What are you distracted by? That’s a question underlying our text this week. What is it that draws your attention away from your call to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world? Not that followers of Jesus aren’t allowed to enjoy the beauty and wonder that this world has to offer. The Christian life is marked by joy and surrounded by wonder. Yet, like the disciples in our text, we can be distracted by what we see around us and lose sight of our reason for being, to live a life of proclamation and invitation.

Each week, worship is an opportunity to reorient ourselves toward God. Yes, the object of worship is giving praise to God and lifting up the name of Jesus. Not that we come and realize that nothing else matters, that the wars and conflicts and deprivations and divisions don’t matter, because all that matters is giving praise to God. We hold on to hope by declaring that God cares about the brokenness of the world and the people who are harmed by that brokenness. And we declare it by caring too, by serving, by giving, by advocating for change and for peace and for reconciliation. Not out of a sense of despair, but out of that very hope that says God is still God and there is good in the world. There is grace and there is a way that leads to salvation.