Worth Doing Badly

"...whoever would be great among you must be your servant" (Mark 10:43b). The disciples refused Jesus’ salvation through cross and to resurrection. In a right-side up world, the glory of living is not sacrifice and not the selfish pursuit of getting one’s own way. It is having the freedom to pray "Thy will be done" rather than insisting that my will be done.

"...for God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). God expressed His love for the perishing in Jesus, the beloved Son, who Himself perished in such a way as to remove our condemnation by overcoming perishing in His resurrection.

’He rested on the seventh day’. God’s Word gives us a rest/peace that the world’s gold cannot give. Rest, and not money, is the soul’s deepest desire which only God’s Word can satisfy.

In a strange way, the empty ease with which "Jesus Christ" is used for swearing unwittingly accepts a connection that was hard won by the true man "Jesus" showing that He filled the office of the "Christ." How tenuous this connection is evident in Peter’s clear confession of Jesus as the Christ until Jesus revealed that suffering "was necessary" for the one holding the office of Christ.

Lent is about love-God’s beloved Son’s loving sacrifice for our salvation. Turning Lent into a season focused on the world’s suffering or on personal self-denial is a distraction. Lent aims to train our attention on the meaning of the love of the beloved Son.

The Transfiguration defines the salvation by Christ’s cross as a movement of events. Beginning on the Mount of Transfiguration, salvation moves through the disfiguration of the cross, and then is completed by the Resurrection. The Transfiguration stage defined salvation by the unbearable brightness of Jesus’ clothing which exposed just how shoddy and tattered is the very best earth can offer when...

Jesus promises a healing that only happens when time ends. In the meantime, he gives us foretastes to keep us longing for the fullness of His kindness.

Jesus amazed his hearers because his teaching had authority that was somehow different from the authority of the official teachers. Official authority moves people by external compulsion. Jesus had the authority to move people inwardly by speaking to their souls. His instruction literally in-structures the soul and generates a new life that endlessly flows like living water.

Jesus responded to the bad news of John’s arrest by preaching the "good news" of the presence of God’s kingdom. John wondered if Jesus was the promised Messiah because God’s presence made no real difference. Then he discovered that the goodness of the good news does not magically overcome evil. Rather it is a goodness of God’s patient love that slowly renders evil irrelevant.

Come and behold. Jesus’ lowly origin and the choice of his disciples reflect the personal nature of His salvation. Salvation will be God coming to know us so that we might freely desire to know Him.

When the Eternal entered time, the heavens were “torn open,” the path to perfection was open to penitents. This path of our ultimate satisfaction is characterized by the two metaphors of cleansing and drowning.

Astonished! The temple teachers were surprised at the insightful questions that came from a mere boy. They were astonished because once again God’s promises appear to us as so humble, that is, unpromising. Should we expect anything less than that the repeated return to the routines and rituals of Christ’s Church will also repeatedly and unpredictably astonish us by the way they energize our desire...

Peace is defined by the ability to depart in peace. Simeon declared his ability to depart in peace because he recognized Jesus as the fullness of time. As time’s fullness, Jesus would transform time from a draining movement of despair to the filling movement that departs into eternal fullness.

Gabriel’s messages to Mary regarding the conditions of her pregnancy were unpromising and unsettling. Yet, she was told to “fear not” because the fear would give way to the joy of Christmas.

Why do God’s promises seem so unpromising? Promising life by means of the Cross seems foolish to some and scandalous to others. Here, the prophet declaring the promise lived in a dead desert, had a disgusting diet and suffered a dreadful death. To untangle why, first ask what we mean by a promising life? A promising life is not defined by the present but by a future fulfilment. The one thing a pro...

Salvation is a road named Jesus. What does it mean to think of Salvation as a road? It means that we have access to where once our travel was frustrated.

The church’s calendar is anchored in the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ and slowly trains us over time to experience time with eager anticipation rather than anxious despair.

At the end of days, those who freely pray "Thy will be done" are separated from those who insist "My will be done." God will not force these to live eternally in the joy of obedience. Jesus came to heal the sickest of the sick and not to enhance the health of the healthy.

The Church Year is a calendar that connects time to texts and festivals that help us hope by seeing time as progressing towards joy.

The parable of the 10 virgins reveals how faith relates to fear, particularly the fear of missing out. Jesus intends for us to see ourselves in the foolish virgins for the many times we failed to "watch" because we were distracted from the things that really matter by the things that do not matter.

When we follow Jesus, there is no circumstance in this life in which we cannot expect to be blessed or to bless others. Experiencing blessedness in bad circumstances on earth increases our hunger and thirst for the eternal goodness now enjoyed by the departed.

"Blessed are..." Nothing in a life blessed by Jesus is unfruitful, futile, wasted or vain. Everything in the life He blesses somehow works toward an eternal goodness that is embodied in the embattled life of the prophets and in Jesus’ life, teaching, death and resurrection.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Those who hear Jesus’ promises live differently in the world because they are aware that each moment of life is being caught up in a momentum that will go on eternally.

"For many are invited, but few are chosen." This parable disabuses us of the destructive deception that grace means doing whatever we want whenever we please. The sooner we rid ourselves of this deception, the sooner we can lean into the sumptuous life God has prepared for us. If God’s invitation seems like an imposition, give it time. In time, it will prove to be a better life than anything we mi...

"The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone…" Jesus trains His disciples to read rejection rightly. Rejection is unavoidable and an indispensable aid to help us come to know the truth about what we believe to be true.