One of the things we discover after we’ve grown in our Christian faith for some time, is that there will suddenly be a time that the words we’ve come to depend upon in the Bible, from the pulpit, and from each other in the gathered community, are also suddenly absent.
Child, for us sinners, poor and in a manger,
We would embrace thee, with love and awe;
Who would not love thee, loving us so dearly?
“Baptism is the sacrament of the extraordinary unity among humanity, wrought by God in overcoming the power and reign of death; in overcoming all that
We who have many good things, perhaps too many, as even those of us who live relatively simple lives by the standards of our culture do? We are to use these good gifts to show mercy. Not because that makes us especially good or deserving of praise, but because it sets our hearts free from any master less than God and rectifies an injustice that is in fact killing our neighbors.
Christian spirituality worthy of the name must steer clear of two pitfalls. On the one hand, we dare not let our spiritual lives become disembodied and abstract. On the other hand, we dare not fall into despair when we notice the insufficiency of our own this-worldly action, considered in and of itself.
Hope changes things. God is not like an especially powerful creature, but is the ground of our very being. When we come to new birth in Christ–when we stop presenting an obstacle to God’s mercy in our lives–we grow in our freedom.
They have no clue that the stranger they meet on the road is Jesus. Which suggests that witnessing the empty tomb is not the same as witnessing the resurrection. The absence of death isn’t the same as the presence of life. Death isn’t an end in itself. The death of Jesus isn’t the end of the story. There is something else that needs to fill that empty space.
As often as God’s action was literally cosmic, many times God’s activity was not larger than life. Abraham’s lunch with the three men wasn’t larger than life, nor was Moses’ birth, and look what came of them. Vain and petulant Elisha was all too rarely larger than life (think about those poor boys!), and he was one of the great prophets of God!
I’m thinking that Lent is a time to stretch our faith — to live with these familiar stories, which we’ve called Good News. Take a break from questions about what may be “factual” or accurate and ask “What if it’s all true?”
And what do faith and family have to do with entrepreneurship? Gabe says, “I gained valuable insights when I stopped blaming my tumultuous childhood and took responsibility for my own destiny. … I support reason and tolerance in our communities and embrace a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.