Everyone Is Not Well All The Time

In the lectionary readings this week we are asked, yet again, to sit in that place of mystery where God is good, God is sovereign, God loves us, and yet all is not well all the time. More importantly, everyone is not well all the time.

The reading from the Gospel of Mark gives us the story of two women who have suffered for years, one a synagogue leader’s daughter and one an anonymous woman on the street. All turns out well. And yet, from 2nd Samuel, we also hear of the death of Saul and his son Jonathan. David is torn by these losses. Saul would have seen David killed, and yet David grieves, for Saul was his king and the father of his beloved friend Jonathan. Losing Jonathan is depicted as David’s greatest loss, as he loved no one more than he loved Jonathan. How can all be well?

The verses from Lamentations 3 and Psalm 130 leads us along this narrow path, leading us gently through hope and grief, through faith and pain: the very act of seeking God, of waiting, brings us life.

Take a look at all the lectionary readings here, including lines from the Wisdom of Solomon and 2 Corinthians:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=208

As you let these words, beautiful and difficult, speak to your soul, I offer this prayer, one of my very favorites, from Julian of Norwich: “God loved us before he made us; and his love has never diminished and never shall. All shall be well. And all shall be well. And all manner of things shall be exceeding well.”

See you Sunday!

Jane