Line Drawn Near

Dear People of God, 

How has God made you uncomfortable this week? We all have preferred ways of doing things, the ways in which we might like to definitively order our lives (and the lives of others) if we had the means to do so. 

As we continue our Epiphany series in Matthew 8-9, we see Jesus raising some questions and some hackles by what he is doing:  “Why does the teacher eat with sinners?”  “Why aren’t his disciples fasting like John’s and the Pharisees?”
 
Jesus answers these questions by describing his ministry as marked by joy and a stretching agent. His message and actions provoke change, and this will be uncomfortable for those who want Jesus’ arrival to fit into comfortable ways of doing things. Conversely, for those at their wits end with nowhere to turn, Jesus’ arrival will mean rescue, deliverance, resurrection.
 
What are we to make of a Savior who promises to reconcile and transform everything for good, but also promises to not leave us unchanged in the process? Are we willing to see our apple carts upset--our preferences overruled--as part of sharing in the advance of God’s Kingdom, or will the work of God stretch rigid places within us to the tearing point? 
 
Let’s come to worship this Sunday amazed at the power and life that Jesus brings, hungry to partake in his gospel reality, and willing to be formed and stretched by the oncoming movement of his kingdom.
 
Your servant,
Peter DuMont