Yet we must understand too that if in our desire to protect those closest to us from strife by denying them the ability to be who they are and who God created them to be, then we are perhaps causing more harm than good, more pain than healing, more human judgement than love.

And our prayers too, perhaps they are not always answered to our satisfaction, but I do think they are answered by our becoming closer to God through those prayers. So pray. Pray as Jesus prayed. Pray because we are in the world and sometimes, we are not of the world. Pray to realize just how close you are to God.

Though church attendance overall might ebb and flow, the love we share does not. Love is a constant that prepares us for the ebbs and the flows and Jesus prepares us for love. If we know of renewal that stirs around us, then we need not be reminded of the resurrection for we are living within the closest approximation of it that humans can comprehend.

And charity, charity so that within those we help might burn the spark, the passion for Jesus we feel when we are drawn to the table as one body, in one name.

Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And he, Jesus, is love. Wholly, totally, and without exception, love.

We are doing God things when we offer up a shoulder upon which to weep beside the tomb; we are doing God things when we celebrate as we did just last week, the good news of the resurrected Christ.

All of this can start today, we can change the world for the better with small steps then big ones, we know we can do that and still, to think about that, well, it might make us a little nervous, fearful even.

The prophecies prophesied have been fulfilled. He bows his head. He is dead. His mother wails. He is no longer, He is now was. He is gone.

...we are not called to die, we are called to live and we will only live when we love, with or without understanding.

We can witness God everywhere in all of that and still, even when it is hard to notice those things, even when we feel down about our jobs, when we mourn the ones we love most of all, when our fists can barely shake at all that curses us for we are so angry at whatnot, we are never far from the resurrection.

We must acknowledge God in order to receive God, though the light switch is on the wall, we must flip that switch if we are to dwell in the light. So too, must we turn towards God’s light.

And it is in these seasons of change where I find myself in a rather reflective mood; wondering about change in general and my place within a world made new and yet filled with pride and love and awe.

There is, I think, a sense in Lent that we are supposed to improve things, ourselves and our way we go about living. That during these six weeks of reflection and repentance, we are supposed to give up or take on things that will make us better.

By doing so you will see that when you love your neighbor, you are seeing Christ in that person. When you love God, you will be sharing God’s word with all peoples, through thought, word and deed.

God is permanent; even the greatest empires will hardly take root; planted in shallow dirt, the roots of evil will be scattered by the wind, the tempest will carry them off as if they are nothing. Yet, when we don’t hear the word of God proclaimed, it is sometimes hard to recall that all of our hardships are temporary. We might lead lives of busyness and exhaustion but God does not. God is the firmament upon which we stand, if only we could realize that always. Though we grow weary of a weariness making world, God does not.

So, what comes from this is our need to realize that along with temptation and along with the wild beasts, we are surrounded by angels. Just as the angels were there to support and lift up Jesus in his wilderness, they are here for us now in our own wildernesses. We are surrounded by angels, the angels who make us laugh, the angels who ease our pains, the angels who allow our souls to rest.

Jesus looked into Nathaniel’s heart, his very soul, as he sat beneath a fig tree and he found goodness, not deceit, honesty, not underhandedness. Jesus was seeking out Nathaniel and from a distance, he found him. Jesus too, is seeking you.