Greetings WAC Community,
Be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul. – Joshua 22:5
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. – Matthew 6:24
You may be a state trooper, you might be a turk. You may be the head of some big TV network. You may be rich or poor; you may be blind or lame. You may be living in another country under another name. But you’re gonna have to serve somebody . . . Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord. But you’re gonna have to serve somebody. – Bob Dylan
For Christians, today is the beginning Holy Week. My pastor invited us to sign up to do readings on Good Friday, which I did. It’s a Tenebrae drama based on the seven words from the cross, entitled The Last Words by Ronald D. Vaughan. Pastor Deb assigned me to read the part of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. I practiced my lines out loud. I imagine the script could have been Mary’s thoughts at the time she sees her oldest son being crucified so unjustly. I cried, as she must have done. Although I was likely chosen for the role because of my age, I feel honored because in Christmas pageants as a little girl, I was never chosen to be Mary, perhaps because I wore glasses and no one could imagine that Jesus’ mother wore glasses.
Driving home this past week from having visited my oldest brother who lives in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, I finished listening to a book on tape I’d borrowed from the library. It was a novel about youth graduating from college from various backgrounds and deciding where to go, whom to love and what career or graduate school to pursue. One of the characters goes to India against his parents’ advice to volunteer in a hospice for destitute people, while the woman he is in love with becomes co-dependent with someone who is mentally ill and who repeatedly fails to take his prescribed medication leading to her being abused. There’s no real ending, except that each ends up going separate ways. It’s not, “and they happily ever after.” They make decisions and where those choices lead them is unknown.
After the book on tape was completed, I turned to music. One was a CD of Bob Dylan. As I listened to the words the thought entered my mind that the lyrics reflect the Gospel according to Dylan. I had never before listened closely to the seven verses of Gonna Have to Serve Somebody. We come from many different frames of reference giving us many perspectives from which we choose jobs, friends, locations, etc. I think Dylan is right; we do choose, whether we know it or not, whom we will serve; and our actions reveal whom we serve.
This week, during Holy Week, I pray that I serve God, the Lord of love and justice. I pray that all of our collective actions be that we serve the Lord, not the devil that ferments hatred, violence and greed.
Fear not. Be bold. Do justice.
Blessings,
Chesie
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