Tension and Transition

Job 40:1-24
Acts 15:36-16:1
John 11:53-12:8
There are arguments and disagreements sprinkled throughout all of our passages today. They begin with Job whose complaints against God elicit a pointed response. “Will you condemn me that you may be justified?” God asks (Job 40:8). I believe we may safely assume this to be a rhetorical question. In the reading from Acts Paul and Barnabas have a falling out over the presence of Mark. “The disagreement became so sharp,” Acts tell us, “that they parted company…” (Acts 15:39). Finally in the gospel of John, not only are the chief priests and Pharisees plotting to kill Jesus (John 11:57), but when Mary anoints Jesus with a costly perfume Judas strongly objects (12:11). Then Jesus reacts just as strongly against Judas’s words (v. 7). Whew. So much conflict in so few verses.

But consider this. Job is on the path to a greater understanding of God’s relationship with humanity at this time of conflict. And after Paul and Barnabas parts ways in Acts Paul and Silas encounter Timothy who becomes a integral part of Paul’s ministry. And in John Jesus is headed toward Jerusalem and his impending passion. Sometimes tension and conflict are the catalysts that cause growth. Sometimes transition comes with pain. Sometimes finding the new thing in God’s plan means a sharp break with the old thing that has gone before. Sometimes is takes a lot to kill our faulty assumptions. Sometimes we must experience the wilderness before we may arrive at the promise.

I would never suggest that all change requires pain, or that conflict is always an indications of God’s work. I do want to suggest that there are those times when we have got to let go of what makes us comfortable (or what we think makes us comfortable) in order to find that place where God intends us to be. And whatever the case, as Paul reminds us in Romans 8, God is fully capable of working through any circumstances—indeed nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:28, 39). So we should trust in God as we move along, always looking for the next sign of grace that will remind us of God’s abiding presence.

Prayer: Thanks be to the God of hope, who, even in the midst of the most trying of times, is at work to bring about the divine will. Lord, help us to live with patience and openness to those times of transition that we may also be open to those around you and may offer help and comfort to others as they pass through their own wildernesses.