Fifth Sunday in Lent (Year A, RCL)

I was a little girl, sitting near the front row of the church. My legs could not touch the floor, and I had to hold my hands laced in my lap so that I could remain still. I stared at the coffin before me.

When I read John 11 and heard Jesus thundering, “Unbind him and let him go!" I realized I had not forgiven my father.

Theology and advertising share the same root.

When I was baptized at 12, I refused what Baptists call “the right hand of fellowship.” I wanted the water but not the fellowship.

I know what Jesus is doing in this story; I have three small children. He's dawdling.

Perhaps it's only when we let go of who and what our loved one was that we can receive who they are now.

Langston Hughes challenged our consciousness by asking, “What happens to a dream deferred?” What results when hope, aspirations, callings, and promises are delayed, put off, postponed, or thwarted? Were they flawed expectations? Do such deferred dreams become burdensome desires that fade and never manifest, forever haunting us?

Six months after Michael Brown was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri—where I serve as a pastor—there are families still wrestling with the question, “What would have happened if...?”

What would it mean for us to be filled with the breath of God again and come to life for the sake of racial justice?