What's Falling In our Laps?

February 28, 2022

Scripture

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’ (Luke 6:36-38 NIVUK)

What’s Falling In Our Laps?

As I sat in warmth and quiet to pray yesterday morning I was confused and conflicted. A week ago, our public spaces were filled with news about blockades and this week it is a horrible war – my mind was full of images of destruction and lines of displaced peoples.

I was conflicted because while those are important stories, our own homeless are still homeless, the food banks are still overwhelmed, and our First Nations reserves are still without clean water and wounded by historical wrongs. As my good friend who serves us in Parliament once told me when I asked why more wasn’t done on many of these issues: “They don’t get votes because most of the population isn’t concerned about them.”

While we exert pressure to respond to the international story can we also keep up pressure to respond to the human needs around us? We sometimes say “It just fell into my lap” when we receive a surprising windfall. Jesus had very different view of what can fill our laps.

The measure we use to give, forgive, restrain judgement, and exercise mercy produces a lap full of either good or evil. We are in a difficult time in our world, not necessarily worse than any other, but can we as people, towns, companies, countries fill our laps with the good from being as merciful as our shared Father? What has fallen in the lap of Ukraine is no surprise and what is in the laps of our poor and dispossessed isn’t either.

A Prayer for Today

God of mercy you want us to receive the good that comes from doing good and loving mercy and justice. Help us to have compassion with those who fill our screens but also for the many who never get there and yet have deep needs to meet. Fill us with the desire for good whichever way we turn. …. For Jesus’s sake.