The past few months I’ve been meeting with a small group made up of people from Saint James and from some of the other groups that share this place as a spiritual center.
One of the group members commented at a meeting that she thought I did a lot of work juggling all the groups and activities here, but that when she had previously asked me about that I’d said that it wasn’t really very hard, since all I had to do was say “Yes!”
One key to the joy that comes from connection to our being Church in this place is the practice of open hospitality. It involves trust and empathy, pulling back from an over-controlling anxiety about things like theft or damage or scheduling conflicts (in other words, “stuff that can go wrong”), and an emphasis on purpose over process, personality, or protectionism.
Writing this in the context of “Doubting Thomas” Sunday, I see the broader
applicability of this approach, extending to our interactions with each other and the world we live in. I see the crippling effect of our inability to trust, our reluctance to say “yes” to life because we might be mistaken. We don’t want to get fooled, and neither did Thomas. But Paul calls us to “be fools for Christ,” to just say “yes” to life in resurrection.
Each moment in your life is unique in all eternity. Whether blissful, challenging, or terrifying it is God’s gift of creation to you, God’s creation for you, God’s creation through you.
So, however it comes, say “yes” to that moment as best as you can. God will take care of the rest.