“We” are
God’s work of art, Paul tells the Ephesians.
A “work of art” means for us a painting, a novel, a piece of music and
so forth. It is something that a person conceives as an idea, a seed which
grows and develops as they work on it. They are not sure, at the beginning, how
it will be at the end. As they work they
constantly adapt and try different ways of developing the work, accepting some
and rejecting others. Finally the finished product emerges. Maybe it has
changed much from the original concept, but now it is complete; it has achieved
its purpose.
I remember a
teacher I once had who told us God too doesn’t know exactly how things are
going to turn out. He doesn’t have a fixed blue print for us. He knows how he wants us to be but he adapts
his plans according to how we respond at each stage. Sometimes we mess up and
he has to change his plan and try something else. How often we recover from a
disaster and say, “it turned out well in the end because…” Or we say, “every
cloud has a silver lining,” meaning every setback brings a benefit in the end.
“We are well aware that God works with those who love him … and turns
everything to their good.” Romans 8:28).
I was
thinking these thoughts this week when reflecting on homosexuality. People of my generation swept this issue
under the carpet. We did not know how to
deal with it when it began to be discussed openly. And the Church did not know
what to say about it. Maybe it still doesn’t.
But the consensus today, whatever way a person discovers they are, is they
are to be respected, honoured and loved as they are: they are God’s work of
art. I know too well. I myself have made
a journey from viewing people with disabilities, physical or intellectual, as
“useless”, to holding them in great esteem and trying to welcome their
contribution to the community in which they live. Homosexuals would not accept that they are
‘disabled’ but they would acknowledge they are different from the majority of
people.
But whatever
about descriptions and labels, I am trying to make a general point; that every
person, no matter what their condition in life, is God’s work of art. He loves each one and works with them and
through them to bring out the best in them, for their own happiness and for the
progress of others. Our task is to
respect this “work in progress” and do all we can to open our mind and heart to
welcome people who are different from us as well as those we consider the same
as us.
11 March 2018 Sunday in
Lent 4 B
2 Chronicles 36:14 … 23 Ephesians 2:4-10 John 3:14-21
