Has your life gone the way you thought it would or the way you planned?  I would venture to say that most of us’ answer is “no.”  Rather than a version of life on a steady ascent to goodness and perfection, most of us have dealt with twists and turns, peaks and valleys.  We have had our good times and we have had our “not so good” times.  Looking back on those moments, what was the cause, particularly for the “not so good” times?  Have there been moments when you thought life was unfair?  Whom did you blame?  Did you blamed God?

We all know that the human body with all of its complexities is still a frail and imperfect system.  It is susceptible to ailment, aging, and disease.  It is a temporal vessel for our mind and spirit.  We all come to the moment when we shed our skin and bones for eternity.  Like our bodies, we also know that relationships are fragile.  It can be hard to hold together a life-long commitment to a friend or partner.  Some relationships fall apart because of conflict, distance, or for other reasons.  What happens when an important relationship falls apart?  What happens when your health suddenly fails?  Whom do you blame?  Did you blame God?

Long after David and Solomon, the kingdom that was once united split back into the kingdom of the north known as Israel and the kingdom of the south called Judah.  Nearly all of the kings of Israel did what was evil in God’s sight and the people followed along.  Judah had a mix of both good and bad kings.  Still the people did what was evil in God’s sight.  Mainly, their sin was turning from the God of their ancestors to worship foreign idols.  Because of this, Israel was destroyed and the people taken into captivity and exile.  Judah held out a little longer but eventually the Babylonians were too much for them.  Some of the Judeans fled to Egypt for safety.  Some stayed on the land and continued to work it.  The Babylonians deported the remainder forcing them to live in exile.  Naturally, the people wandered if this was God’s punishment or if God had abandoned them.  Actually, it was not that God had left the people; it was a matter of the people having left their first love - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Never the less, God spoke to the people through the prophets, one of them being Jeremiah.  Through Jeremiah, God called the people to repentance.  God said that if the people would pray, God would hear them; if they sought God, they would find God.  All because God had a vision and that vision was to restore the people.

Our Bishop, Bob Farr recently said that God is not done yet.  The Missouri Annual Conference and our United Methodist Churches may not look like it did a few years ago, but God is doing something new.  I agree because St. John’s does not look like it did a few years ago.  However, that does not mean that God has left us or that we have left God.  Like all organisms and organizations, all of them go through changes.  This just happens to be one iteration of many for our community.  As long as we continue to seek after God, pray, and join in where God is at work, we will continue to be a thriving community of faith.  God has a vision for us and I invite you to join me as we seek to live into it.

I invite you to take time and read each of the scriptures above followed by reflection on the questions below.  Recognize the opportunity for us to continue to live into God’s vision for our faith community.  Lastly, I pray that God bless the reading of God’s Word and the meditations of your heart.