Today’s scriptures present both challenge and hope.  They root our hope in our relationship with God.  Those who commit themselves to God’s cause can imagine futures and act on their imagination, even if the arc of imagination goes beyond their lifetimes.  They can face illness, external threat, and death knowing that God’s providence encompasses them.  Life apart from a relationship with God eventually leads to hopelessness, especially in the context of life’s limited situations. So what is the quality of that relationship??

First, when we make that Good Confession, we are connected to our brothers and sisters; we are supported by our church body; we are emboldened to go forward, sometimes in ways that are new ways, sometimes in ways that feel like an experiment, because we have never done it that way before. Sometimes that gives us a sense of adventure, trying new things.