Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

Today’s Daily Office Gospel is one of a series of signs to the people of Galilee that Jesus is who he says he is. A man desperate for a cure for his sick son begs for healing and Jesus does the healing from afar! The details of who the man is, someone who works for King Herod, are important to the story. Herod’s soldier shouldn’t be reaching out to Jesus who Herod tried desperately to kill, but he seems to have figured out that Herod cannot provide healing like this Jesus can. The kind of King Jesus is - God-with-Us, human and divine, eternal, he has realized, possesses the kind of power that matters in his life: power to heal, to change, power made perfect in weakness and power that leads toward life not death.

Without making the claim that this healing somehow doesn’t matter in its own sense, physical healing matters tremendously as we all viscerally know, I do think this frame in the story of Jesus’ signs and wonders can beckon us closer to think about healing in other ways. In this week that has been so clearly marked by violence and trauma I have found a few interviews particularly helpful in helping me to sift through the feelings that this moment brings up. With the question of “where do we go from here?” sitting heavily in my heart I’m grateful for guides who are attuned to what heals, what is true, and what teaches resiliency. The first podcast that I’ll link here is an interview from September 2020 with Bishop Curry “on Love and Hope in Troubling Times.” Towards the end of the interview he quotes a confidant who used to say “Nothing changes until the pain of remaining the same is perceived as greater than the pain of remaining the same.” Though the kind of healing Jesus offers is not a type that we can perform for ourselves (the restoration of the whole world) we can turn again to Jesus to seek the healing, or change, we need to love and serve him and his people. When we arrive in the place where we know we cannot stay the same God meets us there with love and courage and can walk with us, healing our brokenness, even from afar.

Healing from hate, healing from the violence in ourselves and as a society, is a God-sized proposition. We’re looking for signs and wonders and breadcrumbs that lead toward that healing. May these signs of hope lend you courage this day.

If you would like to listen to the Podcast Interview here is the title and link: Brené with Bishop Michael Curry on Love & Hope in Troubling Times 

In Christ,
Mtr Taylor

PS-I’ll link two other podcasts that were inspiring this week in case you too are taking walks with podcasts. The first is a mind-opening and accessible interview about current neuroscience and miraculous human brains! The second is an interview of an author I keep meaning to read who is trained as a conflict mediator whose specialty is gathering people together who need to talk!

-Brené with David Eagleman on The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain

-Brené with Priya Parker on The Art of Gathering