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Greater Things

Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will  also do the works that I do, and in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.  --John 14:12 Of all the things Jesus teaches, this may be one of the hardest teachings for us to receive as his disciples.  How in the world can WE do what Jesus does?  Not to mention "greater things?" Jesus heals the sick and the wounded and the traumatized.  He lifts up and empowers those who have been crushed by the world's systems; the discarded, the forgotten.  He stands with the scapegoated , the condemned, those being bullied.  He removes labels and shame; he names people in new, life-giving ways.  He overcomes the power of death to define life.  He feeds the spiritually and physically hungry.  He pitches his tent among the poor and inaugurates an order that puts them first.  He forgives--removing obstacles, lifting  burdens, loosing that which binds us and constricts our generosity.  He shows us
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With Burning Hearts

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"Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us"--Luke 24:32 The story of the Road to Emmaus is an important one.  It focuses not just on what God's resurrection power does with Jesus, but what God's power for new life does in us.  The setting is the afternoon of Easter Day.  Two of Jesus' disciples are leaving Jerusalem and heading to Emmaus, about seven miles away.  In spite of the news of the empty tomb, they remain traumatized by the awful events of Good Friday and their fear that death has had the last word.  They are overcome with sadness, and lament that Jesus is not who they had hoped he would be.  The risen Christ meets the men on the road, drawing close and coming alongside of them, but they don't recognize him.  "But their eyes were kept from recognizing him, "  Luke writes.  This is a way of saying that we don't always see Jesus' presence in our lives b
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Resurrection Images

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Father, Forgive Them

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"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."--Luke 23:34 Even as he is dying on the cross, Jesus cries out a prayer of mercy to God " "Father, forgive them . . ." For whom is he praying?  Is it for the soldiers, who are just "following orders?"  Is it for Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, who gave the order so he might satisfy the angry crowds and at the same time make sure that no other "king" would challenge Caesar?  Is Jesus praying for the religious leaders who want him dead so that his message of a gracious God who loves everyone might be silenced?  Or is Jesus praying for the ordinary people who first flocked to him but then became disenchanted when he offered love rather than might, community instead of victory?  Or perhaps Jesus is asking mercy for his own disciples who had abandoned and denied him.  What do you think? "They know not what they do."   That's what Jesus says.  But surely the re
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He Loved Them to the End

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"Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end." --John 13:1   Life with Jesus was life immersed in the gracious love of God:  embracing; drenching; challenging; shocking; thrilling.  The love was strong yet tender.  They were destabilized from their normal way of life while becoming rooted deeply into another Jesus-centered way of being.  The love was moment-by-moment, decision-by-decision; a life-changing agape love that was inviting them and transforming them at the same time. When Jesus gathers his disciples for the Passover meal  on what we call Maundy Thursday, he knows that "his hour has come;"  the time they had been preparing for was now here.  And how do the twelve arrive?  Hopelessly wrongheaded, it would seem, their heads full of assumptions about their own privilege in God's emerging kingdom, bickering with each other over what positions each will hold in the new administration, blissfully deaf to the passion of Jesus'
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Hosanna!

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The pictures above are not typical "Palm Sunday" images.  In fact, they are from the Poor People's Campaign, organized by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1968.  The campaign advocated for "the last to be first;"  for our national priorities (and spiritual priorities) to focus on transforming extensive poverty in our land.  One of the memorable expressions of the Poor People's Campaign was the Mule Train which started in rural Mississippi and traveled for weeks before entering Washington, DC.  By this time Dr. King was dead, assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee in April 1968.  But the movement. continued.  I post these images because they remind me of Palm Sunday: a humble procession of God's people, mostly poor, accompanying Jesus as he rides on a donkey.  They are entering the halls of power with their humility and witness to the priorities of God's love.  On that first Palm Sunday, the follower
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The Parable of the Two Sons (Luke 15:11-32)

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Here are two artistic images of the story in Luke 15:11-32 that we read and reflected on together.  The first (unattributed) is like much artwork inspired by this story, focusing on the reconciliation of the Father and the Younger Son .  This parable has most often been referred to as The Parable of the Prodigal Son.  But Rembrandt's treatment of the story (the second image) includes the Older Son.  In class we sought to identify with all three main characters in the story. The Older Son is an indispensable character in this powerful teaching story.  Many people identify much more readily with the Older Son than with the Younger one, often protesting that the Father's excessive graciousness and celebration with the Younger Son is "unfair."  Yes, we all need some reconcilation, don't we?
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