Psalm 146: 1-10

In the late summer of 2019 there was a brief dust-up when a Christian leader said something about President Trump along the lines of his being the “chosen one.” Trump himself later tweeted something along those same lines even as not a few Christian in the U.S. regard this President as uniquely chosen by God, that his very election was a miracle orchestrated by God. Whatever one makes of all that, the fact is this happens with frequency in all nations and in also the history of the United States. How many did not see Franklin D. Roosevelt as a kind of savior figure who would rescue people from the Great Depression? Abraham Lincoln was similarly regarded even though he did his best always to deflect to the guidance of providence and of the one true sovereign God. More recently millions invested all their hopes in Barack Obama, believing he would somehow be a transformative figure who would change the whole tenor of the U.S...

Philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff has written extensively over the years on the connection of justice and authentic worship. Here is a sample of his thinking from an article originally published in Reformed Worship magazine: The self that enters the assembly for worship carries her daily life along with her into the assemblies—does not leave it behind but carries it along—so as now to present that life to God. In daily life she lives, as it were, with God behind her back; now she turns around and, facing God, presents to God her daily life. She thanks God for what she has found good in her life and that of others, she laments to God for what she has found painful in her life and that of others, she confesses to God what she and others have done wrong, she praises God for God’s incomparable majesty. The person who perpetrates injustice and is unrepentant thereof—how can he possibly present that to God? All such a person can do is try to compensate by spending an hour or so doing things that God might really like. But worship is not for compensating. It is not for compensating for the injustice that one perpetrates outside the assemblies, nor is it for compensating for the injustice one perpetrates inside the assemblies. Worship is for presenting one’s life to God—one’s life outside the assemblies and one’s life inside the assemblies.

Inevitably many feel let down eventually by any given leader. None is perfect, few live up to the hype and hope that got invested in them. Barack Obama campaigned on “Hope and Change” but four years after his election, things had not unfolded in every good way many had thought would happen. So in 2012 when Vice-President candidate Sarah Palin mocked all that and wondered how all that “hopey-changey” stuff had worked out, people were offended but also chagrined: there was a glimmer of truth in what she said. We are the most tempted to displace our ultimate hope in God when we latch onto leaders who embody everything we wish were true. And while we are right to support and help leaders who have the right goals, it’s a challenge to do that while not for one moment forgetting there is only One who is our true hope and that One will never let us down—not now, not ever.

Early this year parts of California near Walker Canyon and Lake Elsinore experienced a “super bloom apocalypse,” where long dormant desert flowers in the hot dry desert exploded into bloom after rain and snow melt from the mountains watered the thirsty ground. The bloom was so vibrant and full this year that when satellites in space took pictures you could easily see the areas where the bloom was occurring. But the bloom doesn’t happen every year. The last time was in the spring of 2016 and depending on weather conditions it might not happened again for another 10 years. We have to be patient and notice the signs, when the weather and water conditions are just right, and then we see the miracle of the desert blooming...

(Reflections on 9/11)