Salvation is Here!

Sally and I do a "day-old" bread run each Friday morning for the Salvation Army in Waukesha. Last

Friday we parked the truck outside the Cousins on Bluemound and as I walked in, the person at the
cash register called out to the prep area, "Salvation is Here!" I thought, "Wow that certainly puts a lot of
responsibility on me."

I'd be up for it as long as it doesn't involve a cross. Alas, it always does. Maybe not the very one Jesus was on, but he did suggest that each of us must bear our own cross. Bringing in the Kingdom of Heaven always involves some sort of sacrifice, some sort of "cross." Some sort of giving up something in the hope that God will do something with it and make peace possible.

Little contributions here and there. Serving at a meal program at the Hope Center. Driving a truck to
deliver donated furniture for people who have unfurnished apartments. Visiting folks in our
congregation who are unable to make it to church. Praying with all our hearts for folks in difficult
times. All these things mean we give up something. Time, Talents, Treasure. That's how the kingdom
works. And no matter how little our contribution, God works with it to make it powerful.

John Calvin once told a marvelous story about a little girl who saw a beautiful flower in her mother's garden
and picked it and presented it to her mom with all the  joy a child can possess. How could she know that her mother was planning to "show" that flower in the annual flower show in town? But the mother received the
gift from her daughter as if it were made of pure gold.

So does Almighty God.

My favorite prayer from my favorite theologian, Thomas Merton, goes like this:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
 "I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you." 

And because of that Salvation is Here and the Kingdom
of Heaven is "at hand."