Glory to God...

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be! Amen!

Give thanks and praise to God as you worship on this day!

Christology...

By the very definition of the word, Christology is the study of Christ.  We seek to understand Christ and the work that he did by asking the questions: Who is Jesus?  What is the significance of his work?  And even as we begin to look for our answers, we find that these are questions that were being asked even while Jesus still walked on this earth, as all who marveled at his teachings and at his miracles and at his mighty deeds asked themselves and each other, “What kind of man is this?” (Matthew 8:27 NIV1984)  The inevitable question that would have followed, even if it was an unspoken one was, “What does this mean?” 

It was the same question John the Baptist wondered, as he sent his followers to ask Jesus if Jesus was the Messiah.  In answer, Jesus told them to report to John what they had seen and heard of Jesus, so that John could answer Jesus’ implied question: What does my work tell you about who I am?   In asking those questions posed by the study of Christology, I find myself, like John the Baptist, being asked by Christ, “What does my work tell you about who I am?”  And then the next question is asked, “What does who I AM mean for your life?”

HALLELUJAH!! CHRIST IS RISEN!!

CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED!!

HALLELUJAH!!

... amazing love

The Lenten Journey... Nearing the End

We are nearing the end of our Lenten journey...  the journey we began weeks ago... the journey with our Lord as we opened our hearts... searched our souls... asked forgiveness for our wrongs... and humbly walked with our Lord as he neared the time when he would pay the price that brings us forgiveness and life...

During this time we have known tragedy and triumph, joy and sorrow... we have grown closer to our Lord and stronger in our faith...

Perhaps we have thought that our journey was ours, alone... but we must remember that countless others, sisters and brothers in the faith, have also made this journey with us... so this has been a time of both intimacy and community...

Today is Maundy Thursday - Holy Thursday, as some call it.  It is the day during which we commemorate the Passover feast that our Lord celebrated with his disciples... and it was at this feast that our Lord "...took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.'  In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.'"  (Luke 22:19-20)

At the time, the disciples did not truly understand what he meant...

And I wonder if today, we disciples truly understand...  that Jesus' body had to be broken and Jesus' blood had to be poured out for us because there was no other way to reconcile sinners with a Holy and Just God.

We have journeyed with our Lord during this time of Lent... and perhaps we have drawn so much closer in our relationship with the Lord... but, like every other human being in our world, we are still sinners... and always will be... as such, we are all equal in the eyes of God... no one better or worse than any other person...

Today, as we gather to worship and celebrate Holy Communion on this Maundy Thursday, let us be reminded that it is ONLY through the breaking of GOD's body and the pouring out of GOD's blood, done because our Holy and Just God loved us so much, it is only because of this act of GRACE that we have forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God...

The season of Lent is drawing to a close, and we will soon see our Lord and Savior pay the price for our sins...

Lent will soon be over... but our journey continues on...

Trayvon Martin... Tragedy in Sanford, FL

A tragedy has occurred in Sanford, FL.  It happened a month or so ago...  a young man lost his life when shot by another person.  By this point in time, probably most of you who are reading this post have heard some if not all of the news coverage surrounding this event.

As I have thought about this, I have come to the conclusion that this tragedy shows that we humans still have a ways to go in how we relate to other people and in how, at the core of things, we think of and view other people.

Jesus viewed all with whom he came into contact through the eyes of love.  He went out of his way to relate to the people in his day who were thought of as being on the margins of society - women and children, "tax collectors and other sinners", the sick, the lame, the blind, the deaf, those who were not Jews...  Jesus brought healing and reconciliation wherever he went... and his act of dying on a cross for us and for the sins of the whole world was the ultimate act of healing and reconciliation... 

In thinking of this, I wrote the following blog post and posted it on my Tumblr blog:
 dear world... postcards from life...  I offer it for your consideration.

Trayvon Martin and Hermeneutics for Life

I'm guessing that you may be wondering what the word "hermeneutics" means...  in theology, it is a fancy word for how people approach the reading, study and understanding of the Bible...  are we unbelieving or suspicious of Biblical scripture even before we read it ... or do we approach scripture with a mind-set of acceptance and belief before reading it?  You can think of these as ends of the "hermeneutics spectrum" with a whole lot of ways to approach scripture in-between...

Now you are wondering, "So what?"... 

I suspect we all have a hermeneutic for how we approach other people - our family, our friends, our acquaintances, the people we don't know... that this hermeneutic is different and shifting for the various people we encounter and the times we encounter them... that there are other complicating factors we are not even aware of that influence how we approach others... factors that have been ingrained in us through family and/or societal expectations from the time we were infants...

We rarely even think of any of this, as we see another person and evaluate, judge and approach them...

Again, "So what?"

I think we need to be honest with ourselves... to recognize and pay attention to the underlying factors that guide how we approach others...  our "hermeneutics for life", as it were... and I believe that we need to push back against the ones that would have us immediately be suspicious and perhaps fearful of the people we don't know, the people who are dressed differently, or who talk differently, or who (       ) differently (you can fill in the blank)... the people who we think of as "those other people"... 

Maybe Trayvon Martin might still be alive if George Zimmerman had done just that...  

Maybe all the Trayvon's of the world might still be alive...