In Luke 12: 56 Jesus says to Peter, the disciples and those gathered with him that they are able to interpret, “the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”
This can strike a chord with many of us as it seems that all we have been doing over the past three years is to do exactly that, interpret the present times. We have spent many agonizing months and shifting and adjusting as we continue to learn how to live with COVID-19, Monkey Pox and any number of other factors just beyond our control. All this, while the challenges of our country and world that were with pre-2020 continue to dominate our society and global community.
Issues like clean, fresh water to all, access to health care and appropriate treatment of ailments, safeguards, and resources for the vulnerably housed and far too many people who are hungry and alone. These are among the many issues that we continue, sometimes in vain, to interpret in our time.
The challenge is we quickly find ourselves overwhelmed with the issues of the day that way heavily on our hearts. But when we consider these words from Jesus some more and place them in context of a Christian life and what it means to be a part of the Body of Christ, we realize that we in fact belong to a community of people who all in their ways, along with ours, work towards not only interpreting the present times, but work towards implementing effective strategies and programs to meet the real needs of a hurt and broken world.
It is in this context that we learn to let go, and let die, those aspects of the self that hold us back from being fully alive in Christ and the beloved People of God we are called to be.
The burdens of the world are not ours alone to carry, but rather, they are the burdens we share with a global community in working to make the world a better place.
