The Third Sunday in Lent

It’s a question that could be answered by the most cursory reading of just about any Christian catechism—“Of course God is among us!! God is omni­present, which means God is always everywhere!” Fair enough. That is the right and good and true answer… but…

But life doesn’t bow to catechisms. Nor do our thoughts and emotions natu­rally submit to such abstract doctrine. Perhaps in a perfect world it would, but it doesn’t do that in this world… at least for a vast number of us!

Like the Israelites who were up against a severe crisis around access to wa­ter, it is easy in times of draught and poverty to question if God is in fact among us. This is part of the Lenten journey… doubt is there, like the apos­tle Thomas, nestled in the story of the journey with Jesus to the cross and empty tomb.

This Sunday, I would like to attempt to address this thorny issue of doubt with the help of an unnamed Samaritan woman and a mid-18th century English poet—that the author of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) once called “the best modern poet”—a poet who wrote the words to our hymn of the month “Decide This Doubt For Me”.

I look forward to our time together… see you on Sunday!