Clergy from left, Pastor Deb Church, Deacon Amy Schmuck, The Rev. Mary Ann Hill, Associate Priest Lynn Finnegan, Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, retired and Pastor Nicolé Ferry. Photo by Nate Limback/ladailypost.com
By Rev. Deborah Beloved Church
White Rock Presbyterian Church
I recently shared with the WRPC congregation that I have discerned a call to a new thing, and that after five-plus years with them and twenty-five-plus years in the Los Alamos and White Rock communities, I will soon be stepping out of both my role as their pastor and my place in this community, to begin a new chapter in my life.
In my letter to them, sharing these upcoming changes, I began with this: “God is faithful, all the time. This I believe.”
And I do believe it. Deeply. And I’d like to share here what that means to me.
To claim that “God is faithful, all the time”, does not mean that God will, without a doubt, answer our prayers as we want them to be answered.
Nor does it mean that God is a divine vending machine, where we put in our prayers, punch a button, and get the desired outcome.
Rather, as I have come to understand God’s faithfulness through the witness of both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, as well as the witness of other siblings in Christ throughout time, as well as the witness of the created world, as well as experiences in my own life, when we claim that “God is faithful, all the time,” we are claiming, first and foremost, that God is most assuredly with us and will not leave us–even when we don’t feel God’s presence.
When we claim that “God is faithful, all the time,” we are proclaiming our trust in a God who is wholly committed to our healing and wholeness, as well as to the healing and wholeness of all of God’s creation; and we are proclaiming our trust that God will act in ways that ultimately further that healing and wholeness–even when we don’t see it.
When we claim that “God is faithful, all the time,” we are proclaiming our trust in a God who is Divine Love–reconciling, just, generous, forgiving, abundant, merciful, deep, holy Love–and we are proclaiming our belief that God will act–that God can only act–from within that Love–even when we don’t understand it.
When we pray and offer to God the longings of our hearts, the things that both lift and crush our spirits, the hopes and fears and dreams and terrors and joys and hurts that we hold in our innermost selves, while simultaneously praying “Holy God, you are faithful … all the time,” we are acknowledging that we don’t know it all, that we don’t see it all, that we don’t understand it all … but in the midst of it all, we trust God with it all.
When we pray, “Holy God, you are faithful … all the time,” we are trusting God with all of our hearts and minds and souls. And it is a beautiful and powerful thing.
May we all trust God more and more, praying together as we live and move and have our beings in this time and place: “Holy God, you are faithful … all the time.”
Amen.
Editor’s note: ‘All Shall Be Well’ is a column written by local women clergy including ELCA Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, M.Div., retired (czoebidd@gmail.com); Pastor Nicolé Ferry, Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church (pastornicole@bethluth.com); Associate Priest Lynn Finnegan, The Episcopal Church of the Holy Faith, Santa Fe (rev.lynn@holyfaithchurchsf.org); Pastor Deb Church, White Rock Presbyterian Church (pastor@wrpchurch.com) and The Rev. Mary Ann Hill, Rector, Trinity on the Hill Episcopal Church (momaryannhill@gmail.com) and Deacon Amy Schmuck, Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church (deaconamy@bethluth.com).
