Being a Detective of Divinity

Prepared message given as part of Three Rivers worship on Zoom, 6 February 2025.

Good morning Friends. I'm Kristina and I use she/her pronouns. It's a snow day for some of you, it's a sleep day or a slush day. And when I woke up this morning and saw the message from the principal at my kid's school that there was no school today, I had to fight the impulse to get back under the covers. Not just because it's a snow day, but because the world right now is a lot. Maybe some of you have had this same impulse to get back under the covers. And in planning and thinking about planning worship this week, I had thought maybe what we need is extra time in small groups to be able to process this a lot ness, the a lot ness.

But then in conversation with some of the folks who were helping me think about this and listen the truth out of me, I began to realize that there's something about the importance of lifting up the ancient stories of God's people and the vision that God wants for us, this timeless struggle of people and God's hope for people and creation that is important to do too. I've been thinking a lot about some of the really complicated books of the ancient scripture, like the prophets, and dwelling with the prophet Jeremiah, maybe one of the more outspoken prophets about times of doom and unraveling of the world. It's hard stuff to read.

And ours, like the time of Jeremiah, is a time of loss. And a time of bewilderment and a time of fear. And I think that In giving voice to the time of loss and bewilderment and fear, there is space also for possibility. And I encourage you to listen to the message last week that our friend Lisa brought about possibility instead of hope.

I think that the parables of Jesus do the same thing. They're a narrative embodiment of the kingdom of God, everywhere he looked, Jesus saw the kingdom of God or a story about the embodiment of the kingdom of God. Thinking in this way is courageous, dwelling with this is countercultural. It's a kind of seeing and trusting that feels very hard to do in this time and requires an act, I think, of imagination. The scholar and preacher and teacher and all around wise guy, Walter Brueggemann, describes the Christian imagination as the capacity to host a world other than the one that is in front of us. The capacity to host a world that is other than the one that is in front of us. And he says that a Gospel imagination invites us to perceive the world through God's promises and faith in things not seen.

That's hard work for me. It requires a lot of will and a lot of intention and a kind of resolve to live in and bear witness to a world that is very different from the one that is constructed by the powers and principalities. One that is more and more apparent. It's a reminder that another world is possible when our world has changed so much in such a short time. Or maybe our world hasn't changed, but the reality of our world has been exposed so suddenly.

I thought too of a phrase that comes from the preacher and also all around smart human Barbara Brown Taylor. She says the work of being faithful is to be a detective of divinity. Your job is to be a detective of divinity.

Early Friends did this too. To quote Sandra Crunk, Early Friends expected and experienced the in-breaking spirit in their midst. And they let that in-breaking change them. To live in that world that is other than the one that is in front of us is going to look a little weird. And I think that's why friends were called peculiar people. They were living into that world that was revealed to them.

And I wonder if in living into this world, we can come together with each other and build that muscle of imagination by practicing together spiritual disciplines. Disciplines as exercises to equip us to live fully and freely in the reality of God. Disciplines that serve as a touchstone. Disciplines that remind us of who we are and whose we are.

I think it's also important not to do it alone, but to come together. Another world is possible, as they say, and we don't need to be detectives alone. Together in worship and in spiritual friendship, we can encourage each other.

Let's do that together, Friends.