Jack Hardaway
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Tipping points.
Those moments when things can go one way or the other.
Which way will the tree fall?
The balance of the scale pauses.
Which way?
Choosing to care.
Choosing not to.
The jumble of thoughts and emotions, leading up to the tipping point.
The tipping of the chalice to drink deeply, or the turning away.
The choice, and the balance of eternity.
The choice to care, or the turning away.
Jesus is God’s tipping point, the moment of choice to care.
The choosing of friendship, the choosing of love.
The cross for the sake of the friends.
There are so many moments in our lives when we tip one way or the other. Choosing to care, choosing to turn away.
Learning to love, by failing, again and again, until by the grace of God we choose—to care.
Abide in God’s love, abide in God’s friendship, abide in God’s choosing—you.
We aren’t always able to care. Then our friends lift us up. God lifts us up.
It is easy to be lead astray from choosing to care, false logic, toxic rhetoric, broken hearts, abused minds, traumatized souls.
The apostle Paul was good at designating special care for the weak, the vulnerable, the immature, for those who are not able yet to choose to care, for those who choose to turn away. We are to care for the wounded and the lost with particular attention.
The cross of Jesus, God’s tipping point that we may grow, grow enough to care, be set free to become free enough to care.
Michelangelo did a series of sketches and reflections on the cross of Jesus towards the end of his life, contemplating final things, the things that truly matter. The bulletin cover today is one of those, showing the moment when Jesus tells his mother and his beloved friend to care for each other. “Woman here is your son. Here is your mother.” One of the last few words he spoke, according to John, for his friend and for his mother.
Tipping the balance. No more turning away.
I think Mother’s Day at its heart is an organic lifting up of the choice to care, to love, however poorly or awkwardly we do so, it is that ongoing choice. Behind all the sentimental fluff and guilt we lay on motherhood, there is that cross to give life to another. A sacrifice.
Love one another. That is the command from our Lord.
Because God is love, to choose to love, is to choose God, to say yes.
The tipping of the chalice to drink deep or to turn away.
Every moment is the moment to choose that love, to choose to reveal that love to the world.
God is tipping the chalice, tipping the balance.
The next moment beckons.
Say yes.