Inseparable - The Rev. Melanie W. J. Slane

Sermons from the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

As humans, we are constantly making choices that require separation. We cannot have everything, so we are forced to choose. We cannot do everything, and so when we do anything, we must decide not to do something else. The French philosopher Paul Ricoeur once wrote, Ugh, if only I could grasp and embrace everything. And how cruel it is to choose and to exclude. And, of course, sometimes life chooses for us. No one would choose to grow up and become an adult. And yet, here we are. No one would choose to have their children leave home, and yet... There they go. At the very heart of what it means to be human is the inevitable separation from the things and people that we love most in this world. Life is hard. Distress, and hunger, and suffering, and being laid bare in all of our weaknesses. These are all a part of the human experience. Suffering is for us. a predestined condition, and the Apostle Paul knew this all too well. He himself enacted unimaginable suffering on some of the first followers of Jesus Christ. He stood there and watched as Stephen was stoned to death for proclaiming Jesus as the Son of the Living God.