How much smaller and how much sadder a gospel it would be to think God loves us because we are right, rather than because God’s very nature is to love. How much paltrier would the good news be if it were that some of us are forgiven because we happen to be right, rather than because it is God’s
And into our demented lives, Jesus comes uninvited, saying something like, “I see you, and you can live in this shattered world in a different way. You can take the fragments and scars and make something whole again, even beautiful.” Peace be with you.
Maybe if our love loses the last of its interest in anything it might get in return, maybe then we’ll find ourselves alive at last, in that eternal kingdom Jesus kept telling us has been right here among us all along.
“Because a night creeps through the day.” Because this is how it is. And this world of distorted and destructive power, of fear turned to anger and rage. On a grand scale, how the forces of control can conspire to crush what it will not allow. And in the smaller worlds we inhabit, where this simple unraveling of what
It’s a love that will even set aside its own seat at the table, set aside its privilege, its power, even its precious dignity if need be, so it can kneel down and give of itself for the sake of its beloved, no matter how dusty and looked down upon the actual physical work of love may be.
But more than an itinerary for these next seven days, we have a map that will help us on those other sojourns, the ones when we can’t see beyond the bend in the road. Because this isn’t just a map of Jerusalem. It’s a map of all the places that God goes.
Come out of hiding, come out of shame, come out of addiction, of fear, come out of the story that has convinced you that this is as alive as you will ever be. Come out.
If everyone always got exactly what they deserved, and the universe finally behaved like we think it should, what would be lost? Well, I think the grace of this moment would be lost. This encounter that a man born blind had with the grace of God in the person of Jesus would be lost. Because the only one in
We’re dying of thirst out here, desperate to understand and to be understood. And still we take the easy road of “she’s probably not worth talking to and certainly not worth being seen talking to.”