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“It is not we who can sustain the Church, nor was it our forefathers, nor will it be our descendants. It was and is and will be the One who says: ‘I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’ … For us, the Church would perish before our very eyes, and we with it (as we daily prove), were it not for that other Man who manifestly upholds the Church and us.” Martin Luther
as quoted by Barth
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“Come now, insignificant man, fly for a moment from your affairs, escape for a little while from the tumult of your thoughts. Put aside now your weighty cares and leave your wearisome toils. Abandon yourself for a little to God and rest for a little in Him.” Anselm of Canterbury Proslogion I was moved by this, this week, because in it are combined: a gentle self-deprecation, an awareness of the “pull” of our thoughts/busynesses, the reminder that we may choose to set aside any number of our anxieties in order to simply rest; to be.
The secret is abandonment. The destination is the heart of the Lord. And, the result is less self-seriousness, greater depth of mindful joy, the peace that passes all understanding, and the “being and becoming” which only He can offer. Sounds pretty lovely to me! His Kingdom is a kingdom of glorious suffering, unrecognizable to the world whose broken ways He came to right: He will spread His arms to call all, to embrace all, to welcome all into the arms of the God who has always loved them.
His yoke, light and easy, rests upon His shoulders just as perfectly naturally as did the crossbeam which He carried up Golgotha’s hillside. He staggers not under the weight of your sin. He walks upward, heavenward, carrying it. His Holy Spirit trails along behind Him wherever He goes. Joy lights the path of this conquering King. His Kingdom conquers the world by His own perfect adherence to the will of the Father. In other words, “It is finished.” God, in his foreknowledge, chose us to bear the family likeness of his Son, that he might be the eldest of a family of many brothers. He chose us long ago; when the time came he called us, he made us righteous in his sight, and then lifted us to the splendour of life as his own sons.
In face of all this, what is there left to say? If God is for us, who can be against us? He that did not hesitate to spare his own Son but gave him up for us all—can we not trust such a God to give us, with him, everything else that we can need? Who would dare to accuse us, whom God has chosen? The judge himself has declared us free from sin! Who is in a position to condemn? Only Christ, and Christ died for us, Christ rose for us, Christ reigns in power for us, Christ prays for us! Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble, pain or persecution? Can lack of clothes and food, danger to life and limb, the threat of force of arms? Indeed some of us know the truth of the ancient text: ‘For your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter’. No, in all these things we win an overwhelming victory through him who has proved his love for us! I have become absolutely convinced that neither death nor life, neither messenger of Heaven nor monarch of earth, neither what happens today nor what may happen tomorrow, neither a power from on high nor a power from below, nor anything else in God’s whole world has any power to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 8:29-39, Phillips) |
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July 2026
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Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.A.
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