Mark 8:27-38 Do you know what Jesus looks like? Would you recognize him if you saw him pushing a cart at the Food Lion or walking down Division Street? Do you know Jesus? I think I would recognize him – you know, from the pictures. If he hasn’t changed his hair, that is, his beautiful long wavy hair. And if he still wears those long flowing robes, definitely I would recognize him. If he hasn’t changed his style too much, I would know him. But even if he has I would know his blue eyes, his beautiful smooth skin. You all have seen the pictures, too, right? You know. Our Jesus is beautiful. The Warner Sallman painting, The Head of Christ, is the one. When Americans imagine the face of Jesus we are most likely to envision this face. A serene looking man gazing off into the distance, serious but not stern. More than 500 million copies of this painting have been sold […]
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That Moment You Know
Luke 24:13-35 Something we often say to one another now is that every day feels the same. We forget what day it is, even what time it is, because we have abandoned our normal routines. It happens in my house, too – although I need to be extra careful to remember when Sunday comes around. Other than that, it’s easy to forget what day it is. Time is almost meaningless. So, maybe it won’t surprise anyone when I point out that, in the biblical texts for this Easter season, it has been the same day for three weeks. Really. From the perspective of our reading for today, it was only this morning that Mary found the tomb empty. And they still don’t really know what’s going on. Now, on that same day, we have two of these disciples – one named Cleopas and the other unnamed – who are walking […]
Continue readingRadical Trust
John 10:22-30 In the movie Ghost, Patrick Swayze plays a man who is murdered. I’m not giving away the plot. That’s just the set up. The story is about how his spirit lingers on earth, because he needs to communicate a message to his wife, Demi Moore, who is in danger of being killed, too. He needs to figure out how to communicate with living people, so he goes to a psychic – Whoopi Goldberg. She’s actually a fake psychic. She has never communicated with the dead in her life; she just puts on a show and the people who pay for her services believe her. So when the ghost of Patrick Swayze walks in the room she practically jumps out of her skin. Because she can see him and hear him. She never knew she really could communicate with spirits. Now that she does, she’s not at all sure she […]
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