Why The Setting Matters This week’s story of the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost takes place in the Upper Room. By now the Upper Room is pretty familiar to the disciples. Many historians believe that at the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem and probably tried to stay in an Upper Room. We frequently think of them going to an inn, but it was probably more like a guest room. There was no place in the guest... Read more
Is There Anybody Who Has Not Experienced Suffering? Everybody has. Every one of us has experienced suffering, including Jesus. It would be one thing to have a teacher who never experienced what they were teaching, but his parables aren’t just stories or theories. We can trust Jesus as our teacher, and not just because he’s God incarnate, but also because he’s been through it. He not only sees our suffering, he understands it. Jesus knows how we respond to suffering. ... Read more
The Hardest Teaching “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. Do to others as... Read more
Abundance in the Lunchbox “Once while Jesus was standing beside the Lake of Gennesaret and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the... Read more
The Shedding of the Skin My husband and I always spend Christmas Day at home, but then in the days following Christmas we travel down to Florida to see my immediate family. We have a lot of rhythms and rituals to our annual trip, including listening to audiobooks while we’re on the road. We’re working our way through the Chronicles of Narnia, and we listened to the Voyage of the Dawn of Treader on this most recent trip. The Dawn... Read more
And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name; indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in... Read more
The Spiritual Value of Longing A friend told me recently that digestion has multiple stages, and it does not begin after we swallow our food. The whole event begins before we even put the food in our mouths, when allow ourselves to salivate. The process of preparing food and setting the table prepares our bodies to receive. Anticipation and longing are necessary parts of the process of being fed. During the season of Advent, what are some of the ways... Read more
Spiritual Endurance in The Wild Robot The phrase “spiritual endurance” came to me as I was reflecting on two 2024 films this week. I recently took a group of young families to see the film, “The Wild Robot”, based on a book series written by Peter Brown. It’s one of those films that’s partly for kids, but mostly for moms as we see a task-oriented robot learn authenticity through loving a child. One aspect of the film is the robot... Read more
Outward Signs In the lectionary reading this past Sunday, Jesus passed blind Bartimaeus on the road. Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Mark 10:51 As I pass dozens of political signs on the road, I feel led to pray for this election. What if Jesus passed by those same signs and asked us, “What do you want me to do... Read more
A Model of Discipleship The Gospels show us a model of discipleship that involves three primary action steps: receiving, responding, and resting. At first, the disciples are simply people who are listening to Jesus. They are learning and receiving from him. Then he entrusts them to go out teaching and serving on their own. After this, he teaches them how to rest and recover in the same way that he does. This process of learning and growing is for the... Read more
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