After the Letdown
This Week At Windsor E-News 14.04.2023
Disappointment is one of those emotions that seems to linger long after it arrives. Like an uninvited guest that never leaves, disappointment crashes the party of our hopes and is content to sit on the lounge whilst we rummage about cleaning up the mess.
But there is no disappointment without the initial flight of expectation. After that proverbial high comes an inevitable let-down. And it's a falling of the worst kind. This fall is made worse by the exhilarating, accelerating climb that immediately precedes the descent.
The drop is at once surprising and disorienting. As our heights fade from view so they fade from reality. Lost in the dizzy, maddening bewilderment of uncertainty, our imagination turns from friend to foe; puncturing our once-inflated spirits with the spectre of fear-inducing doubt. It's enough to turn-in our wings and ground our hopes for life. For most, being let-down once is enough.
The street is safer than the sky; the ground more reliable than the air. So as the sun rises on Easter morning, I find more familiarity on the road to Emmaus - where hopes are grieved and dreams lay buried - than the path to the empty tomb. But lo, here comes a stranger...
As we wrap up our 18-month journey through Luke's gospel, you may wonder, "Where are we going next?" This week I completed a sermon plan for our next series: Reading Romans Backwards: "Forming A Transformed Community." The framework of this series is taken from Scot McKnight's book of the same title.
While the best way to read Romans is "forwards," there is merit in adopting McKnight's reversed orientation. By starting at the end of Paul's letter, we learn much about faith in the early church and how the gospel of peace forms their communities. This textual-topical series is arranged in four parts: I. A Community Craving Peace (Rom 12-16); II. Our Family History (Rom 9-11), III. Our Family Traits (Rom 1-4); and IV. A Community Born of the Spirit (Rom 5-8).