HE’S GOTTA GO THROUGH US

A few weeks ago at Rotary, Dr. Lew Finch, the retiring Superintendent of Schools in Cedar Rapids, was reminiscing about his career and telling stories. One was about the time years ago when as Superintendent in a Minnesota School District he was helping serve lunch in one of the local high schools [That’s really getting to know your constituency!]. A student recognized him and said, “You’re the one who gives us the snow days.” [What a claim to fame!] Dr. Finch replied, “Not me. It’s the Man Upstairs who does.” To which the student responded, “Yes, but He’s gotta go through you.”

   Isn’t that the truth! Whether that young man knew it or not he was being theologically astute. God is in charge, we know and believe. God’s will is to be done. But what we also often fail to realize is that for God to have his will to done, God’s gotta go through us. That is how God works in this world of ours: in and through us. God does not do an end around our free will no matter what God’s will is.

   God can and does make it snow and God may not want his young people to risk their lives getting to school in snow hip deep. But if the Superintendent doesn’t call school off, school is on no matter what God’s will or wishes might be. God has the whole world in his hands but God hands over to us so much of the control of that world to us both individually and collectively.

   Need I add: it’s “Matthew 25…and all that jazz” all over again? God wants the hungry fed and the naked clothed but God does not feed the hungry or clothe the naked. We do. God wants those in pain to not suffer alone but God does not hold the hand of one going through grief. We do. God does not watch the neighbor’s kids while their parents attend an ailing parent. We do. God does not walk the Relay for Life to raise funds to find a cure for cancer. We do. For all of God’s work to be done, God’s gotta go through you and me both individually and us together. That’s the way God works.

   But we know that, do we not? We know God never forces his will or his ways upon us. He simply makes them known and then lets us know that if they are to be realized, we have to make them happen. We have that freedom. It is a tremendous responsibility to be God’s hands in this life in this world. But that is who we are and there is no escape. We may try to hide from that responsibility, run away from it, even deny it, but we cannot. For God’s will to be done in the here and now, God’s gotta go through us.

   As Matthew 25 reminds us, we always have to be ready to be those hands by using whatever gifts we have been given to love and serve others wherever we meet them. We also have to know what to do when we do. And all that jazz? That’s why we gather as a community of faith: to strengthen and support one another, to learn from one another, to grow together as a community of God’s faith-filled and faithful hands…and eyes and ears and feet and heart.

   God’s gotta go through us. Wow!