{"id":753,"date":"2020-05-01T01:00:17","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T05:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/?p=753"},"modified":"2020-04-29T10:00:07","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T14:00:07","slug":"randomness-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/randomness-redemption\/","title":{"rendered":"Randomness & Redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"

May is a pretty quiet month. The liturgical calendar is pretty empty. Except for the commemoration of St. Philip and St. James. And the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh Sundays of Easter. And Ascension Day. And Pentecost. And that\u2019s just The Lectionary Page\u2019s Episcopal calendar. The Lutheran calendar on Sundays and Seasons adds the commemoration of St. Matthias and the Vigil of Pentecost. Holy Women Holy Men<\/span>, which is a bit more ecumenical, adds the commemoration of twenty-three more women and men \u2013\u2013 including such notables as Joan of Arc, St. Athanasius, Augustine (of Canterbury), Copernicus, Julian of Norwich, and the Martyrs of the Sudan. There are ten Two Churches\u2019 birthdays. On my own calendar there are other birthdays (Simon our cat\u2019s going to be twelve) and nineteen meetings (so far). And Memorial Day.<\/p>\n

Memorial Day, while initially instituted to remember those who died during the Civil War, has also become known as the beginning of summer. A day for cookouts, and games, and races, and revelry. But May will be quieter this year. Somewhat quieter at least. There may even be an aspect of Advent to it, as we wait to see how the pandemic shifts and moves and unfolds. And where outbreaks are. Almost, perhaps, like a murmuration. Do you know what that is? Have you ever seen one? You may not know the word, but you’d know one if you\u2019d seen one. It\u2019s when hundreds or even thousands of birds fly together across the sky in a whirling, undulating, ever-changing unpredictable pattern. And there\u2019s a certain randomness to it that thrills the soul and makes it beautiful.<\/p>\n

But not all randomness is beautiful. On April 2, I wrote: “I grievously lament this sorrowful truth. Many people are going to die. And everyone is hoping and praying that no one they know and love will die; but not everyone\u2019s hopes and prayers will be realized. And many people will also wonder why God is allowing this to happen. But God is neither allowing or disallowing it since we have been given both the (ofttimes) blessing and the (sometimes) curse of free will. And when this all winds down, the outcomes will have been determined \u2013\u2013 or at least significantly influenced \u2013\u2013 by how we chose to plan ahead and use all of the medical and scientific resources at our collective disposal. But of two things I\u2019m confident: God is in lamentation right along with us. And in God’s time, there’s nothing that God can’t redeem.”<\/p>\n

It\u2019s alarming to me that “we” could have done better. But there\u2019s nothing that God can\u2019t redeem. It\u2019s distressing to me that there is such wildly inconsistent “news” being reported. But there\u2019s nothing that God can\u2019t redeem. It\u2019s upsetting to me that needed supplies are in short supply. But there\u2019s nothing that God can\u2019t redeem.<\/p>\n

Though in the extended Two Churches\u2019 community, it\u2019s “so far so good.” No one has told me about anyone they know who\u2019s died from this virus. If you learn of someone, please let me know and I\u2019ll say a prayer. But in the mean time, I\u2019ll pray that our government\u2019s response to this crisis becomes increasingly focused and nationally consistent. I\u2019ll pray that those who need to take this more seriously, do; and those who need to relax a little bit, do too. I\u2019ll pray that the Holy Spirit conducts a murmuration of Wisdom across the face of this nation and the world, and that nature\u2019s new growth and life which emerges all around us in May, is mirrored in the new and sustained life which emerges through medical research. And I\u2019ll pray that May remains quiet in death. And loud in life. After all, we are all holy women and holy men. Please pray with me. Amen.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May is a pretty quiet month. The liturgical calendar is pretty empty. Except for the commemoration of St. Philip and St. James. And the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh Sundays of Easter. And Ascension Day. And Pentecost. And that\u2019s just The Lectionary Page\u2019s Episcopal calendar. The Lutheran calendar on Sundays and Seasons adds the commemoration of St. Matthias and the Vigil of Pentecost. Holy Women Holy Men, which is a bit more ecumenical, adds the commemoration of twenty-three more women and men \u2013\u2013 including such notables as Joan of Arc, St. Athanasius, Augustine (of Canterbury), Copernicus, Julian of Norwich, and the Martyrs of the Sudan. There are ten Two Churches\u2019 birthdays. On my own calendar there are other birthdays (Simon our cat\u2019s going to be twelve) and nineteen meetings (so far). And Memorial Day. Memorial Day, while initially instituted to remember those who died during the Civil War, has also become known as the beginning of summer. A day for cookouts, and games, and races, and revelry. But May will be quieter this year. Somewhat quieter at least. There may even be an aspect of Advent to it, as we wait to see how the pandemic shifts and moves and unfolds. And where outbreaks are. Almost, perhaps, like a murmuration. Do you know what that is? Have you ever seen one? You may not know the word, but you’d know one if you\u2019d seen one. It\u2019s when hundreds or even thousands of birds fly together across the sky in a whirling, undulating, ever-changing unpredictable pattern. And there\u2019s a certain randomness to it that thrills the soul and makes it beautiful. But not all randomness is beautiful. On April 2, I wrote: “I grievously lament this sorrowful truth. Many people are going to die. And everyone is hoping and praying that no one they know and love will die; but not everyone\u2019s hopes and prayers will be realized. And many people will also wonder why God is allowing this to happen. But God is neither allowing or disallowing it since we have been given both the (ofttimes) blessing and the (sometimes) curse of free will. And when this all winds down, the outcomes will have been determined \u2013\u2013 or at least significantly influenced \u2013\u2013 by how we chose to plan ahead and use all of the medical and scientific resources at our collective disposal. But of two things I\u2019m confident: God is in lamentation right along with us. And in God’s time, there’s nothing that God can’t redeem.” It\u2019s alarming to me that “we” could have done better. But there\u2019s nothing that God can\u2019t redeem. It\u2019s distressing to me that there is such wildly inconsistent “news” being reported. But there\u2019s nothing that God can\u2019t redeem. It\u2019s upsetting to me that needed supplies are in short supply. But there\u2019s nothing that God can\u2019t redeem. Though in the extended Two Churches\u2019 community, it\u2019s “so far so good.” No one has told me about anyone they know who\u2019s died from this virus. If you learn of someone, please let me know and I\u2019ll say a prayer. But in the mean time, I\u2019ll pray that our government\u2019s response to this crisis becomes increasingly focused and nationally consistent. I\u2019ll pray that those who need to take this more seriously, do; and those who need to relax a little bit, do too. I\u2019ll pray that the Holy Spirit conducts a murmuration of Wisdom across the face of this nation and the world, and that nature\u2019s new growth and life which emerges all around us in May, is mirrored in the new and sustained life which emerges through medical research. And I\u2019ll pray that May remains quiet in death. And loud in life. After all, we are all holy women and holy men. Please pray with me. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-our-newsletter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":755,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions\/755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}