A River of Love - April 14, 2025
Today’s Readings - AM Psalm 51:1-18(19-20); Jer. 12:1-16; Phil. 3:1-14; John 12:9-19
In Steph Catudal’s memoir, Everything All at Once, Steph gives an account of her husband’s journey through an illness that took him to the brink of death and brought him back again. Her husband experienced a sudden onset of symptoms from a rare form of leukemia, went into a coma and then she was told by his medical team there was nothing they could do for him. At that point what she describes is her version of how love can carry us. She reached out to their friends and because he was well known and much loved, she was able to get him moved to another hospital where with excellent medical care he was treated and was able to recover. What she attributes her husband's recovery to is that in the midst of the chaos, they were carried by a river of love that lifted them up and gently carried them through the darkest most frightening days of her life. She states, "I feel like there was a collective love that empowered a massive effort on our behalf.” On reflection she realized she was aware of all the love that was pouring in and believes that’s what saved her husband. Somehow, she was able to let go and trust the team of medical professionals, allowing her husband to be carried by a force greater than any love she had ever known.
Howard Thurman states that we have two lives: the one we're most aware of, the one others see; and a second life, the one that is like water flowing beneath the street, the current of the Holy Spirit flowing below the surface of our lives. The one that we often aren't aware of because of the distraction and noise that surrounds us.
In this morning’s gospel we read a description of a misunderstood, much anticipated Messiah riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey’s colt. The crowds gather along the roadway, cheering for who they believe will save them from the brutal dictatorship under which they live. They have no clue what this Messiah has come to accomplish. Jesus realizes this and rather than fight the current of erratic emotions and demands from the crowd, he knows his part in this journey is simply to be faithful and allow himself to be carried by the Holy Spirit. His faith allows him to trust that in the midst of the pain that he knows will come, to trust that he will be carried by God's love and the Holy Spirit.
The message for all of us is that “The river is flowing and we’re ALREADY IN IT.” Rather than resist the current, if we can trust that we are in God’s hands, trusting the divine process, resisting the need to immediately orchestrate a solution every time a problem occurs, avoiding pain at all cost, eventually we will arrive on the other side, embraced by the mystery of God’s presence and deep abiding love for us. That like Jesus we too can trust that eventually we will be “resurrected” in a way that only God can know.
Faithfully,
Sally+
Questions for Reflection: Reflect back on a difficult period in your life. Did you feel as though you were being carried by a “river of love,” an unseen force? If not at the time, in retrospect? How might we learn to relax into the flow of the Holy Spirit, to trust that we do not need to always be in control, trusting in the power of the spirit to carry us?