October 23, 2017

Psalm 100:5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

According to a 2016 Gallup survey 8 of 10 Americans believe in God or some sort of Universal Spirit (http://news.gallup.com/poll/193271/americans-believe-god.aspx). Of the other 20% about half said they didn’t believe in anything like this and the other half said they didn’t know. So, the question for most of us seems to be less whether or not God is there and more about what this God is like. We live in an angry and divisive time- my guess is that all times have been basically angry and divisive but today we have the technology to proclaim our anger and distrust and dissatisfaction more broadly and at higher decibels. Given all that, can we really believe in a God of goodness and enduring love whose “faithfulness continues through all generations?” Those of us in the Protestant world and those who delight in the movements of history will be noting soon the 500^th anniversary of Martin Luther posting his 95 points of contention (theses) on the church door at Wittenberg, commonly regarded as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Talk about an angry and divisive time including political power-grabbing to the point of bloodshed. Yet what we celebrate in the Reformation is that 500 years later the urge to understand and connect with a God of goodness and enduring love whose “faithfulness continues through all generations” is still present and active despite all the shortcomings and failures of humanity in general and those who claim commitment to such a God in particular. The Reformed tradition tells us that this urge/need/desire is the movement of God. This week, what draws you to the goodness, love and faithfulness of God?