Second Sunday in Lent (Year 3, NL)

I’m now a half-time “missional coach” to a six-church parish. I have many questions.

Having cats did not prepare our family for chickens.

It’s not possible to parent without experiencing risk, weakness, pain, and transformation.

I relate to the servant in Jesus' parable.

Jesus obliterates our internal ledgers and points us to repentance.

Is the fox cunning and clever, or is it wily and untrustworthy?

Amid pandemic and protest, will we turn to each other and live?

Do antisemitic appeals to the Bible always constitute an abuse of scripture? Would that it were so simple.

Jesus’ parables ought to alarm us, draw us short.

When we hear Jesus retort, “Tell that fox….,” we have to keep in mind the litany of intersections between Jesus, his followers, and the Herodian dynasty.

Are we the gardener? Or the fig tree?

Prophecy is a job not for the comfortable but for the afflicted.

When Jews, Christians, and Muslims gather to celebrate arts and culture, the dividing walls crumble.

One of the few fairnesses of life is the fact that each of us is given an equal 168 hours per week. That is where equality in so many ways ends. From that point on our privileges or lack thereof, and the resources they bring, define what we can do with that time.

We don’t talk about idolatry much anymore, despite the caution against it in everything from the Ten Commandments to the New Testament epistles. This is ironic, because idolatry flourishes in our culture.

In December, we lost the last hen in our household flock after a possum attack. Since then, I have heard Jesus’ avian simile in Luke 13:34 differently.

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

In this week’s Gospel lesson, Jesus says to the people,

Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No... Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No.

No.

Anyone who is familiar with Star Trek knows about the Borg, a seemingly soulless race of cyborgs. The Borg’s main task is to assimilate other species and bring them into the Collective. Science fiction geeks everywhere know the Borg’s catchphrase: “Resistance is futile.”

Resistance is futile. Jesus is sitting around talking to a crowd when some Pharisees come by. Looking agitated, they make their way to Jesus.