Worth Doing Badly

Jesus’ promised healing happens only when time ends. This means, in the meantime, we only have foretastes that do not fully satisfy, but rather deepen our longing for the fullness of His eternal kindness.

The Evangelist Mark shows throughout his Gospel that Jesus moved individual souls inwardly by in-struction, while official authority depended on external compulsion. This difference changed the meaning of the word obedience from fearfully following external authority to following Jesus’ in-structuring of the soul that authorizes a way of life that is free from fear.

“The time is fulfilled.” Jesus responded to the bad news that John had been arrested by preaching the “Good News” about Him; and this is good news for bad times because, as Jesus said, “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.”

“How do you know me?” The Incarnation of the Son of God meant that the King of the universe had taken on flesh and blood to personally know single individuals like Nathanael and us.

Jesus’ baptism demonstrated that he, God’s beloved Son, now in love for His fallen world, freely identified Himself with sinners and, in love, freely chose to be in the presence of his beloved ones, and finally freely gave His life for his beloved on the cross.

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.

The angel Gabriel’s message to the Virgin Mary regarding the conditions of her pregnancy were unpromising and unsettling. Yet, she was to “fear not”, not because things were not fearful, but because the fear would give way to the joy of Christmas.

John the Baptist went by the desert to declare that the One who would come after him was the Way out of the wilderness of this life and the desert of death. Jesus was also called the Word, because his salvation would be nothing less than a new creation which would reveal Him as the Light of Life.

The way of the Lord is characterized by repentance because the good news of Jesus Christ begins by rejecting the world’s way which John the Baptist expressed in his wild diet, and wild dress and living in the wilderness.

Advent is a season that pays attention to the meaning of Jesus as the blessed one who is God with us. This means that we are warranted to trust that His real presence promises to make blessedness come from our deprivations.

This parable happily characterizes the freedom that Christ’s mercy gives to be merciful unaware of doing something exceptional. It also gives us hope that our struggles with our stinginess and resentment, when we are called to sacrifice for others, are not in vain.

When time terminates life there is weeping and gnashing teeth, which contrasts with time opening to ever more time to mean “All’s well that ends well.” Paul wrote in the Epistle for this Sunday that God has not destined us for wrath, and yet Jesus wants us to appreciate the weeping and gnashing teeth of human hopelessness.

Why do we need church? We need God’s Word to continually be called to mind because we can be foolish and make a mess of our lives, which means that we are continually in need of repentance.

“Blessed are the …” The accumulating effect of the repetition of blessedness is an outline of the Christian hope. This hope starkly contrasts with the current pervasive hopelessness because it recognizes a hidden blessedness in seemingly life-ruining afflictions like poverty, persecution, hunger, and powerlessness.

The desire for re-form is the core of Christian hope. This hope is concisely expressed in the liturgical text called the Gloria Patri, which asserts that “…as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.”

At a time when Caesar used the threat of death to collect money, God became flesh to freely give his life to the world.

This is an invitation to a festival that neither asks nor exacts any payment from us. It is the King of heaven’s will to put on an absolutely gratuitous festival that He completely plans and pays because he delights in our delight when his will is done that our lives may be characterized by being in the festival and not in the outer darkness.

The Human desire to flourish is pictured as being fruitful, which requires a vineyard. Yet, Jesus tells two parables that explain the belief in the fictional possibility of having a fruitful life while rejecting the vineyard and its owner.

“By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” (Matthew 21:23b) True authority is evident in the life-bestowing works of Jesus.

“Do you begrudge my generosity?” (Mt 20:15) This parable is a masterclass in storytelling because it helps us viscerally feel the envy. But why would Jesus direct a parable about envy at his followers? Perhaps because they were the first hour hires who, at great personal cost, would establish God’s vineyard, the church on earth.

“Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” (Mt 18:21) Why must forgiveness be unlimited and un-countable? Because forgiveness is part of the atmosphere of existence. Forgiveness is like eating, sleeping, drinking, and breathing, where no one sets limits to how often we breath or eat or sleep or drink. Life depends on God’s forgiveness.

Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus’ disciples had difficulty recognizing that the world’s greatest feat, His salvation of the world, would be an exercise in humility and not accomplished by coercive power.

Trusting that real mercy defeats death, Jesus freely walked to the cross rather than run from suffering and death.

Jesus promises the key for all mortals to prevail over the gates of hell. This key is our confession that our mortality is different if the God of heaven was present on earth in the man Jesus being the divine Christ.

Joy comes from God’s shining face that sheds the light of life as it dispels our gloom and darkness.