Today's Thought - What Does God Care About?

For many years I have - half jokingly - talked about my pet peeves, of which I have many. I have found, by the way, that most people are the same in that way, but are unwillingly to share them. Not me. Just ask me, and I will sermonize on any one of them. One of my particularly unpopular pet peeves is the people who thank Jesus Christ for helping them win in their sport or for a political office, or maybe they believe that Jesus saved just them from an accident while dozens of others died. This sense of false exceptionalism permeates the culture; the idea that I, or my group, or my country, or my political candidate, are loved by God more than others. If God loves all of us, it is clear then that God does not favor any person over others. God cares about the sparrow, Jesus said; so God cares about all of us, or none of us.

God does not care if your sport's team wins or loses. God doesn't give you an advantage over anyone else in your job search. God does care that we grow in the spirit and help other people in need. God does care about equality in all things, because no person has the right to limit another person's freedom. God cares about us being safe, but we are expected to do that for each other. God cares about how we treat the world, but we are expected to keep the environment safe and healthy. God cares about us and loves us and weeps with us when we experience tragedy, but God does not intervene. Faith and life are hard that way. Where is God when life is awful? Right next to us, holding us close, weeping with us.

Jesus said that the Kingdom of God was like a woman who lost a coin and looked high and low until she found it. Or like a shepherd who searched for the lost sheep, leaving the other 99 to keep each other safe. Jesus didn't say that God sent an angel down to help the woman search. God didn't leave arrows on the ground to make the search for the lamb easier. God might have sent encouragement, but God doesn't do these things for us. God doesn't lift that baseball up so it clears the center field fence. God doesn't put a bubble around you while others are dying. God has given us many ways to care for each other, but the actual caring is up to us. And even then, things can go wrong. Stuff happens that we have no control over.

"Why did those children go hungry?" Because we took away their free lunches. "Why did that plane crash?" Maybe because the corporation cut corners to make the investors happy. We are all in the image of God - we are all incarnate with a spark of the Spirit - we are all responsible to care for others. God cares enough to give us abilities and the option to choose to help others freely. When we fail to care, it's an us problem. God has prepared us to do the right thing, but we have to choose well. God cares; we have to care too.

Prayer - Holy God, encourage our willingness to care for others as You have cared for us. We love because You love us. Amen.

Today's art is "His Eye is on the Sparrow" by Jake Weidmann.