persistence- God's, ours, or both/and?

Is this Lenten season about our personal persistence and disciple? Is it about God's persistent effort to be known fully and revealed perfectly in Christ? Or is it a both/and?

Dear God- Japan

Sometime yesterday, shortly after posting the prayer from St Francis below, the energy released from the shifting of two tectonic plates on the ocean's floor began to shake the foundation of the earth and cause wave upon wave to rise up and plow relentlessly into the coast of Japan.

Sublime beauty everywhere? In order that we should not be frightened?

Destruction, death and despair everywhere. Terror and fear everywhere.

My God my God, where are you in this God forsaken tragedy?

"On the cross" Francis whispers of Christ. "On the cross." Beckoning with his very being to touch your face and comfort the afflicted with God's own earth shaking wave of love.

Dear God- St Francis of Assisi

Dear God, please reveal to us
your sublime
beauty

that is everywhere, everywhere, everywhere

so that we will never again
feel frightened.

My divine love, my love,
please let us touch
your face.

calling cards for lent

Life is a journey. We can travel alone or together. I’m pretty sure Christ wants us to walk it together with all his talk of one body, sending people out in pairs to do his work, and promised presence when two or more gather in his name.

Last night we started a journey- together. A Lenten journey marked by a commitment to pay closer attention to God’s presence in our lives. Do we hear the pebbles bouncing off the glass of our window as God comes courting?

Three things to do this Lenten season

i. Pray for God to come calling in your life
ii. Hold fast to the knowledge that God calls in order to to give life and bear fruit through you
iii.Capture the God calling (or perceived absence) each of the next 40 days on a 2 inch by 3 inch calling card

Listen. God calls. Beckoning outside our window.

palms to passion 8

a day of rest (and following the rules)- (Luke 23:56b)

And the people rested not wanting to break the Sabbath commandment.

Would these stones hold him?

Would the stone in front of the tomb hold him?

Would this be the last to be heard of the country boy from Nazareth?

palms to passion 7

death on a friday afternoon (Luke 23:44-56)

At noon the sun's light failed and the curtain in the temple was torn in two.

He breathed his last committing his spirit to his father.

The very man who killed him confesses him as innocent and praises God.

The crowd beat their chests.

As the women who followed him watch helplessly.

The lifeless body is laid in a tomb.

palms to passion 6

with one on his left and one on his right (Luke 23:26-42)


Jesus is led out in the streets early on Friday morning.

He laments over what will become of the city that has rejected him as he carries his cross to the rocky knoll where he will die.

"Shouldn't such a mighty king be able to save himself?"

The criminals that hang on his left and his right argue about their own life and death.

The man of grace makes a promise. He will welcome one of them home to paradise later in the day.

palms to passion 5

in the dark alone (Luke 22:47-23:25)

Under the cover of darkness, one friend betrays him with a kiss.

Another denies he knows him.

He is mocked and beaten.

And stands alone before a kangaroo court.

Shuttled off into the night for sentencing.

The powerful pass the buck on who is responsible.

But it is finally the people who welcomed him earlier in the week that sign his death sentence and instead free an insurgent murder.

palms to passion 4

with friends like these... (Luke 22:7-46)

Knowing his time has nearly come, he gathers his friends for a meal and an invitation to remember him.

His followers miss the point and instead argue about who is the greatest.

Certainly it is Peter, but Jesus tells them that Peter will deny knowing Jesus three times before the sun rises the following day.

Rejection and redemption are at hand as his friends desert him and fall asleep while he prays in agony to his father.

Jesus' time has come.

palms to passion 3

fear, betrayal, and thirty pieces of silver- (Luke 22:1-6)

Jesus has enemies, worldly and otherworldly.

And his enemies are afraid.

They have heard enough and decided that he must go.

Quickly and permantently they plan to shut him up.

"Let's see if these stones can talk as he told us when he entered the city."

There is one rock waiting to speak on his behalf.

Golgotha is clearing his throat.

palms to passion 2

sadducees, scribes, little old ladies, and the army of one- (Luke 20:27-21:38)

The country boy from Nazareth has become quite a spectacle and caught the eye of the powerful and important.

The reasonable and intellectual Sadducees are curious.

The scribes and Pharisees are becoming furious.

But he has come on behalf of the entire world, paying close attention to the people who live humbly and quietly.

The temple will fall. The end is near. The city shall be surrounded. The sun will cease to shine as redemption draws near.

The budding of something new is at hand. Pay attention.

The army of one is laying siege to the places where we live.

palms to passion

stirring the pot from the start- (Luke 19:28-20:26)


It doesn't take Jesus long to start mixing things up with the crowds who had welcomed him with praise and fanfare as he entered Jerusalem. When they raised palms and shouted Hosanna hoping he was their long expected savior they didn't know he was coming to save them from themselves.

Your nationalism and defense efforts won't save you he said.

Your religiosity and purity of heart won't make things right with God either.

"Who do you think you are speaking to us that way?" they demanded.

In his typically hidden/plain truth manner Jesus provides his answer with a story that contains his plan for redemption through rejection.

"If the trouble maker is going to be coy with us, perhaps we can trick him and cause him to stumble."

But he would not stumble. His eyes were set on a rocky knob of a hill that he would climb at the end of the week.

prayers from/for Haiti

Lord, help us to sow good seed.

Since we will be the ones eating from the harvest.


God Is No Stranger, p. 50

prayers from/for Haiti

Don't say I can't feed my child or put him in school.

Say I lack faith.


God Is No Stranger, p. 90

prayers from/for Haiti

Lord, What we were yesterday is not what we are today.

What we are today is not what we were yesterday.

All me hated we now love.

All we loved, we now hate.

God Is No Stranger, p. 62

prayers from/for Haiti

Lord, if we are alive today in spite of hurricanes and sickness, we should say,

"Thank you Lord. We must be here for a purpose."


God Is No Stranger, p. 94.

prayers from/for Haiti

Don't put your load of trouble in a basket on your head.

Put them on Jesus head.

You won't have head aches.


God Is No Stranger, p. 86

prayers from/for Haiti

Father, they say that I am poor.

Thank you, Father.

May I also be poor in spirit, that I may inherit the Kingdom of God.

God Is No Stranger, p. 54

prayers from/for Haiti

Father, we are all hungry baby birds this morning.

Our heart-mouths are gaping wide, waiting for you to fill us.


God Is No Stranger, p. 14

prayers from/for Haiti

Life without Jesus is a sewing machine come unthreaded.

You pass over but you sew nothing.


God Is No Stranger, p. 80