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At this time last year, many of us were saying, “Wow! What a year 2020 has been. I can’t wait to turn the page to 2021!” During 2020 we had entered into a deadly pandemic, seen our communities forced into various stages of lock down, come face to face with the ongoing impact of racism in our world, and learned to do digital church!” We had wanted so badly to be back together as a community, but we ended the year apart from each other and dependent on digital connections. 2020 was a year like no other and we assumed that 2021 would be better.
Now as we near the end of this year, many of us are saying “Wow! What a year 2021 has been. I can’t wait to turn the page to 2022!” After the year that we had in 2020, I assumed that we would be in a space of celebration and renewal by this time. While we have had plenty to celebrate and some signs of renewal, we look back on a year that was different than 2020, but full of situations and challenges that could be viewed as overwhelming.
2021 gave us the opportunity to return to worship together but we are still facing limitations. Schools are back in session, but with new rules and less face-to-face connection. The COVID vaccine is here and many of us have received it, but with that has come political tensions, mandates, and division. We had a summer of forest fires and a heat wave unlike anything we had ever experienced in BC. Racism, colonialism, and white supremacy again reared its ugly head this time striking much closer to home as the bodies of indigenous children were found at the site of a church residential school in Kamloops. And now we are facing the devastating impact of an “atmospheric river” that dumped so much rain on our province, that many farms, houses, roads, and people are underwater. Do we dare hope that 2022 will be better?
Weather, disease, fire, water storms, political stresses, the impact of nations taking over nations, religious people doing unspeakable acts with unbearable divisions – some people might say this all sounds biblical in proportion! Any of these on their own could break us and we faced and/or facing them right now. We need strength to get through each day!
This makes me think of the powerful promises found in Isaiah 43; promises that were given to the people of Israel during political and religious turmoil that shook their identity. God promised that he would be with them – even if the waters rise and the fires come (2021 anyone?):
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
We need that assurance when we face these battles. (I almost typed insurance – which we need with water and fire damage, but that can’t do anything with the religious, racial and political damages that we face.) But, with these words we are reminded that we are in God’s hands. That God’s care and compassion give us strength even when the battles seem unwinnable.
That, too, was the point of our service this past Sunday! We celebrated the reign of Christ Sunday which reminds us that we know who wins through all of this! That we know where this all leads. Even if we don’t know how to get through the rest of the day, we know that God’s love wins in the end. We are called to live in that reality now, not just wait for it to come some day when God’s promises come to fruition. We are called to live it now in God’s grace.
So, 2022 might be better than 2021 and 2020, or we might face more change and even greater challenges! But, no matter what we face, we should recognize that God is in control. That we live in the Kingdom of God – and the rains, fires and turmoil can’t take that away.
