March 06, 2013
Pope-less, Not Hopeless
The sound-bite in the
media referring to the Pope’s retirement describes the Catholic Church as
currently being ‘Pope-less’ but there is also a sense of hopeless in the mix. I
was surprised and taken back by Pope Benedict’s final address when said his
papacy had been marked by light, but at times marked by darkness when the Lord,
“seemed to be sleeping”. There was a
time during Israel’s persecution when the people cried out, “Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse
yourself! Do not reject us forever.” (Psalm 44:23 NIV). However, Israel’s
petition was to awake the Lord to their need, not that He was asleep. Certainly
the Catholic Church has its share of self-induced sex scandals and cover-ups
that are now haunting them, but we can’t say that they are being persecuted as
a religious denomination. Believers can rest assured that the Lord takes guard
duty seriously and He will never be caught sleeping on watch. “My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of
heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches
over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psalm 121:2-4 NIV).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----The Israelites lifted up a call for God to wake up. They had excrutiating troubles needing God's fix! That they weren't being fixed must have meant God was asleep.
-----Nightmares are interesting. I don't know about yours, but mine seem to end just when the final solution fails. Waking up is even more interesting. It does not entirely fix the nightmare, even though it convinces you the scary threat is gone. But the awareness of threat isn't. What in me caused the nightmarenow becomes the concern. Most of the time I can track it to some difficult situation about which I then make some adjustment.
-----It wasn't God who needed to awaken to Israel's problems. It isn't God who needs to awaken to ours. We need to awaken. The great unknown is like sleep, and studying the aspects of our situations pushes its edges back, sometimes greatly altering our lives. Likewise, I think the Pope took into hand the report of a Vatican situation larger than his age consumed ambition to fix. To him, it must have looked like the Lord sleeping at the wheel again. But his surprising retirement just sounds like more snoring.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment