Fr Alex Swain

Beloved in Christ,

A few weeks ago, Mtr Beth and I were chatting about our journeys to our vocations in the church. I recounted how I went from studying neuroscience in grad school, to stumbling into the Episcopal Church, to joining the Beloved in the Desert Episcopal Service Corps program here in Tucson in 2019 to “discern discernment.” I expressed a sense of disappointment that it took me as long as it did to respond to the call of God.

At that, she said what has now become one of my favorite phrases: “Nothing is wasted in God’s economy!”

Nothing. Is. Wasted. In. God’s. Economy.

No matter where we go, how we stumble, God makes our past triumphs and tribulations into something new. In God, our pasts are not only redeemed, but substantively significant for the present, which God is working out through us, broken and imperfect and floundering people. It’s really quite beautiful!

We see this play out in today’s Old Testament lesson.

Joshua sends two men as spies into the Promised Land. They enter Jericho and enter the house of Rahab the prostitute. She saves the lives of the men, and states that “The LORD your God is indeed God in heaven above and earth below.” She strikes a deal with them to deal kindly with her and her family.

Tradition has it that she went on to marry Salmon, the leader of the tribe of Judah, and became the great-great-grandmother of King David.

Rahab couldn’t have known at the time that her actions, her life, her kindness, her clear vision seeing the hand of God at work, would lead her not only to be related to King David—but also related to Jesus, as she is named in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:5 and referred to in James 2:25.

Nothing is wasted in God’s economy!!!

All people, no matter who, no matter what, and no matter our past—have the potential to play substantial roles in the working of God’s grace in this world.

So, no matter where we find ourselves today—joyous, lamenting, embarrassed, or exulting, may we remember that nothing is wasted in God’s economy.

May we rejoice alongside blessed Rahab that our God is a God who works wonders not only in our lives, but in the generations that follow, wasting absolutely nothing.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Alex