“I wish you were either cold or hot.”
St. John writes this exhortation from God in the Book of Revelations, “I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot….Be earnest…repent.” This is the same reading that contains the image of God spitting us out because we are lukewarm. While a bit unnerving, for Christians who believe that He is the One, True, God, it is an image that can stir in us a desire to be more faithful to the Gospel. For me this morning, it made me ponder many things, but mainly something that has been stirring in my heart for the last year.
I don’t know about you but almost every day for the last year I have felt voices pressing me to choose some person, thing or idea in this world. I have felt this from the two main political parties, I have felt this among different voices within the Catholic Church, I have felt it from new and old ideologies and movements. They all seem to be saying, “We wish you were either hot or cold, choose us or them, this or that.” Every side claims to know everything, every side claims to be loving and every side claims that the other is morally wrong and bordering on evil.
I have been amazed ( I don’t mean this in a mocking manner) that anyone is capable of choosing and defending one group over the other. It makes me wonder, “What am I missing? What do you see that I don’t?” I try to read and listen and seek out differing viewpoints and do my own fact checking and I consistently come out to the same place every time, “Lord, what side do I trust, what do I believe? Am I shirking my civic/religious/moral duty by not advocating for one group or another?”. Consistently the Lord gives me the answer, “Trust in Me, Choose Me, Obey Me.” While people can ask me to choose, they do not have any authority or right to make me choose sides, or blame me for not choosing sides. The only one with the authority to ask me to choose is God my Creator. When I do choose Him there is nothing looming over me, I am not bound to anything other than Love Itself; I am free to choose the good whenever and wherever.
Last night as I sat in prayer, a familiar ache entered my heart. It is the one that comes whenever I think upon the current world and in a quick moment I felt the Lord widen my purview. I no longer saw division of groups or movements rather I saw His view, the same one He had in the garden of Gethsemane, the disunity among God’s children. Where the world regards conformity to one side or the other, the Lord desires conformity to Him; where people want punishment and cancellation (our culture’s form of “spitting out”), the Lord desires repentance and mercy and where there is disunity in the world, the Lord offers Himself as the sacrifice for peace. His sacrifice on the cross is the only place I can take real refuge and find Truth. It is there that I hope to be strengthened to give love generously to every person within arms reach and to pray for those who are out of that reach, that they will encounter love.
I will just share a quick story to demonstrate that the Lord is merciful and is always ready with a teacher. Last weekend I went on a “date” with my son Kiko. We pulled up to a drive-thru and waited in line to order his “Big Guy” meal. I had noticed the assortment of stickers on the truck in front of us and hoped that I wasn’t going to have to explain their meanings. A moment later I heard, “Why does this person have a sticker of Jesus x-ed out?” It was the cartoony Ghostbuster symbol with Jesus at the center. I tried my best to explain what they might be trying to convey. He pressed further, “But why would they put that on their truck?” “I don’t know. Maybe they want to start an argument or make people doubt Jesus, or maybe they just think it’s funny to make fun of Jesus by calling Him a ghost.” I can honestly say my heart was beginning to harden toward this person. “Mama, let’s pray for him right now.” We did. We prayed that this person would meet people who would love them with the love of Christ, we prayed that if they had been hurt by Christians that there would be a road to forgiveness and we asked for them to be forgiven for mocking Jesus. In that moment, my heart grew in generosity towards this person, all because my son had the eyes to see them as a child, not an adversary.
Lord help me to trust you, to see every single person as Your child, as my brother or sister. Let me remember that when in doubt, my job is not to conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of my mind (Romans 12) https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+12&version=RSVCE.
Two for Joy 