Scripture -  John 17:9-19
Jesus Prays for His  Disciples

Verse       -  

John 17:16  Just as I do not belong to the world, they do not belong to the world.

Is the World Too Much With Us?

   
 Perhaps the above title will take you to the words of William Wordsworth who wrote, " The world is too much with us.  Late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers."  For indeed these words are the source of the title for this meditation.

    This takes me back to my younger days when one of the songs on the hit parade included these words - "Make the world go away, get it off my shoulder, say the things you used to say."  A love song, and for a brain teaser do you remember the name of the singer?

    Before continuing, let this be crystal clear - the world is a beautiful place because it was created by God who saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:31).

    The beauty of God's created world is summed up in the following verse -

Ever see a world so fine
As this world of yours and mine?
Sun and moist from end to middle
Just as sweet as song and fiddle;
Dust and dew, and rest and dream,
Country roads and rippling stream,
Town and city, mill and street -
Ever see a world so sweet?

    But in these days of COVID-19, I do wonder if the world is too much with us.  Might you be overly listening or watching the news and related talk shows where COVID-19 issues are front and centre?  Depressing statistics day after day of COVID- 19's new cases, the number of related deaths, the state of the economy, bankruptcies of stores and small business establishments, daily press conferences of the Prime Minister, the Premier and their ministers and medical authorities.  Are you on news overload which I suggest can make the world too much with you?  For one's own well being; news junkie might work, but certainly not news overload during this pandemic time, or most probably at any time.

    As the contemplative Thomas Merton has written - News becomes merely a new noise in the mind, briefly replacing the noise that comes after it - News?  There is so much news that there is no room left for the true tidings, the "Good News," The Great Joy.  A Thomas Merton Reader pages 362 and 363 -  Edited by Thomas P. McDonnell.

    That's it!  You need more room for the "Good News", The Great Joy!  As Christians we are in the World where in and through Jesus, God the Father keeps us safe, but we are not of the World, subjected to the manoeuvres of the Evil One.  This accounts for the reason it is The Presbyterian Church IN Canada, and not the Presbyterian Church OF Canada.  Small prepositions making a BIG difference!

    We stop where we started - Is the World too much with us? 

In HIM who is with us, even unto the end of the World (Matthew 28:20).

              Rev. Wayne