In Marilynne Robinson’s book, _When I Was a Child I Wrote Books_, she thoughtfully states, “Community, at least community larger than the immediate family, consists very largely of imaginative love for people we do not know or whom we know very slightly.”
Janie Stuart interviews a university student to get a window into the “young minds” of today.
“Even as a child, there was a strong sense for me that this is where I wanted to be.” (Ryan Church)
In Jesus’ incomparable style, he tells a story that illustrates the principle—the parable of the Good Samaritan—and in doing so flips the question. He ends the conversation with a call to mission, asking, whose neighbor will you be?
What does it mean to look uncertainty in the face and dare to believe that it is not an enemy but an opportunity? What does it look like for us to acknowledge our anxieties and to care for one another as we experience them, but also to deepen our trust in God? How can we respond to Jesus Christ as our hope and share that hope more fully with those to whom God has sent us?
We are on the cusp of Lent, a special time in our church calendar when we prepare for Easter. It’s a unique season, which we believe is even better when we experience it together.
Sometimes it takes a trip to Scotland to learn what God means when he says, “Love your neighbor.”
A good book takes you traveling. C. S. Lewis wrote that one of the things we feel after reading a good book is “I got out.” Or “I got in.”
How do you think about God when you have concentrated every part of your being in prayer, when you’ve asked again and again and in every way you know how, with all of the faith and humility and persistence available to you, and yet it seems that you do not get through?
© 2013 University Presbyterian Church, Seattle.
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