This year for Lent, I invite you to join me in meditating on the Passion Narrative of Christ. Where do you find yourself in the story? What impact does the cross have on your everyday life?
Take some time to read slowly through the passages listed for each week. What is the Spirit speaking to your heart? What “wonderings” arise within you? How is God calling you to respond? I offer my own simple reflections (100 words or less), just to get us started…
Our problem is not with sight. With today's advancements in eye-care technology, most of us can see.
Our problem is not with vision. We've all got a "vision", a dream, a goal of what we think things ought to look like.
Our problem is perception. We see, but we do not perceive. We have vision, but our dreams are far too small.
Like the blind man in Bethsaida, we have been touched by Jesus, we have the faith to see, but the people still look like trees…
It’s not easy to end a series like this when the crisis of our “not-OK” reality continues on around us indefinitely. It’s not easy to hope, to wander together in this wilderness, to see others around us as companions on the journey instead of threats, to “fumble with love” as we trip over the meaning and intentions of our own words, or to move ladders that we have been afraid to move for so long.
No matter how much we fear war, it seems we fear peace more…
In Mark 6, we read that Jesus sent out the Twelve. In Luke's 10, we find 72. Yet no matter how many disciples Jesus sends out on any given occasion, the outcome is the same. How is it that they can go into the villages with nothing but walking sticks and the clothes on their backs and return with declarations of incredible spiritual victory. "Lord, even the demons submit themselves to us in your name" (Luke 10:17).
"The early church had no building, no money, and no political influence. And they turned the world upside-down"
J.D. Greear …
… World history is the story of an endless sibling rivalry in which we all want to be the favorite child.
This is not our place. Power in this world, even economic and political power, is an illusion. It is temporary and comes at a tremendous cost. Jesus tells us that those who seek to save their lives will lose them. The more we try to gain or hold onto control, the more harm we do to others and to ourselves. Some have said that most of the evil in the world Is the result of religion. Indeed, the most brutal wars in history and even in our own day are rooted in religious ideology. It is not, I believe, religion itself which stirs up so much violence, but rather our misuse of religion for the sake of worldly gain and power.
While we fight over who is closest to God, God draws closer those we want to keep the furthest away.
While we fight for power, God continues to favor the powerless.
While we fight over who is the most “right”, God keeps loving those we think are “wrong.”
If there is any hope for our future, we must let go of our craving for power. We must stop trying to climb the ladders of the empire…
While Jesus was still speaking with her, messengers came from the synagogue leader’s house, saying to Jairus, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the teacher any longer?
Mark 5:35
I don't know about you, but I must confess, I get frustrated when other people are late. When I am waiting on someone else to complete their portion of a project so that I can do my part, I get very anxious because I want to do my part on my timeline, not theirs. I tend to run life ahead of schedule to alleviate stress, but working with procrastinators sometimes forces me to delay the schedule I have set up for myself.
There are two key scenes in the gospels where Jesus is "running late" and on both occasions, his delay is literally a matter of life and death…
Here we are a month into 2020 and everyone is still talking about clear vision. Personally, I think the metaphor has worn a bit thin. Rather than jumping on the “20/20 Vision” bandwagon on New Years, I held off this particular reflection to give us time to lament our “Not-okay-ness.” We cannot expect to find a clear path forward if we don’t know where we are. As we come together in this “not-OK” place and learn to wander together toward hope, seeking clear vision becomes a common goal.
There’s only one problem with this whole idea of “clear vision”… It’s all an illusion…
Then they pleaded with Jesus to leave their region.
Mark 5:17
We know about Jesus calming the storm. We know how Jesus healed the demoniac and sent the demons fleeing into the pigs. But what do these two stories have to do with each other?
After crossing the sea on that stormy night, Jesus finds himself in a position to minister to the 10 Gentile cities of the Decapolis. Of course there were mixed feelings among the disciples about the Gentiles in general, but either way, there is significant potential here for spreading the Good News of the Kingdom among countless people who have not heard. What strikes me is how quickly Jesus gets back in the boat to go home…