Holy Tuesday

John 12:20-36

"Here we go again," grumbled the apostles. "He's doing that thing again. Saying he'll be killed, and glorified in the same breath. Man this guy is weird."

Yet they say this after seeing him do the most amazing things. He healed disabled and ill people. He changed the weather. He walked on the sea. He gave them magical Fish Fillet sandwiches! He killed a fig tree! WITH HIS MIND! He told a dead man to get up. And. He. Did. He called them by name.

These are our stories, but were their lives. Our radical transformation experiences are usually...more tame. More personal and intimate. We didn't meet Jesus on the road to Emmaus or Damascus. We met him driving in the car and hearing his call on the radio. As a 6 year old in five-day-club. Wondering what made that woman so kind and different. Seeing that passionate speaker at that one event. We were raised into it by faithful parents. We were raised into it by controlling and ruthless parents. Somewhere, sometime we met Jesus and were caught up in the river of where he is taking us.

We have, or will have a time when Jesus stands at the door of our heart and knocks. Remember, this image was not him knocking at unbelievers' doors, he was at a church. When he does this, he says something...Radical. Extreme. Life-changing and life-giving and life sacrificing. By all practical definitions, he says something wild and crazy. "Feed my sheep." "Step out of the boat." "Don't follow Kosher food laws." (he said a lot of crazy things to Peter)

He says these things to us, calls us to radical new ways of living in his truth. He does this through a quiet whisper in your heart, through the words of our pastor's sermon, through a song, through our own conscience, through our prayer.

Can we hear him, and love him, and follow him? We default to "here we go again" instead of "Your will be done." But his message has not changed. We only heard part of it at first, when we met him. Its not like radical transformation is coming out of the blue though. We just didn't see it, didn't listen. Can we listen now? Passionately devoted, following believers are radical, not crazy. Can we listen to Jesus, and follow him? Can we do this together? We're in this river, we chose it. Don't fight the current or curse the water for being wet. Float, follow the river where it takes you, revel in the breeze and sunlight (this is a metaphor, after all) and experience Jesus.

• Rob Pierce

Palm Sunday

The day now known as Palm Sunday, was a day of great excitement. Enthusiasm ran high and folks were thrilled at the prospect of a new leader arising to set things right in the world. God’s household rules, relationships and economy were starting to break out in the land, all emanating from Jesus. It was a new and ancient way of life, suffused with the power and presence of the very Spirit of God. People were getting ready for a major move, maybe a power play, where Jesus would overthrow the Roman empire and finally set things right- instate the kingdom of God on earth. 

There were several obstacles to this plan working, though. 1. Jesus didn’t play by their rules. 2. The Roman government didn’t like what he was doing and was not going down without a fight. 3. Actually practicing the kingdom of God was contrary to what a lot of powerful religious people wanted to do.

Jesus didn’t play by their rules. When everyone was celebrating his coronation day, he was crying. He was reading the signs of the time and they looked good for no one. He knew the destruction of Jerusalem was coming. And he was also planning his own funeral. 

The Roman empire had their own set of rules. Being a good citizen of Rome meant paying your taxes and worshiping the emperor. With Jesus giving people the idea that they deserve more from each other… let’s just say they were well practiced in crushing uprisings. 

And the religious people. Well, turns out they liked power, too. They liked surviving off the crumbs of an empire that they had to suck up to for allowing them to exist. They weren’t interested in treating the regular people with the dignity of brothers and sisters. 

And some folks looked to the future with toxic optimism.  Their unrealistic expectation of how the futwas a resentment waiting to happen. Even Peter was willfully ignorant of the signs of the times, like when he reprimanded Jesus when Jesus said, “I’m gonna suffer and die.” 

So when expectations were high… they all came at a high cost to Jesus. And Jesus… suffered. He didn’t retaliate. He allowed himself to feel all of the oppression, the powerlessness, the vulnerability that human beings in this world suffer. And it ripped him apart. He wept for himself and for his people. I’m going to go so far as to say he wept for everyone from Adam to us and beyond. 

Wouldn’t it be nice to be immune right now to the suffering in the world? Jesus didn’t get a quick escape from the cross. And honestly, if we’re doing it right, neither do we. So we walk through our own tumultuous times, with lament and resolve and empathy for the suffering of others. We set our face toward what’s coming, reach out in compassion, and trust in the unbelievable resurrection power of God when death is near. 

Holy Monday Anne - - My house is an active construction zone. Thankfully we’re past the phase of the bathroom not having walls (potty privacy is a blessing that keeps on giving) and dinner prep no longer involves the garage, basement, and trailer to make a salad.  Progress! The joy of drywall dust continues, however, providing a persistent grimy coating to our lives and an excellent chance for my kids to learn the joy of service (Yes sweetie, you do have to wipe down the counters again even though you did it yesterday). 

I don’t know who got the task of wiping off a year’s worth of dust and grime from the Lord’s temple as Jerusalem prepared to celebrate Passover, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t have the snazzy vacuum cleaner attachment that makes the job a bit easier.  While I don’t enjoy cleaning, I like the relief of a clean house. When we describe dusty and grimy spaces we use words like “suffocating”, “choking”, and “smothering”. Today the Lord’s house is not a temple that gets cleaned before Passover, instead he lives in each of us.  Time for some spring cleaning! What dust and grime has built up in you over the past year that is suffocating your connection to the One who knows you completely and loves you absolutely? Does your heart need to be free of resentment, selfishness, and disgust? Mine does. Replacing these with gratitude, generosity, and hope is not something I can accomplish without God’s intervention.  Romans 5:1-5 reminds us that suffering is a part of the human package, but it’s also one step on the journey towards a hope in God that will never disappoint us. And hope is welded to love. No one in our family, our community, our world will be untouched by the scary ability of a virus to mutate from an animal to a human and then thrive. There is no snazzy vacuum attachment that will suck this suffering away from us.  Yet we are called to love in this time, to grow, to support one another by being salt and light in the world. Life loads us down with grime. God’s love for us vacuums it up and fills us with hope. Happy Monday!

• Laura Pierce