fr. Tony+