Hermily for 5.28.26

there's a before, and an aft-her

The readings are here.

There are moments that are turning points in our lives; moments that divide our stories into before and after. I bet you can call to mind at least one right now… a choice you made that changed the trajectory of your life, that divided your life into a before and an after. Hold that moment in your mind for a second with me. Got it? I know there are probably many to choose from, but just pick one.

This week my husband and I are celebrating our 25^th wedding anniversary, so this kind of thing has been on my mind; that moment when everything changed. The choice that was given to me that would divide my life into a before and an after.

The writer of our first reading today is writing to communities of Christians in “Asia minor” which is present day Turkey but which was then one of the Roman provinces.

Rome, which had demolished the temple and scattered the jews,

was unhappy with the emergence and spread of this new religion of Christianity, because they felt it could threaten their hold over the people. And because of that, Rome was making things tough for Jesus’ followers. And because of that, people’s neighbors and families were rejecting them, and urging them to let go of this new thing.

But Peter tells them there’s no going back. There is a before time, when they did not know Christ, and an after time, because now they do. Once they were something and now they are something else.

Similarly, the blind beggar Bar-Timaeus was blind and now, after meeting Jesus, is not. Hie entire life changed in that moment, when he threw off his cloak and ran to meet Jesus. There was no going back for Bar-Timaeus. There was a before, and an after.

And you and I have moments, too, these significant moments when we made a choice that changed our journeys, that have divided our lives into before and after, and for us, whether those choices led us down happy or less-than-happy roads, there’s really no going back. We are changed by the choices we make.

But you know and I know that these things, these moments of change, these life- and journey-changing moments, well they don’t really happen in one moment. So much happened in order for those early Christians to have met Christ and turned their lives over to him. So much had already happened in order for Bar-Timaeus to be at that spot on that day, to call out for help, to gain his sight and his new life.

And you and me, our big moments were really just moments in a long line of moments, weren’t they? As significant as my wedding day was, it wasn’t just that Scott and I arrived at the altar that particular day, it was that we had gotten engaged, and before that, dated (and had broke up and dated again)… and before that, we met- so much had already happened in order for our lives to be divided into our before and after.

It is in the small things; it is in the every day choices that our lives become so changed. And God is in those choices.

God wants us to serve, as peter encouraged the Christians to do, wants us to see like Bar-Timaeus, wants us to love, and be loved. God is always, every day, offering us to chances to begin something new, to change our lives from before to better afters. And when we show up for these moments, all the small moments and the life-changing ones, ready for God’s direction and guidance and love, we find that there’s no going back.

Today, God has new beginnings on offer for us. New moments, small or large, to turn our lives in new directions, and so as we prepare to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, let’s pray that we will be present in the small moments, ready for the big moments, and prepared because when God changes our lives, there’s no going back.