Mtr Mary Trainor

Oh, what peace we often forfeit
Oh, what needless pain we bear *

Dear friend,

Maybe you’ve had this experience: You keep encountering the same message in different forms. Call it serendipity, call it coincidence, call it whatever suits you. More often than not, I recognize something within is trying to get my attention.

What has kept coming around in recent weeks is the incredibly simple yet deeply complicated truth about the primacy of God: The idea is, having been baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection, everything I am, do, love, hope for, is to be secondary to my relationship with God.

All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer.

Today the church honors William Temple, erstwhile Archbishop of Canterbury, who stated a clear tenet of being Christian. With apology for socially dated language, Temple observed that “we are churchmen before we are citizens.”

In John’s Gospel** today, we revisit its rich prologue to hear again John the Baptist testimony: “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’” I remember other of John’s words: “He must increase and I must decrease.”

It’s about establishing priorities, with God always as Number 1 on the list. Second to no one and no thing.

All of this calls to mind a man I knew who one day was noticeably distressed. He stood before me, wordless, shaking his head. Eventually he spoke: “You won’t believe it, you just won’t believe it. I met a man over the weekend—a good man, I thought—who told me that being Christian was more important than being an American.”

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?

My friend is an example of a danger that awaits us when God becomes anything but primary. And I recognize the risk in my own life when I wander off on my own.

Temple’s reminder. Recent readings. John’s increase-decrease reality. Sermon prep. A conversation about the regular practice of prayer. These are not unrelated bits and pieces, but rather integral parts of a single message, lining up to spotlight my need to keep the main thing the main thing, and to remember that only God is God.

We should never be discouraged
Take it to the Lord in prayer

Mtr Mary

*“What a friend we have in Jesus.” Number 109, Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing, an authorized supplement to The Hymnal 1982.

** John 1:9-18
https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=503154390