A Time for Every Matter

I have a running joke with a few of my colleagues and friends that if I am not having an existential crisis every 4-6 months I am not paying attention. These crises manifest after bearing witness to the world’s suffering, pain and our minuscule part in a universal play and then I find myself wrestling deeply with my identify, the purpose and meaning of life and bearing the loaded question, “does anything matter?”

Perhaps some of all of you have been on that journey from time to time in life and I am here to tell you that such a wrestling is expected upon our faith journey. We even have a book dedicated to one such questioning and liminal space in the words of Ecclesiastes. This September we are going to dive into deeply into the book of Ecclesiastes. As we end our time with Brian McLaren and look forward to a fall/winter series on what it means to be Lutheran, we will take the month of September and allow ourselves to dwell in the space of unknowing and unknowable for, “The ancient sage reminds Christians that for all its assurance and promise, great is the mystery of faith” (Brown pg. 15)

Siblings in Christ, sometimes answers elude us, and we are left with only questions and a deep instability but even at that threshold God meets us. We can find God, the sublime and meaning in “the glory of the ordinary…in the details of the daily grind” (Brown pg. 14).

So as we walk together through September, whether you are able to join us for Sunday worship or not, be reading through Ecclesiastes. Give yourself the gift of knowing we walk alongside ancient thinkers and faith leaders as we question the meaning of life and our role as participants in God’s good creation. There is a time for every matter under heaven, even a communal existential crisis.

Let us find God in the daily grind…together,
Pr. Hannah