Day 1 Reconciliation
- Acts 27: 18-19, 21
“We were being pounded by the storm so violently that on the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard and on the third day with their own hands they threw the ship’s tackle overboard… Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul then stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and thereby avoided this damage and loss.”
- Psalm 85
- Luke 18: 9-14
Reflection
To live an untethered life means that we may well find ourselves at the mercy of wind and wave. Besieged by storm and circumstance, carried by the tide, thrown off course, we can find ourselves run aground, clinging to the hope – that we might loosen our grip of individual claim and right, and hold to a shared ownership of this rock of truth.
Fissure cracks unearthed by seismic change, fresh and raw – now open to the elements – make it easy for fracture and the heartbreak of division and disunity to split our truth apart.
But as we find each precious piece, like flotsam and jetsam washed up on distant shore and held safe in the hands of someone else, might we come together and re-form?
As a new picture emerges a re-seeing re-imagining reconciling of ourselves and each other.
We are all at the mercy of the storm regardless of where we stand.
Port or starboard, aft or stern it’s the same boat, traversing the same waters.
Whether we sink or swim might well depend upon who or what we cling to or let go of.
Prayer
Reconciling God, as we feel the pain of past mistakes, shy away and retreat to individual strongholds; help us surrender a false sense of who we are, all that tethers us, and all that we hold precious.
Bind us to humility and compassion, as we learn together, to receive from You, abide in You and Your love. Amen.
Questions
- What are the important things we need to carry with us as we journey together towards unity?
- What things might we need to let go of as we journey together towards unity? What challenges does that bring?
- What are our shared hopes for our community? What might our common prayers for our community be?
