Hebrews 11:29-12:2 Luke 12:49-56 In the well-known story by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince falls from his far away planet in the sky down to earth. He wanders the earth in search of meaning, and in his wanderings, he encounters a fox. There’s something charismatic about this fox that draws the prince in. He wants to play with him. But the fox tells the prince to be careful, to not get too close. “I’m not tame,” he says. We could say the same thing about Jesus in this passage from Luke. Don’t play with him. He’s not tame. He wants to bring a fire to the earth. He will divide households, three against two, and two against three; father against son, and son against father. He speaks with anger and impatience as though he wants to get out of this place and go back to the planet from which he […]
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Grace and Peace
John 21:1-19 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the greeting Paul liked to use in his letters to the churches with whom he corresponded. In these weeks since Easter Sunday I have been thinking about the kinds of feelings the disciples of Jesus might have experienced after his resurrection. As I said last week, fear was among those feelings, possibly even fear of the resurrected Jesus. But also guilt. They had failed Jesus spectacularly. They let him die. Not that they could have prevented it, of course. In fact, they had tried on various occasions to stop him from going down the path he was going. He would not be stopped. There wasn’t anything much they could do, short of dying with him. They weren’t personally responsible for his death. But that didn’t mean they weren’t feeling personally responsible. Perhaps […]
Continue readingBreath of Life
John 20:19-31 Do you remember that ad campaign from about twenty years ago? Somebody started taking out billboard ads that were meant to look like messages from God. They were usually kind of funny. One of them said, “Well, you did ask for a sign.” Some were cute and encouraging, like “Come on over, and bring the kids.” Or “Let’s meet at my house Sunday, before the game.” Or “Loved the wedding; invite me to the marriage.” Some were a little more ominous, although still funny, like, “You think it’s hot here?” “What part of ‘Thou shalt not’ didn’t you understand?” My favorite has always been, “Don’t make me come down there.” I love that one because, well, it reminds me of my parents. And yes, I have probably said it, or something like it, myself at some point in all my years of parenting. I love it for those […]
Continue readingNo Longer Strangers, Part 2: Aliens Brought Near
Ephesians 2:11-22 In 1871 two archeologists found a piece of engraved stone from the Jerusalem temple with Greek writing on it. It held a stern warning: “No foreigner is to enter the barriers surrounding the sanctuary. He who is caught will have himself to blame for his death which will follow.” This was one rule they were, evidently, pretty strict about. No gentiles were permitted to enter the temple. But it was not the only rule. There were degrees of acceptability in the temple worship of the time. The outermost area of the temple was called the court of the gentiles, and it was a large, open, public area. Anyone could come into the outer court. But within this courtyard there was a barrier, called a soreg, which surrounded a wall defining the perimeter of the outer court of the temple. The outer court was also called the court of the […]
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