Do you want to be made well?

Can't imagine anyone answering No to that question can you?  So, why ask the question in the first place?

Because some folks really don't want to be made well.  Some folks prefer the devil they know to the possibility of a life without a devil at all.  "I would love to have a happy family but there is no way I'm forgiving Jane for ......" 

When we are made well we will need to leave behind all kinds of things: the attention we get for our illness, the self-righteous attitude we humor because 'we are right', the excuses we give for not helping a friend, the insistence that we must be treated differently.

So Jesus asks, "Do you want to be made well?"  What is your answer?

Malaria stings....

 

TODAY IS WORLD MALARIA DAY..........make a difference.

This week, your gift to this Malaria Campaign will be doubled up to $130,000 specifically to ramp up efforts in Uganda.  Could today be the day you are a part of this mission?

Even hot dogs

Around the world, those who share a meal are bound to one another, if only for the time shared. The disciples shared the Last Supper with Jesus.  Our Christian brothers and sisters in Zambia gather around that story and then share the bread and wine.

We gather around the same story, the same meal....and in so doing we are all joined as one in the body of Christ.

Whenever we share any meal with another in Christ's name, we share Christ himself. Even hot dogs.

May God bless all who gather in God's name.

Add or subtract

“In every encounter we either give life or we drain it; there is no neutral exchange.”
                                              -- Brennan Manning

You and I and everyone around us are stewards of life.

 

Life flows, either in or out. Life is never stagnant.

  

 

You and I are either making things better or we are making things worse. 

 

We are either giving grace or causing shame.   We are stewards of life.

"By this they will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another."   - - Jesus

In all the wrong places

Remember that old song Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places? 

We [having deluded ourselves] think love will come with casual, intimate relationships.  We think love will come just by saying 'I do.' 

We think love will come....without us giving love; without us giving ourselves.

It never works out that way.
Those are the big lies of the post-modern age.

"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another."
 Give it away; it will come back fourfold.

team: LOVE

Love is a command from Jesus. 
It is not a feeling.
It is not an option nor a suggestion.
It is never easy nor superficial.

It is the center of our life in Jesus.
Others recognize us by the love we show,
and judge us by the love we don't show.

team: LOVE
Come and join us.
We'll even find you a T shirt.

Generosity

Generosity is not an accounting of coins.


 It is a condition of the heart. 


Exercise your heart.

In that moment of fear

Boston, MA and West, TX will, for many, be the sum and total of last week.  Throw in a cup of disappointment in Congress' decision about background checks for gun ownership and 1/2 cup of 'incredible' for the Justice of the Peace who was so angry at being held responsible for his own actions he murdered the DA, his wife and the Asst DA....and you have a recipe for despair.

Last Sunday.....tomorrow....and for Sundays to come, people of faith will gather and look to God for a word of hope in our darkness.  Then we will share a meal that is grounded in a sacrificial love.  We may not truly understand the breadth of this gift of merciful pouring out, but we are eternally grateful to be recipients of this grace. 

Grace in the face of evil.  Life rising up out of death.  It is the resurrection. 

Pie crust promises

 Mary Poppins called them pie crust promises:

 "Easily made, easily broken." 

Not so Jesus.  He claims that we can count on what he says forever....and ever....and into eternity.

    Know me; know God.         

 

You are forgiven.

 

Come to me if you are tired, and I will give you rest.

 

              Where I am, you will be also.

These promises are rooted in love and made concrete through the cross.  It is to these promises that I cling. 

Whose promises are you clinging to?

Table grace

"Come Lord Jesus be our guest..."  For many of us, this was the table grace we used when we gathered around the dinner table at home.  Table grace is the easiest way to teach your children about the faith by practicing giving thanks to God.

When Jesus sat around the campfire with the disciples eating fish and bread, Peter experienced a different kind of table grace.

It was by the grace of God through Jesus that Peter was even invited to the table.



That is the point, Jesus would say. 

The love of God equals forgiveness and an invitation to supper.

Come to the table of our Lord and eat.

Hope

To hope in the resurrection is to cling to a reality that transcends the darkness and evil of this world.

 

When the bombs are exploding it is the hardest hope to which you will ever cling.

 

God bless you and keep you in this time of fear, anger, and loss.  AMEN

Pray for your enemies

Even at a distance we can appreciate the carnage that someone thought was necessary to their cause.  I wonder about folks who walk in such darkness, who have lost all sense of shared humanity and real hope.  Whatever their 'reason' these are broken people, chained by their own anger, clinging to some real or imagined wounds.....we are called to pray for them.  Not just as a command to be obeyed, but because, as people of faith, we know that prayer is powerful and God reigns.

Pour out your Holy Spirit O Lord upon this place of ravaged lives where the seeds of a new hatred can too easily be sown.  Call all your people into prayer.  Not because we know the answer and not because we believe we can turn this around, but because we trust in you and your love for a world we cannot understand.  AMEN

A cosmic do - over

Parents look at their newborn child and see a lawyer, a ballerina, a rocket scientist, a major league baseball player.  Even as they are changing the diapers, parents see the potential and possibilities just waiting to emerge.

Baptism is our second 'coming out' experience.  We go into the water broken and out of sync with ourselves and our neighbors.  We come out of the water knowing that we are beloved of God.  God looks at us and sees all that we can be, and then 'spirits' us into that future.

It is a cosmic do-over that we spend our lifetime living into.  And thanking God in Jesus for this opportunity to be 'all that we can be.'

Fish Fry Friday

What did the disciples do the week after Easter?

They stuck together and then they went fishing.

 

That is what the gospel of John tells us.  

It makes sense.  They had to eat and fishing was what they knew. 

They dragged an enormous catch onto the boat, then climbed out and had breakfast.

 

With Jesus.  The risen Jesus.

 

It was the first Friday Fish Fry (well, truthfully, no one knows what day of the week it was, but this makes a nice alliteration).  And it was with Jesus. 

 

After it all, they were ready to begin the wondrous task of telling others about Jesus. 

It is so like our weekly meal, our Eucharist, our communion. 

Feeding us for the work ahead.

 

Come. Eat. Go. Tell.   

 Amen. 

Touchy, feely

We understand Thomas; the one who didn't believe the disciples' story about the risen Jesus.  Thomas insisted on seeing and touching before he would be persuaded.

OK was Jesus' answer. 'Thomas, if you need to touch; touch. Right here in the wounds left by the nails.

If you need to see; look here at my wounded side. Do not doubt but believe.'

Like Thomas, we know that faith is not an easy journey; believing isn't a foregone conclusion. And, we wouldn't mind seeing and touching ourselves.

How do we do this?  Today we find the wounded places of God's creation; we touch the places where anger, greed, envy have drawn blood in this world.....there we can touch and see our wounded Lord as well.  Come with me to the wounded places and together we can believe.

More than the dawn of a new day........

 

 If resurrection is anything, it must be more than the dawn of a new day, for there were 10 million days before and there may well be 10 million after that day of resurrected life.

 

Resurrection must be a cosmic fault line, a renting of time and space. 

We must recognize its 'before' and its 'after' in our lives. 

Resurrection is no pie crust promise nor child-like hope.  It is the foundation of a new creation.  You can be that new creation; filled with the light of God's overflowing love for all.  You can bring that new creation into the wounded places of this world.

All of this was made possible by Jesus. 

 It was, and will always be, a gift...to you, for you and forever.

More than wishful thinking

If resurrection is anything, it must be more.

More than wishful thinking ...where death is made easy and we no longer are called to account for the content of our lives.

More than some will-o-wisp possibility in this universe of substance.

Resurrection needs to be as concrete as our lives are concrete; grounded in the breath and breadth of creation.  Connected.  To one another.  To God.

If resurrection is anything, it needs to move within us today....
              long before death comes calling.
                                        He is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Lord of the Dance

That's what he is.  The Lord of the Dance....the dance of life, the dance of joy, the dance of community.  First he reaches out and moves towards us; then we pick up the rhythm and learn how to follow his lead until we move in harmony and grace.

Jesus the Christ, eternally leading the dance of love.

Empty or Full?

Looking back on it all, the tomb wasn't really empty.

It was so filled with life that it overflowed, out the door and into the world.

He is not here.  He is risen!  Thanks be to God.