Nothing on My Own

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” John 5:30-47

From Chief Seattle, 1854 - And when the last Red Man shall have perished, and the memory of my tribe shall have become a myth among the White Men, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children's children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land. The White Man will never be alone. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only a change of worlds.

Jesus continues his explanation of the relatedness and interdependence of the life of faith. All that has been done is seen, not just from an earthly, time bound perspective, but also from the whole of creation. We are bound together through God, the Creator, made kin through Christ and are knitted together as one diverse, complicated family across our globe and across time. God gives us the opportunity at all times to see how our faith and actions can change and uplift others, or, how our selfishness and vanity can separate the loving relationships we have been given. We have a choice to stay connected, interdependent with the living God, the God of all people, all time and all space.

Today, I want to give thanks for all those who have held me up, taught me and mentored me in my life and faith. May my life be dedicated today to lifting up, mentoring and teaching others. May our interdependence be a joy, a light burden that brings us to a generosity of spirit. May the care we have been given be returned to God and to others, so that strnagers may become friends, friends family and all of us know the presence of the living God.