Covenant Weekly

This post is available as a blog post or as a podcast. You can choose which format you prefer to receive it in!
If you subscribe to the podcast through Google podcasts, it should show up in your feed so you won't need to go find it. Our social media sites will link to our podcast page, which also offers a PDF of the text.

Click here if you would prefer to listen to the podcast audio of this message!

On Sunday, we talked about maternal imagery that is used in scripture to help us understand the heart and character of God. One of those images was that of the provider. In scripture, the image used to portray the provider is that of a breastfeeding mother. While there is no doubt that the intimacy of a breastfeeding mother is a powerful and beautiful image, there is so much more to being a provider. I’m being reminded of that while I sit to write today. Let’s talk about that today.

As I sit to write, I am on my back deck at home enjoying my early morning tea and crumpets with marmalade. While I sit to reflect and write, our friendly neighbourhood mourning doves are hard at work. It seems they have built a nest in the hedgerow that divides our yard from our neighbour’s. A nest there makes sense because it would provide safety and protection for the eggs and young birds. But as I sit and watch, I notice a cost to the parent birds for providing such a shelter.

Every few minutes, one of the adult birds will come near to the hedge carrying some nesting material in its beak and it will land on the corner of our deck railing. It sits there calculating its next move. Then, with a kind of frantic flapping, it will jump over to the hedge trying desperately to find a place to land on the wall of the hedge. Sometimes it is unsuccessful and will flit back to the safety of the deck rail to catch its breath before trying again. Eventually, though, it will find a piece of protruding hedge to land on and work its way into the centre of the hedge to the growing nest. Soon it emerges, flies away to look for more material and begins the process again.

It would be so much easier for these birds to build a nest in the huge tree that is only a few metres away. But there it would be exposed to squirrels and other larger and more aggressive birds. In order to provide for their young, the parents accept making things much harder on themselves.

Parents, really anyone who cares for loved ones, can relate to this reality. Providing for others is hard work and requires sacrifices. But how often do we accept this reality for God, who is our provider? It seems that sometimes we emphasize God’s all-powerfulness and presume that it is easy for God to provide what we need. Or we emphasize God’s sovereignty, his rule over the world, and presume that God can just snap divine fingers and make things happen. (Metaphorically of course, because God is spirit and doesn’t have actual fingers.) 

But several realities about our world suggest that neither God’s all-powerfulness nor his rule in the world is manifest like that. Other, more foundational realities, mean they can’t be manifest like that.

The foundational reality is that God is love and engages with the world and with us from that foundation of love. As a primarily relational God, it was necessary that creation was given the freedom to love in return. And with that, came the freedom to not love in return. Were God to enact all-powerfulness or sovereignty in a way that overrides human freedom, it would contradict the divine essence of love. That doesn’t mean God is detached from the world. It means that God works to engage with a world that is, more often than not, working against God’s heart. God works to provide for people, for us and for others, within a context that tends towards disorder and chaos. God’s self-limiting love means that God’s work to provide for us is hard work!

Again, when we think about it, this is something most of us can relate to. We provide for loved ones who squander what we offer. We seek to protect our kids, but they make dangerous and foolish decisions. How do we shelter them without them being sheltered? How do we supply them with what they need, and often what they want, without them failing to learn how to work for themselves? Being a provider is hard work. The same is true for God – even an all-powerful and sovereign God – because love is at the heart of who God is.

There is a theological stream in the church that says that everything that happens must in some way be good because God causes all things. This often shows up in pop theology with expressions like, “Everything happens for a reason.” Or “It is all a part of God’s plan.”

But, perhaps the word we easily miss when we read Romans 8:28 is the word work.

We know that God works all things together for good for the ones who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.

This doesn’t say that God is behind everything or is controlling everything. It doesn’t say that everything happens for a reason or that everything is a part of God’s plan. Rather, it suggests that God is working - working hard - to bring things together for our good. And often God has to work against terrible, horrible things that have no good reason or that go against God’s desire for the world. And that work of God takes time and effort and energy. The very next verses in Romans remind us that it took God coming to earth in human form and going to the cross! That is hard work! While redemption - bringing good from the bad, life from death - is a wonderful hope, it isn’t an easy or instant thing.

Being reminded that God is at work for my good in a broken and messed-up world gives me great hope. Being reminded that sometimes God’s work is made harder by my choices fosters humility. Being reminded that it demands genuine work on God’s behalf leads me to gratitude. Being invited to join God in this redemptive work invites me to courage. And the more I open myself up to God’s work in my own life, the more I learn to love in a way that is also willing to work for the good of the world.

Reminders for this week:

• As we get closer to the summer, our schedule is not quite as busy. We are planning, at this point, to include some different activities over the summer. Some of them will be things we did last summer. Some of them will just be more casual gatherings at the church property - both inside or outside depending on the weather. What is important to note is that we are not planning on live streaming over the summer. We will take a break from that and resume it in September.
• Please be praying for our High School students and leaders this coming weekend as they will be at a Be In Christ Church of Canada retreat up at Camp Kahquah. Pray that God will do special work among them and through them as they get away.
• And pray for the women who are preparing for their retreat the following weekend! For some, this will be the first time they will be participating in something like this. Pray that any nerves will be met with the Spirit’s assurance and, again, that God would work in special ways in the lives of those who participate.

As you go through this week, may you be reminded that you do not go through things alone. God is with you and working, working hard, to provide for you what you need in order to grow and thrive as a beloved child of the divine.