Atlantic District Publications

Letters from the President - Q & A

March 2, 2009 at 10:51 AM

Lent is "Q and A" time in the Church's discernment. All of you who have had a "Passover Seder" know that the way the conversation about the Exodus begins in a Jewish household is with the question, "Why is this night different from all others?" And the answers demonstrate the saving acts of God in carrying the Children of Israel to freedom.

Christ is our Paschal Lamb, our New Exodus, our New Adam. He is the Lamb who was slain, the New Covenant blood-cut for our atonement, the Perfectly Righteous One who became sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in Him.

These are the profound facts of life as we know them. The difficulty is always applying them to the changing circumstances and questions that bang around inside and outside our heads on a daily basis. It's one thing to let the kids in Sunday School know with a wink and a nod that no matter what the question, the answer is always Jesus. It's another thing to transfer that to a troubled couple going through marital pain, or a guy who's just lost his job and can't pay the rent.

In the midst of our afflictions and trials, it's not that easy, in other words, to just say Jesus is the Answer. Please make it Jesus plus $3000, or $30000, or Jesus plus a solution to the relationships that are not going to hold together any longer.

But asking the question, in prayer and in the context of worship as we kneel beneath the cross of Christ, is so critically important. Sometimes the question is "How long, O Lord, how long?" Sometimes it is "Where are You now, Lord?" And sometimes it is "What would you have me to do, Lord?"

The invariable answer from the Lord's Word begins "Lo I am with you always, to the very end of the age." The reason He IS available and present is that He was available and present through temptation, affliction, agony and death SO THAT we might never be alone, and never without the Primary Resource, which is our Triune God.

I meet questioners from every walk and in every parish every day. The freedom to discern God's present and future is always dictated by the Presence of Christ and the destiny which He has won by His cross and resurrection. The questions are not easy. The process is complex. But God is in it FOR YOU all the way!