Approach the throne

Saturday, January 18, 2025

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Approach the throne

Let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace in times of trouble.

Ten days after the Los Angeles fires burst open and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, the fires continue. In fact the fires in California have burned for years and years, and it’s only getting worse. The words “climate change” don’t sit well with politicians sometimes. But the words aren’t the point anyway. Each year for the last ten years, the earth has been hotter than ever before. Are we devolving?

Here’s a poem that gets at how we might respond to this puzzle in our history:

Mixed

Last week I wrote a prayer welcoming God’s refining fire.

Then horrifying flames began devastating Los Angeles.

 

“When you walk through fire you shall not be burned,”

God says, and then some are.

 

The baptismal flood brings beauty and devastation.

Some drown in holy water.

 

Life is a mixed bag, and we grab it

because it’s our only bag.

 

It’s plush with knives and we pick it up,

and find in it sweets and nuts, and blood.

 

You eat the whole luscious fruit;

the seeds of calamity are too small to pick out.

 

Ruin has its joys, and triumph its sorrows.

To love God is to lose and receive everything.

 

Sometimes it is among ashes

we become most human.

 

After the fire they will clean up using power

generated by burning something.

 

Love walks among the tents in the camps of death,

a child singing her undying song.

 

We join the beautiful slow dance of the Beloved,

man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

 

What does this mean? That nothing is absolute but God,

who is always present, and mostly paradox.

 

We touch each other. We trust grace,

and we take what comes. – Steve Garnaas-Holmes

It’s the only bag we have, this bag “plush with knives, sweets, nuts, and blood.” We can’t predict or pick out the “seeds of calamity.” They seem so small and then they engulf us. I think of Jesus too, picking through the bag, looking up and saying, “We can manage this, you and me. I love you, and there is no fear in love.”

We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who has also been tested in every way, yet without sin.

The Bible’s promises are full of hope. “Do not be afraid,” these are words that do not require definition. This is a command, and a comfort, and a certainty all wrapped up, a gift that never stops giving. To (fill in your name), from Jesus. To you my friend, from the Holy Spirit. To you my child, from the Father. Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy birthday! And every day besides.

Is there any reason to walk away empty-handed?

Jesus walked out along the sea and he taught the people. Then he saw Levi sitting at his customs post. Jesus said to the customs clerk, “Follow me,” and Levi got up, left his post and followed Jesus.

Levi née Matthew saw his hands filled in an instant with wealth beyond his hopes, with forgiveness and acceptance and everlasting invitation. What a gift this man was offered! What a gift this man received!

The Lord sent me to bring glad tiding to the poor and to proclaim liberty to captives. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

(Hebrews 4, Psalm 19, Luke 4, Mark 2)

(posted at www.davesandel.net)

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