The thought this week was written by Gale Richards, EBA Regional Minister. (Photo Credit: Andrea Lightfoot, Unsplash.com)
Safe with mother hen
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.
Luke 13:34 (NLT)
On this International Women’s Day (8 March) where the theme is equality today for a sustainable tomorrow, and with war raging in Ukraine it seems fitting to have the image of God trying to keep all of humanity safe and cared for, like a hen protects her chicks. Such an image might also alert the Church as the Body of Christ, to the role it is called to play in God’s mission, to help gather and keep all of humanity safe and cared for.
The technological revolution that has taken place in recent decades in some ways has given us the tools to potentially help draw people across the globe closer together, and to God. In the words of Revd Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK Jr.) in his 1968 “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution” address, in Washington D.C., ‘through our scientific and technological genius, we have made of this world a neighborhood.’
However, for the potential of this global neighbourhood to be realised, borrowing the words of MLK Jr., we need to develop the ‘right ethical commitments to live well in that neighborhood.’
In this Lenten season how might our churches reflect on attitudes towards and relationships with, members of that global neighbourhood. Are our government’s policies and church practices helping or hindering these attitudes and relationships?
May God provide us with the wisdom and courage we all need, to play our part in God gathering and keeping all of humanity safe and cared for.
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