ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
March 24, 2022
Imagine yourself a person who has lived in desert land. You’ve traveled long distances, across barren landscape, requiring a knowledge of where water can be found. Your journey is a zigzag from well to stream, never wanting to push yourself or the animals beyond what is safe. Then suddenly the Prophet Isaiah offers a vision. In chapter 43, we read the words, “I have put water in the desert and streams in the wilderness to give water to my people, my chosen ones.” What happens when a desert receives water and the wilderness a stream? I’m no botanist, but I’m pretty sure it starts getting vegetation and the landscape takes on different colors and textures. The journey looks entirely different. When there is a holy deluge upon the deserts and wildernesses of our lives, the journey changes. We are no longer fearful; no longer living with a survivalist mindset; no longer obsessed by the necessity of finding what is life-sustaining. The abundance of God is found everywhere, and an orientation based on scarcity is no more.
Bring life and the sustenance of life to those parts of our common existence left barren by grief; left desolate by oppression; left inhospitable by violence. Provide us the nurturing and nourishing gift of your Spirit, O Holy One. Amen.
