Dear La Côte family and friends,
When Scripture passages are read out on a Sunday, do you sometimes wonder how the readings can belong together, or how they are connected?
In the gospel passage for this coming Sunday, Jesus speaks words of comfort, “Do not let your hearts be troubled…I am the way, the truth and the life.” But in the accompanying passage from Acts 7, we witness violence, chaos and death in the stoning of Stephen. One passage is reassuring; the other is raw and disturbing.
The Church of England’s lectionary places them together because they answer a deeper question: How are Jesus’ promises lived out in the lives of Christians?
When we hear Jesus’ words, “Do not let your hearts be troubles,’ we may find these words positive, but they may seem a tad unrealistic because our hearts do get troubled. We worry about the future. We fear loss. We struggle with conflict, injustice, pain. We are normal human beings living with the realities of life.
Stephen’s story does not deny that reality, but it intensifies it. It shows us something powerful, that a heart anchored in Christ can remain open, even in the hardest moments.
Stephen did not close down in fear, nor did he harden in anger. He stayed opened to God, and even to his enemies. This kind of heart is not natural, but it is a heart formed by trust in Christ.
When Jesus said, “I am the way,’ he was not just talking about how we get to heaven after we die. He was speaking, he is speaking, about a way of living now – a way that is marked by trust in God, by courage in the face of fear, by love even towards enemies, and by hope that goes beyond death.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled”. These are Jesus’ words to us. Life is not easy, but he is present with us. We don’t know the future, but we do know the way. And the way is not a path that we walk alone because the way is Christ himself, alive, present and leading us, even through death, into life.
Betty Talbot
