Leadership is an unenviable role. Moses knew this as he led the Israelites out of slavery and towards freedom. It’s not easy because the leader does not have a map of where to go, and Moses was seeking to know the will of God so that he could in turn lead the people. He made a lot of mistakes and he struggled to know what God’s will WAS. The journey was a long one: Scripture tells us forty years. As the region was not all that big, we can only assume that there were many setbacks, disagreements, and losses along the way. We also have to reflect on what God intended by “Go to a land that I will show you”. Was this land to be for their exclusive use? Were they to eject the people already living there? or was God’s promised land more about a way of living in freedom including living in harmony among themselves and later with others. Moses died before they reached the promised land – or did he?  Ultimately God’s promised land is eternal life with God and with one another, where there will be no more conflict, only universal peace and joy.

The struggle continues today and as I said earlier, interpretation of Scripture has frequently become twisted: interpreted to support a particular bias or point of view. We’ve seen this misinterpretation cause unbelievable harm justifying the taking of land, slavery, and here in Canada, colonization which resulted in such atrocities as residential schools, domination, and cultural genocide. We continue to see it our misuse of the planet and in our lack of inclusivity and celebration of all genders and cultures.

But we HAVE been given a map to follow and Jesus makes it quite clear in today’s Gospel from Matthew: “Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself”. Scripture tells us that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that they can be summed up in just two. It’s about love – if we can get that right, then a lot of things could be resolved. Not love as a feeling, not valentines day diamond ring love, not “feel good” love, but love in action.

We all feel helpless in the face of all the world's problems but we all have a circle of influence, be it small or large, and we never know how far our shadow may fall, or how God can magnify our smallest acts of love to bless, to console, to heal. A kind word or a smile to a stranger on the street, the sharing of personal resources, reaching out with whatever we have. And we as Christians have some amazing tools in our toolbox. Picture that toolbox in your mind – give it a color and write the word LOVE on it. What’s inside:  faith, compassion, community, prayer, Scripture, reason, resources. You might have a few other things in your toolbox like resilience, a sense of humor, the ability to forgive, compassion. These have been give to us to help us to put love into action. And as I have come to know you here at St. Matthias, I see you doing exactly that – putting love into action in numerous and immeasurable ways:  through your work with children, with the marginalized, with refugees, with the disadvantaged in other countries. I see you caring about the LGBTQ plus community and being inclusive, I see you wrestling with the harm caused by colonialism in our own country, and I see you caring about the atrocities happening in other countries. Above all, I see that all this flows from your faith in God, from our times of worshipping and praying together, from the kindness and care that you extend to one another here in the community of St. Matthias. Keep doing these things, keep putting love into action, even in this time of uncertainty. We  continue to be God’s beloved people, we have our toolboxes, we are equipped for this journey we are on. Don’t be discouraged but move on in hope: hope in Jesus Christ who is our true leader and who knows the way forward even though we can’t see it yet. Love is our hope, our only hope, and we do well this morning to remember that God is love, embodied in Jesus Christ and with us here and now through the power of their Holy Spirit.

 

 

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