… God saw you and me and every person who ever lived scraping our way through this sin ridden life and believed we were valuable enough to sacrifice his only Son just to dwell with us as it was in Eden. Do we value God and the Kingdom of Heaven as much as God values us? As one of my former pastors used to ask every Sunday, “Will you say yes to the one who said yes to the cross for you?”
… Odds are the enemy has sown a few weeds in the soil of our hearts. Instead of being so anxious to clear every weed from our sight, maybe we need to pause and give thanks to God for granting us mercy and allowing the good wheat to grow in fullness rather than cutting us off with those weeds before we ever have a chance to bloom.
Jesus said many things in parables. Most of these parables speak to the nature of the Kingdom of God, the very Kingdom Jesus taught us to pray for to “come on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). The problem, if we’re honest, is that while these parables may make perfect sense in God’s Kingdom, many of them do not make sense in our earthly kingdoms. Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matthew 4:17). If it was at hand over 2,000 years ago, surely it is at hand now. The Kingdom of God is not some far away reality beyond the crystal sea. Perhaps what Jesus is offering us is not a “how-to manual” in building the Kingdom, but rather a new set of lenses through which to see God’s presence in our midst, here and now.
Let’s consider first this “Parable of the Soils,” as it is commonly called…
It’s been awhile…
At the beginning of 2020, I wrote a blog series entitled “We Are Not OK”, addressing the cloud of darkness and hatred that seemed to loom over our nation as we transitioned into this new decade. After Lent, I took a break because life was turned upside down by the Pandemic, in which I had to figure out how to shift my entire ministry online while simultaneously attempting in vain to help my kindergartner do school from home and continue my own doctoral work online. At the same time, we are in a season of transition as I am moving to a new church as of July 1. With all of that, regular blogging simply fell off the top of my priority list.
So why am I breaking this season of silence now? Because, friends, we are STILL NOT OK! We never were. Honestly, I’m tired of pretending we were. I am doing what I can to listen to my brothers and sisters of color and educate myself more deeply on the systemic / structural racism that is so deeply embedded throughout our nation’s history. I know this is only a small start, but I want to offer my personal confession of a particular instance of privilege that hit me hard this week…
The next day, which was the day after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate. They said, “Sir, we remember that while that deceiver was still alive he said, ‘After three days I will arise.’ Therefore, order the grave to be sealed until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people, ‘He’s been raised from the dead.’ This last deception will be worse than the first.”
Matthew 27:62-64
If the authorities were terrified of a dead savior, who they were convinced could not truly have risen from the grave, how is it that a living savior who we believe is alive in us be so easily ignored by the world? Could it be that a dead Savior held more power over them than a living savior holds over us? …
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…
You now rejoice in this hope, even if it’s necessary for you to be distressed for a short time by various trials. This is necessary so that your faith may be found genuine.
- 1 Peter 1:6-7a
I find it interesting that the one who writes so boldly about faith, especially in the midst of trials, is the very one who denied even knowing Jesus when the trials came his way.
"What are you talking about, Peter?" we might ask. "If what you're saying is true, your faith wasn't very genuine all those times you challenged Jesus? Where was your faith when he was arrested and needed you the most?" And of course we would not be wrong in such a challenge. We might even begin to feel a bit self-righteous if we have not personally denied Jesus in such a public way…
As a United Methodist, our Baptismal and Membership vows include supporting the church with our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness.
Throughout the month of April, I will be sharing reflections on what it looks like to be the Church by keeping these 5 vows even when we are unable to gather. Let us not grow slack in honoring our covenant to God and to one another. Until we meet again...
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…
It's in our nature as human beings to solve problems. We are rational and critical thinkers. We always want to fix or improve things... even other people. We also have a million competing ideas of how to fix the problems of our world. We don't agree on who might best lead us toward those solutions or on how to divide our limited resources for the greatest outcome.
Unlike us, Jesus actually had the resources to fix everyone's problems. He could have walked through town waving his hands like a magic wand taking away every sickness and infirmity before people even realized what was happening. But he didn't. Every healing Jesus performed involved a one on one personal encounter. Their "problems" were not "fixed" from a distance. Maybe their problems were not "fixed" at all. In some cases, being healed created a whole new set of problems…
