If you don’t like the weather, just…
People’s attitudes can swing as quickly as the Spring weather. From Palm Sunday to Good Friday, Jesus’s stock fell from a hoped-for king to a criminal worse than Barabbas, an insurrectionist.
We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles — Mark 10:33
When we visited Arkansas one April, we woke up at 2 a.m. to the sound of pouring rain, then drifted back to sleep. At 6 a.m., we woke to the hiss of heavy sleet brushing against the windows like cymbals. When it was time for breakfast, we walked through a quiet snow shower. And for the walk back from breakfast, it was sunny and 65 degrees.
Today, on Palm Sunday, I’m reflecting on how people’s attitudes can shift just as quickly. In the span of just a few days, from “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” to “Crucify him!” Religious and political leaders collaborated to rid themselves of a shared problem and the crowds were carried on those cultural winds.
Happy Thanksgiving!
God's manifold grace. A day to be grateful and to accept responsibility.
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. — Colossians 3:17
Two gauges of spiritual maturity to consider today. The first is gratitude. Do we recognize that everything we have is a gift from God— his grace? Can we show him our gratitude? Another gauge is responsibility— faithful stewards of the many forms of God's grace. We enjoy his gifts as we share them with others.
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The Lord's prayer and our participation require child-like faith.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. — Matthew 6:10
If it's what we pray for, it's what we should want and work for. So, how is it in heaven? We need imagination for that, something God gave us the capacity for. Most of us were best at it when we were children. Dependency, trust, and imagination: is this what it means to have child-like faith?
- love
- Holy Spirit
- humility
- church
- politics & society
- mission & witness
- holiness
- parable & metaphor
- identity
- eternal life
- doubt & deconstruction
- leadership
- grace
- justice
- scripture
- spiritual life
- advent & christmas
- poverty & compassion
- imagination & creativity
- technology & ai
- knowing God
- human dignity
- faith & trust
- incarnation & cross
- kingdom of God
- community
- reconciliation
- spiritual formation
- epistemology
- prayer
- gratitude
- culture
- creation & nature
- discipleship
I practice the spiritual discipline of rescuing earthworms on paved surfaces. It's a reminder to me that I can pause what I'm doing, get a little dirty, and help. Also, that I've been given the responsibility to care.