Read Luke 7:18-30.
“Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard.” Jesus invites John’s disciples to bear witness. To look around them and see. To see the world both for how it truly is and for the miracle of how it can be. He invites the questioners to see the harsh realities around them, the suffering, the isolation, the pain, and the poverty. And yet he also invites them to bear witness to the fact that it need not remain this way. That there is hope, there is possibility, there is good news! Miracles are unfolding before their eyes and this is meant to serve as the answer that they and John are looking for.
As I think about the invitations of this passage, and the harsh realities that exist around us, each and every day, I am reminded of the following lines from a poem by the Rev. Jan Richardson:
“Blessed are you
who bear the light
in unbearable times,
who testify
to its endurance
amid the unendurable,
who bear witness
to its persistence
when everything seems
in shadow and grief.“*
May we, like the disciples of John, be able to see the everyday miracles unfolding all around us, even in what feels like unbearable times. May we be a people who bear the light of hope both this day and in the days and seasons to come.
Pray
Miracle Worker, open our eyes that we might see, so we may bear witness to your light in the world and our lives. Amen.
Rev. Alex Serna-Wallender
University Chaplain, Trinity University (San Antonio, TX)
* Jan Richardson, “Blessed Are You Who Bear the Light,” in Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons (Orlando, FL: Wanton Gospeller Press, 2015).
Words for Waiting 