Week 4 (Year 3, NL)

If our faith cannot help us escape tribulations, then what should we do when we face them?

The lamb’s blood isn’t insurance against the wrath of God. It is a proclamation of fealty.

In Oberammergau, the keepers of a centuries-old tradition have made
big changes—including efforts to expunge antisemitic material.

“Each of the typical approaches has problems. The best solution would be to change the lectionary.”

If so, what did he mean?

How can these values be lived out in our traditions and in our assemblies?

We betray Jesus for far less than was offered to Judas.

A plague is being visited on all of us, but not evenly.

Hope smells like barbecue.

We recognize ourselves in those who accompany Jesus on that longest, hardest night.

God is the encounter we can't control.

In the face of mob violence, a six-year-old responded with love.

Luke's text for Reign of Christ Sunday is a searing critique of leaders who are powerful but not vulnerable.

I have a friend who visits his mother's burial site each year on the anniversary of her death. When the day comes, the mood is always solemn and deeply reflective--and tremendously difficult for other people in his life. What they don't know is that this annual ritual is generative, corrective. It helps anchor my friend for the rest of the year. 

I have another friend who almost never visits his parents' gravesite.

During Holy Week, it's common for worship leaders to ask people to consider their place in the drama of Jesus' final days. To what extent do we betray him, deny him, insult him, crucify him? When do we, like the crowds, find ourselves gawking at suffering with prurient glee? When do we, like the thieves, alternately ridicule the truth, then believe in it? When do we, like the centurion, make our confession--though perhaps a moment too late?

Slaughtering animals, washing feet—I can smell the rooms in both Exodus and John.

Our culture's foundational sin is to make gods of ourselves, to find any excuse to go our own way rather than follow the Lord of life. We are weak. And yet in this Gospel story, so is Jesus.