The text we will explore today, is perhaps one of the most familiar within our Christian tradition.  It is a text of great assurance, and for many it is a text of great consternation.  Many of us learned it in Sunday School from Matthew 8 – “All things work together for the good, to those who love God…” which sits within the same passage that affirms “nothing can separate us from the love of God…”

Whilst we may be troubled by things not appearing “good” even if I love God, the passage unfolds in an intimacy and immediacy of God present that both extends us, and leads us to wonder about the nature of ‘separation’ and ‘union’.  Indeed, if we read the passage carefully, we come to see that there is a beautiful description of us participating in the ‘good’ rather than simply being a recipient.  I am participating in this ‘all things come together for good’ reality, because I am intimately connected with this God.  When that is my sense of grounded awareness, then I can not only feel assurance, but I have to acknowledge I am an active agent.  I am called to outwork God for the good of that which is around me.

Which is why I our children have grown pumpkins to sell to connect with the children of Ethiopia. Which is why we must think about the clothes we buy or the shoes we wear, and whether they exploit workers in the making.  Which is why we must work at the best possible solutions to climate change… How we might be active agents of God, working for the Good.

There is nothing passive about a passage which claims an intimate and dynamic presence of God’s love in our lives.  It is a call to know God and to reveal God in our living!

Anne