The temptation is to believe that God is revealed only in the delight and not also in the grief or that God lives in the places of hope or music and not also in the places of anxiety and hurt. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Do not be afraid.
I also believe to my core that, for all the horrific bugs in our operating system over the centuries, the Church still bears something sacred and relevant and as desperately needed as ever to this lonely, hurting world of ours. We don’t have to be a perfect community. Just one that’s humbly faithful to the way of Jesus in our relationships with friend, sinner, and stranger alike. And when we are, our life together here at Calvary can still be a source of miraculous cures.
Paul invited the Corinthians to reorient themselves – to look upward and outward toward God. He invited them to join together in seeking out the place where the wounded heart of humanity meets the divine presence of God.