Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.

- John 12:16

The disciples did not understand these things at first, but later it made sense. This phrase from today’s Gospel makes me think of a few truisms that tend to make me a bit nervous at first glance. Something like “I just trust God” is a sincere and profound handing over of the self in a way to a God who indeed can be trusted, and also just doesn’t quite sit right sometimes. I think this is because it is often uttered in really trying circumstances, where no phrase could cover the gravity of the situation.

There are two books I’m enjoying right now by the same author, Kate Bowler - Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved), and No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear), and they both spend serious time with the truisms we often hear. Both are about living with chronic illness and reckoning with life as it is, and practicing faith, and leaning on and learning with community. She is a professor at Duke Divinity School, and gives great and funny interviews, if you like podcasts! Though her books are far more wide ranging than just what the pithy titles say, the main points do take the truisms and reflect on how the play out in Dr Bowler’s actual lived experience. She uses phrases like “existential courage” that lend me some inspiration. She has a playful pattern of theological reflection that takes Jesus very seriously.

I like the titles, too. There is, of course, some truth to these sayings, or they wouldn’t stick around. The disciples did not understand, but they would, they would look back and see how the scripture had been fulfilled, how Jesus really was who he said he was, they would learn that he really could be trusted.

When someone says “I just trust God,” I might wonder what they mean, but almost without fail, I learn soon how deeply that trust is held. I look back and see how their actions and approach to challenging situations actually was one of trust, of hope, and I might grow, being lent some of their faith. The truisms can’t say it all, so I give thanks for a community with which I can dig a little deeper, dwell a little longer, so that the profound truth of suffering isn’t passed by with trite sayings, and the profound truth of God’s love for us can be trusted. This truth can be honored and held and shared. When we realize that we don't have as much control as we thought we did, and we need to remember that we have a God we can trust, I pray we all have friends to help us to look back and forward and say Christ was with us, Christ is with us, and Christ will be with us again.

In Christ,

Mtr Taylor