October 3, 2019

Our lives are filled with loose ends. I’ve got such a strong need for closure, for tidy endings, for completion. Yet, to be human is to live among the frayed ends and unfinished sentences.

In his final address to the Diocese of Virginia, Bishop Peter Lee said, “We Christians declare that the Author and Finisher of our faith is Jesus Christ and not ourselves. We place at the center of our lives the cross. It is a dramatic sign of interruption, of unfinished business, unfinished from a human perspective, at least, and Christianity commands us to follow that cross along the paths of our own lives. That means that tidy endings and finished business are not to be ours—not ever. Our endings are like frayed rope. There are loose ends, threads that go nowhere, untidy and disorderly strands.”

That is profound. And relieving, too – it’s not up to me to tie it all up in a neat bow. I can’t do that anyway. As Bishop Lee mentions, Jesus is the “author and perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2) We know that when Christ comes again, the disorderly strands of our lives will be woven together in a majestic tapestry. Until then, the best thing for us to do is to follow the urging of the author of Hebrews and “fix our eyes on Jesus.”

“O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.” (Wednesday in Easter Week – BCP p. 223)