Knowing Our Place

A. Unabashed Pacifist:

Did anyone ever pray for war?

B. Unabashed Christian:

Holy One,

You created nature and its marvels, but you are not contained in it. Nature gives us one window into who you are, but not the only one. Also not the best one, I think. That would be Jesus. If we had only nature as our window for knowing you, we might conclude, as C.S. Lewis says, that you are an artist, but a merciless one. Fortunately, we have other windows that allow us to know more of you. You are beyond nature, too, so super-natural. I wonder how many of the details you put into place in the “natural order.” Or did you in some cases set the guiding principles of life and growth and interaction, then leave the details to be determined by the ensuing process. Whichever, it’s all a source of wondering meditation for me this morning. I want to be a respecter of the natural world and my place in it.
Amen

C. Un-quoting Jesus:

“Everybody got your lifejackets? Could be a storm on the sea later in the afternoon.”

[No, He gave them no warning.]

D. Blog: Knowing Our Place

Ecclesiastes 3:18-20
“I said in my heart with regard to human beings that God is testing them to show that they are but animals. For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals: for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the dust and all turn to dust again.”

I didn’t memorize this text in Sunday school. I never heard a sermon based on this text. I didn’t know it was even in the Bible until yesterday. I think it should be highlighted as one of the most important passages for our time…