Dec 18 2019 Luke 18: 1-8

Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.

This morning’s reflection is about our mission team safety, and praying for our needs. With God’s protection, the team is completely safe from any harm, it asserts. Maybe it’s because of my current family situation, but this requires a little exploration, before I’ll swallow this bit of advice.

I do truly believe that with God’s protection all will be well. But the problem is that as dualistic humans, who believe that if one thing is true, the opposite is not, or that there is no way two contradicting truths can be true at the same time. So with God’s protection, we will be safe from all harm. Does that mean that if we endure any problems, it’s because God’s sleeping on the job? Or that we haven’t prayed hard enough? It feels dangerous to me to state that we’ll be completely safe with God’s protection. It begs us to doubt God’s mercy or our prayer if anything wrong happens. It feels like a naïve faith. And to be sure, there are some who believe that if bad things happen, it’s all our fault – preached frequently from the pulpit and big churches as prosperity gospel.

But maybe the problem isn’t the message itself, but what we dualistic humans have done with it. It is true that with God’s protection, nothing will happen. But it’s also true that if something happens, that does not mean we didn’t pray hard enough, or God was attending problems elsewhere. It’s not true on the trip, and not true at home, with my sick loved one. It’s murky and, to my linear thinking, illogical, but there is space for that first assertion to be true – with God’s protection, we will be completely safe – and for the opposite to be true – if something bad happens, God’s grace still abounds and our prayer was sufficient.

Because this is not my normal way of thinking, I appreciate the wisdom of others. Julian of Norwich was an English mystic, who while gravely ill had several visions and encounters of God. Later, she wrote them into a book, Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love. From these writings comes one of the most well-known religious lines, not from Scripture. “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well”.

That’s a lovely sentiment. But it’s even better taken in context. In her vision, she asks God, “Ah, good Lord, how could all things be well, because of the great harm which has come through sin to your creatures?” Yes! That’s framing this issue in the either/or way I think.

But in her vision, God’s answer is brilliant. “And so our good Lord answered all the questions and doubts which I could raise, saying most comfortingly: I make all things well, and I can make all things well, and I shall make all things well, and I will make all things well; and you will see for yourself that every kind of thing will be well. ... And in these words God wishes us to be enclosed in rest and peace.”

It’s interesting to me, that Julian’s optimistic sentiments strike a positive chord with me, while the writer of the devotional feels naïve. With God’s protection, we will be completely safe from any attack of the evil one. I think it’s because the subject of the devotional is on the outcome to us; we will be complete safe. Julian’s reflections focus on God’s intention; all shall be well.

  

This morning, I’m thinking about how I deeply believe that all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well, even if I don’t believe that I’m completely protected from the evil one. Both can be true, as much as it strains my brain to say it.