God Is With Us, Always

“When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come.” — Mark 13:7

Jesus shares some particularly challenging words with his disciples in this week’s Gospel reading. He’s been in Jerusalem for several days by this point. And each day he’s traveled from the Mount of Olives to the temple compound, where he’s spent time teaching the crowds and debating with the religious leaders of the day.

As the week goes on, Jesus’s teachings become increasingly pointed, until he makes this dramatic statement about the coming destruction of the temple: “Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

Where is the good news in this discourse on war, famine, and the end of the age?

“Do not be alarmed.”

Jesus’s teaching this week, challenging though it is on the surface, is ultimately a statement of God’s unwavering devotion to God’s people. Jesus uses this dramatic language as a rhetorical device to underscore his point: God is always with us. 

God is not only with us when things are good and peaceful; God is with us when everything feels like it’s falling apart.”

Important though it is, the temple is just a building. Even the religious institution it represents, like all institutions, is ultimately imperfect. We cannot rely on buildings or institutions — because they will eventually change or fail us. In contrast, God will always be with us. 

Jesus repeatedly demonstrates that God is unafraid to stand with us amid our deepest fears and insecurities. God is not only with us when things are good and peaceful; God is with us when everything feels like it’s falling apart. 

God, the eternal creator who made the heavens and the earth, wants nothing more than to be with his people, with us, forever. God is with us in joy and sorrow, stability and instability, hope and despair. The God we meet in Jesus Christ will save, support, and stand by us even when our institutions fail us. 

However you feel about your life, the results of the election, or the state of the world, do not be alarmed. God is with us. God is with you.

Read all of Sunday’s scriptures

Step Into the Story

Here are some ways to think about how God is with us in every circumstance:

Music

In this grounding chant, find comfort in the words of 16th-century mystic Teresa of Ávila: “Nothing can trouble . . . God alone fills us.”

Spiritual Practice

Meditation is a way to calm our hearts and focus our attention to God’s presence with us at all times, no matter what is happening around, or inside, us. Watch this brief introduction to simple Christian meditation or join community meditation every Wednesday at 1pm in Trinity Church.

Poetry

In “I Worried,” poet Mary Oliver considers another way to “not be alarmed.”

Father Matt is Priest and Director, Children, Youth, and Family, at Trinity Church.