Jesus may have been God’s son, but he was also Mary’s, and when mama says to do something, it’s probably best to just do it, whether you like it or not.
I especially remember the first verse, “In the beginning was the Word.” It still gives me chills when I hear it because it encompasses so much — from the beginning of time until now. In the beginning was the Word, the word we know to be Jesus Christ.
Learning about God is, for me, a continuous process of setting aside assumptions. To grow spiritually, I cannot rest in what I think I know but must instead reach for new insights and new direction. Love unfolds – pushing my understanding of its limits to ever greater horizons.
It’s almost as if the gift of Christmas is not the birth of a savior as much as it is the gift of a fellow traveler.
May we all be drawn there, too. Drawn toward the Love that turned and slept in his mother’s arms. Love that offers us everything and demands from us everything in return. Love that stands against principalities and powers
…towards the end of his life he began to have doubts about who Jesus was and whether or not there was a coming kingdom. He was in prison, after all. The old authorities were still cruelly in place. In the darkness of prison, John was suddenly not so sure about Jesus.
There is something more, something beyond, something larger, if only we can allow our suffering souls to embrace the worst of our pain and then live on through it to the other side. There is something bigger even than death, a belonging that transcends the worst the world can dish out.
The Gospel authors had met Jesus only in verbal accounts, only through others who knew people who had known him. And yet, like a buried priceless treasure, they found him, recognized him as their beloved, acknowledged him as the one for whom their souls had always yearned.
Again and again as we grow spiritually we must live our way beyond everything imposed upon us by our own and others’ understanding. Giving up, letting go and taking on, we serve so that God’s name is glorified. In God’s love, we can do hard things.
Jesus rarely really looked back. He strides, and he looks forward (“face set towards Jerusalem”) but never really looks back. Jesus is in no way passive. He is very active – calling out injustice, speaking the truth – cost what it will and lead where it may. And it leads to torture, humiliation and death. Often. And it does for us too if we are courageous enough to be leaders and not sycophants.