John 10:1-10 NRSVUE

10 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

I confess that I used to not like this passage and others like it in the Gospel of John.

I don’t like the way it sounds like people are being excluded.

But I think it’s more true to say that I don’t like the way this passage was interpreted for me by other preachers.

They way this passage was taught to me had 2 main points.

1. Antisemitism.  I was taught that the thieves and bandits were supposedly the Pharisees and the Priests. The idea being that Christianity was replacing Judaism and anybody who was still Jewish and promoting Judaism were the bad guys.  

The idea that there is antisemitism in the Gospel of John does have exegetical validity, unfortunately.  Most scholars believe that the gospel of John was written in the 90’s of the Common Era – in what we today call Syria where a group of, mostly, Jewish Christians lived among other Jews.  But the non-Christian Jews had rejected these weird Jewish Christians  Rejection then looked kinda similar to being canceled today.  It meant people might boycott your business,  kick you out of the Synygoge, or end a friendship because of the difference in religion.   The Christ Community that the Apostle John founded in Syria felt rejected by their Jewish community and that rejection resulted in some pretty nasty insults.  But those insults were like a fight between siblings – I can call my brother names, but if someone outside the family comes for my brother – I’m going to show you that we are still family!

Unfortunately – generations of Christians, by which I mean approximately 1,500 years of European Christians, did not understand that this was a fight between Jewish siblings over who the Messiah is.

 So European Christians interpreted the gospel of John as a justification for laws within the Holy Roman Empire that prohibited Jews from owning real estate, to the point that Jewish people were forced to go into trade.  And because the Medieval Catholic church decided that charging interest to a fellow Christian was usury, the Holy Roman Empire created a loophole where only Jewish people could loan money for interest — then when Kings decided they didn’t want to pay back their loans, they would incite a violent riot against the Jews for “killing Jesus.”

Which is why the Nazi’s were so angry at the Jewish bankers during the Great Depression, which after centuries of money motivated anti-semitism, led to the Holocaust.

…and also where the “global Jewish cabal” language comes from that led to the ridiculousness of “Jewish Space Lasers.”

Therefore — when reading the gospel of John, we really, really, really, need to understand that when the authors of John use the term “the Jews,” what they really meant was the religious and political authorities who collaborated with Rome to crucify Jesus and those among their own Jewish community, in Syria, who were canceling them.   NOT all Jews in all times and places!

2. The second objectionable way that I was taught this passage was the idea that there was only one right way to be a Christian – which usually meant that My Church was the *Right Church* and all the other Churches were apostate.  And those people who claimed to believe in Jesus, but didn’t go to church…. Well!  They were just right out!

Like – unless you pray the sinners prayer and declare Jesus is your Lord and Savior you’re not really saved 

Which is often said with zero awareness that these were the titles of the Caesar – 

So unless you proclaimed God with the titles of Caesar you must be going to hell – because the gate is so narrowly defined that there is no room for questions, no room for doubts, no room for people of other faiths.

This second interpretation of a very narrow faith is a literalistic interpretation that ignores the largely poetic and metaphorical language of the gospel of John – and ignores the Jesus of the other 3 gospels who healed and spent time with non-Jewish people like the Centurion and the Syro-phonecian woman, whom Jesus said had more faith than anyone he’d ever met 

Honestly, I kind of tended to avoid exclusionary passages like this one until recently:

– as I have watched people who call themselves Christian call compassion “a woke mind virus”

– as our Vice President tried to school the Pope on Just War theory.

– as Hegseth quoted fake Bible verses from movie Pulp Fiction, without even realizing those verses are not in the Bible.

I used to dislike these verses, but now I get it.

The author of John was dealing with Leaders pretending to bring a message from God, who obviously knew nothing about who God is and what God stands for.

The kind of thieves and bandits that John was talking about are those whose version of the “Good News” – the word Gospel means good news – 

Thieves and bandits are the kind of people whose version of the gospel is not good news, for well, anybody but themselves.

Spiritual thieves and bandits are those who come to steal and kill and destroy.

Those who took up a collection from the poor refugee survivors of the destruction of the Temple in 69AD to try to rebuild the Temple in the year 90 were thieves taking advantage of the people.

And those who today are cutting Medicare and Social Security and Medicaid benefits – that we all paid into – so they can give more tax breaks to the rich and fund everlasting war, are thieves and bandits.

Now I think I understand. The authors of John were telling their community that we need to understand the difference between: 

• the Way of Jesus, who came that we might have abundant life 
• and the ways of those who like the Roman Caesars – claim to be our Lord and Savior – but are neither a good leader nor saving anybody but themselves.

I think the author of John, by having Jesus declare himself to be the gate and the shepherd whose voice is familiar to the sheep, is reminding us to compare the voices of others to what Jesus actually said and did.

Because the Jesus that I know gave us his mission statement in the gospel of Luke, chapter 4, verses 18 and 19

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me

        to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

    and recovery of sight to the blind,

        to set free those who are oppressed,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The kind of Good News that Jesus proclaims 

is good news for the poor and the oppressed.  

It is good news for captives, and disabled people. 

It is good news for those in debt up to their ears – because “the year of the Lord’s favor”  is a direct reference to the Year of Jubilee when all monetary debts were to be forgiven!

I now  believe that what the author of the Gospel of John was saying is that:

We can recognize fake Christians by how well their talking points and actions line up 

– or don’t line up –

With the teachings and actions of Jesus.

People who are not filtering their choices and actions through the gateway of the authentic Jesus aren’t sheep of the shepherd.  They’re wolves pretending to be sheep.

Now does this mean that all the people, including myself, who have ever mis-interpreted scripture are bandits and thieves?

No… We’re human.  We are products of our cultures and our times.

And it’s not easy or without cost to reject a teaching that has been wrong for 1,500 years.

I think intent matters.  And when people of good intent know better, we usually try to do better.

But, friends,  in case you haven’t noticed there are people out there who do not have good intent.

There have always been people who have used religion and spirituality for selfish gain and if that means stealing, and killing and destroying, they’re OK with that.

In United Methodism we use 4 filters to help us discern between the teachings of the shepherd and the teachings of bandits.

• Scripture

• Wisdom Tradition

• Reason/Science

• Spiritual Experience

 

1. Scripture — If I want to know what God’s views are on a topic, the first place to look is in scripture.  Did you know that you can google a Bible story, by just putting a couple key words and “in the Bible” into the search bar and find the actual verse?  In this day and age, it’s super easy to look up various topics in the Bible or to… just for example… check if dialogue from Pulp Fiction is actually in the Bible or not.
2. Tradition – And by tradition, we don’t mean, “the way we’ve always done it around here,” we mean the collected theological and spiritual writings of Christianity.  The idea being that if I have a theological question, probably someone somewhere has also had a similar question and might have something useful to say about it. 

When Pope Leo was explaining Just War Theory and referencing Augustine of Hippo – this is what he was doing – he was referencing the wisdom tradition of the Church.  

Which, by the way, the Pope was being generous in referencing Just War Theory, because as someone who used to be an Evangelical Christian – who generally default to the earliest held positions of the first century church – Vance should have been taught total non-violence.  In the early church soldiers were expected to leave the military after they were baptized, because Jesus didn’t fight back, so neither should we.  Just War Theory was Augustine suggesting that perhaps it’s OK for Christian Political Leaders to defend their cities from attack, but not to make war on others. — Let me know if you would like to know more about Christian perspectives on war and peace…  There’s so  much more wisdom tradition on this subject!

3. Reason – is our next filter for discernment.  I often refer to this one as Science, because the origins of our Wesleyan filters are proto-scientific, Enlightenment era, so they kinda meant science when they said reason. The general idea being that much of the Bible was written in a pre-scientific era – so now that we have germ-theory, we understand why many Kosher laws, like washing your hands before you eat, make sense, and why some of them no longer make sense – like the Deuteronomy 23:12-14 rule that places for bathrooming must be outside the camp, far from the worship space.  Now that we have modern plumbing it’s reasonable to have bathrooms inside the church!  Using Reason as a filter for discernment also means looking at when scripture was written, where it was written, and recognizing the difference between poetry and a factual account.

4. Experience is our final filter for discernment.  What we mean by experience is: in my spiritual experience does this feel like something that Jesus would say or do?  Do I recognize the God who hears my prayers in the talking points and actions of this person claiming to represent God?

To put this all together let’s use these filters to test the idea that Compassion is a woke mind virus.

1.  Scripture –  There are so many passages in scripture that tell us to care for those in need and that God hears the cries of the suffering.  So I see in scripture that Compassion is something God wants for us and from us.
2. Christian Tradition – Within Christian Tradition there are theological arguments that justify a lack of compassion for certain people.  There are several Papal proclamations ranging from Pope Innocent III writing that those who rejected Christ’s message are less than human and therefore it’s OK to be violent towards them, to Popes Nicholas V and Alexander VI, who authorized the seizing of non-Christian lands and the subjugation of “enemies of the faith” which lead to colonization, slavery, and eventually racial superiority.   https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/blog/manifest-destiny/ 

Teachings which are now widely rejected by most Christians, including the current Pope.

 

And, within the Christian Tradition is the concept of sanctuary from harm,  the founding of free Hospital orders, Mother Teresa and other saints, and too many writings to count on the concepts of Grace, Mercy, and loving our neighbors.

1. Reason –  Science has refuted the idea that people of other races are a lesser kind of human.  Science has also confirmed the idea that being Gay and Trans has a genetic component.  So many of the reasons for justifying a lack of compassion towards people who are different are not supported by reason.  And there is no evidence that compassion is caused by a virus or any other micro-organism!
2. Experience – In my spiritual experience, the Jesus that I know looks at me with compassion and expects me to view others with compassion as well.  As a matter of fact – God rarely lets me get away with being judgemental towards others!  As the Lord’s prayer says,  God seems to expect me to forgive others as I have been forgiven.

So, no, given the filters of Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience – I do not think that compassion is a woke mind virus from a Christian perspective.

Nor do I think that Vance understands Christian theology better than the Pope.

And I pray that Hegseth actually reads the Bible someday.  

I would recommend the gospel of Luke as a great place to start for anyone.

Luke 24:13-35 NRSVUE

13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

 

28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

It’s hard when things break, but God is revealed in the breaking.. of bread, of systems, of our certainties, of our expectations.

This story is often called “the walk to Emmaus,” because they met Jesus while walking to the town of Emmaus.  There were more disciples than just the 12 BIG NAME disciples, and some of these folks were not there when Jesus appeared in the upper room after the women saw him at the Tomb.

And then as now, people don’t always believe women.

Especially when what women have to say is… unexpected.

Cleopas and his buddy were pretty shaken up because none of what happened was what they expected.

Take a look at verse 19.

Cleopas and his buddy, like a lot of followers of Jesus, thought that Jesus was a mighty prophet who was going to redeem Israel.

Which meant many things to many people.

For some that meant that Jesus would replace the House of Herod as the vassal King of Judea, under Roman rule.

For others that meant that Jesus would make Israel Great Again – that is- restore Israel to the former glory of the kingdom of David and Solomon.  This idea ties into the title, Messiah – which means “anointed one” – because prophets, judges and kings were anointed with holy oil at the beginning of their service.

For yet others, they thought Jesus was Elijah returned, or the next Great Prophet – again an anointed position.  A Great Prophet who would lead the people back into God’s favor and as King Solomon proclaimed at the dedication of the Temple, in 2 Chronicles 7:14:

14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

So they expected Jesus, as prophet or king to lead them into a season of redemption for Israel.

They didn’t expect Jesus to change the system, to disrupt the system, to tear the old system apart!

…they expected Jesus to get on top of the old system and make it work for them.

So they were flummoxed!

How was Jesus going to be the Anointed One – the Messiah – if he was dead!  Like 3 days ago dead!

They wanted to believe the women, but people don’t just rise from the dead!  

And how does Jesus restart his political campaign after having been crucified???

They were wondering, how does any of this even work???!!!

We’re so used to the Easter story, that it’s easy for us to forget how ridiculous it really is.

I met a person at seminary who told me about his first Good Friday service.

He said, “Wait, what??!!  Jesus died?  Nobody told me that Jesus died!  How did he become the leader of Christianity if he died??!!!”

His reaction made me think about how wild our sacred story really is.

And how reasonable the Disciple’s expectations were.

They grew up their whole lives learning about Great Prophets and Great Kings and the Temple covenant, and how when the Kings of Israel and Judea sinned against the poor and the vulnerable, God sent prophets to get them back on the right track.  And when the Kings humbled themselves, and prayed and sought to follow God again, then God forgave them and healed the land of Israel.

That was the story they grew up with.

That’s what they expected.

That’s how the system worked.

They were expecting Jesus to rise to the top of that system and then Israel would be redeemed – “re” as in,  made as great as before.

They knew that their leaders had sinned by failing to give justice to the poor – the widows and orphans and strangers who suffered under the corrupt leadership of the Herodians and the Chief Priests.

They knew that Herod the Great had invited Roman governance against the advice of the prophets.

They knew that their system of governance and religion – because there was no such thing as separation of church and state in the first century –  They knew that their system was not working.

They just didn’t realize that all systems work perfectly to produce the results they produce.

Systems often contain policies and practices that allow for certain people – usually rich and powerful people – to get away with things that poor and powerless people get punished for.

And the unchecked power of the Judean theocracy and the money driven Roman Empire were both designed to benefit the powerful over the vulnerable. 

Yet the disciples still believed in a system that had allowed King after King and priest after priest to get away with injustice and oppression.

They still believed, because they thought if they just had the right guy at the top, then the system could work for them.

They still believed because they had no idea that another system was possible.

Israel’s and Rome’s systems were already broken…

And it’s hard when things break, and we often feel helpless and don’t know what to do…

…but sometimes God is revealed in the breaking… of bread, of systems, of our certainties, of our expectations of what is possible.

Back to the story….

I love that Jesus lets them talk.

Jesus knows better than they do what is happening, but Jesus lets them talk it out.

Jesus is so much better than I am.  

I know that I should let people just talk it through, but I always want to jump to the solution.

Anybody else have that impulse to jump to solutions, when we really should be listening?

Jesus lets them talk it through, because Jesus knows that they need to.

And they are so…up in their heads about what has happened – that they don’t even notice that Jesus is right next to them.

Even when Jesus is explaining everything to them as only Jesus could, in verses 25 – 27, they are still so up in their heads that they are not taking in anything around them.

Until Jesus blessed the bread, broke it and shared it with them.

Then they were able to see Jesus.

It’s hard when things break, but God is revealed in the breaking.. of bread, of systems, of our certainties, of our expectations.

All human systems are flawed and eventually break.

Because all humans are flawed and breakable.

Friends, this is a hard time to be alive.

Because it feels like all our systems are breaking.

Our system of doing church is broken – people don’t participate the way they used to.

Our system of government feels broken, but honestly it’s doing exactly what it was designed to do — it’s just that an increasing number of people are no longer willing to accept that liberty and justice has always been for some and not for all.

Our culture – our rules of social interaction – are shifting and we cannot agree on what our morals and values are, or even what politeness looks like these days.

Our social safety net is broken – COVID was an apocalypse for our social safety net and the number of people who are food insecure, who are housing insecure, who are health care insecure, and who are insecurely employed, has risen every dang month since 2020.

But the Greek work apocalypse that we use to mean disaster,

originally meant something else.

Apocalypse meant, “God sighting.”

Or the in-breaking of God into our ordinary lives.

God is revealed in the breaking.

Jesus told the people on Palm Sunday that not a stone would remain on another stone – that God was Breaking the Temple System.  In the year 69, the Romans leveled the Temple, ending the system of sacrificing and the priesthood.

Jesus broke their expectations of his role as the anointed one, by dying.

But Jesus had already begun to create a new system at the Last Supper that he reminded them of at Emmaus – a system not of putting “our guy” on top of the old system, but a system of gathering with whomever comes and breaking bread.

A system that is about beloved community who share power with every blessed and broken member, not a system ruled by special men who hold power over its members.  Although us church people do have a tendency to look for leaders to tell us what to do, which is part of why our church systems are breaking.

It’s hard when things break, but God is revealed in the breaking.. of bread, of systems, of our certainties, of our expectations.

Communion

…so let us come to the table where God is revealed in the breaking of bread.

When they came to Emmaus, it was evening and the day was almost over, so they asked the stranger to stay with them and share a meal, because Jesus had taught them to practice hospitality to strangers, in the tradition of Abraham.

When the supper was ended, because in that time, sometimes your bread was your plate, or your bread was your spoon, for wiping up the last remains of your meal – so when the supper was ended Jesus took the bread, he blessed it….

He broke it

And he gave it to them

And they finally saw past their expectations and their worries and their fears and they saw Jesus.

They saw Jesus, giving them the bread, just like he had at the Passover supper in the upper room.

And when they could finally see clearly.

Jesus disappeared.

Because now they were ready to follow Jesus into the new way that Jesus taught us.

The text doesn’t say so, 

But I bet when they got over their surprise at Jesus vanishing…

They took the cup and blessed it and they shared it in remembrance of Jesus.

And so we continue to do so today.

Let us pray…

This table is Jesus’ table.

A table that is open to all.

Open to doubters and dreamers, and people blinded by our own expectations.

Open to all the beloveds gay and straight and Christian and something else, and undecided.

This is Jesus’ table and Jesus said everyone is invited, so you are too.

But no one is required.  

You don’t have to take communion, you’re just welcome to.

We have gluten free and glutenous bread, and we use alcohol free grape juice.  Come forward, down the middle, take a piece of bread, and a little cup, then place your empty cup in the trays at the side on your way back down the sides to your seat.

You can kneel up front before you return to your seat if that is meaningful for you.

Or somebody can bring communion to you.

Come – the table is prepared.

Matthew 28:1-10 NRSVUE

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” 8 So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Please join me in the traditional Easter Greeting!

Christ is Risen!

Christ is Risen Indeed!

Christianity in its purest form proclaims, as Bishop Desmod Tutu of South Africa put it:

Goodness is stronger than evil!
Love is stronger than hate!
Light is stronger than darkness!
Life is stronger than Death!
(Desmond Tutu, An African Prayer Book)

I admit that even as  a Progressive Pastor who believes that science is a gift from God,  I do believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead.

I believe it because I believe women…

I believe it because Governments are still in the habit of murdering those who speak out for the oppressed.

I believe that Jesus rose from the dead because God had a point to prove and that point is that all manner of evil may happen for a while, but not even death can stop LOVE from loving.

And love is why God came Godself, down to earth.

I believe that Jesus came down here to tell us that we are loved.  

Yes, all of us.

Yes, even the annoying ones.

Yes, even when *I’m* the annoying one.

God came down here to love us and show us what love means.

I do not believe that God the Father is an angry God who demanded a blood sacrifice for our sins in some horrific action of divine child abuse.

I believe that God knew that PURE LOVE was going to be too much for some people and that those people would choose violence in the face of LOVE.

I mean, humanity is still choosing violence.  We’re not hard to predict.

But God loves the whole world so much that God was willing to come down here Godself and subject Godself to humanity’s violence.

God gave us the free will to choose between love and hate.

But God was not willing to let hate win.

Goodness is stronger than evil!
Love is stronger than hate!
Light is stronger than darkness!
Life is stronger than Death!
(Desmond Tutu, An African Prayer Book)

So, yeah.  

I believe that Jesus didn’t have to die. 

Humanity chose, and is still choosing violence.

And I believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead to show us that Love Wins.

That no matter how crazy-awful life gets –

And there’s been a whole lot of awful craziness lately!

-eventually-

Love Wins.

And in those crazy-awful times where life feels like a dead end, love meets us on our way.

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.

I always wonder, which other Mary.

Was it Mary the sister of Martha?

Was it Jesus’ mom, Mary?

Some other Mary?

Mary was a super popular name at the time!

So anyway, Mary and Mary got up before dawn after *the worst weekend of their lives* and went to the tomb to wash and dress Jesus’ body.  Tradition says that they brought the frankincense and myrrh that the Wise Men gave Mary at Christmas…

But, on their way there the earth shook and a shiny messenger appeared (messenger is the translation of the word, Angel) and told them that Jesus was risen and showed them the empty tomb.

So Mary and Mary, of course, head right back to the upper room where they were all hiding after the execution of Jesus to share the good news!

But, on their way, they met Jesus himself, who turned their bad times into a good time…

… to borrow a phrase from Afroman.

Jesus turned their bad times into a good time.

This is how God operates.

When things are falling apart.

When times are bad.

When it looks like evil is winning.

Jesus meets us on the way.

Does Jesus literally meet us on the way… not in my experience!

But I feel like God meets us, on the way of just trying to live our lives. God meets us embodied in new friends we never expected.  Friends who show up with that something-something that we didn’t even know we needed… or never expected to find.

God meets us, on the way, of just trying to live our lives, in the form of new opportunities that we didn’t think were possible.  God has certainly met us on the way towards this affordable housing project!  I didn’t think we could build affordable housing on this small plot of land with an asbestos riddled building, and yet… God is making it possible.

And often,  just like Mary and Mary, when we meet the messenger on the way, we encounter both joy and fear.

Because turning our bad times into good times often takes some work and encounters some pushback..

And it takes intention and effort to fortify our hearts with the kind of love that is stronger hate.

The kind of love that turns the other cheek.

The kind of love that gets knocked down because love refuses to use violence against violence.

The kind of love that gets back up again and offers a hug and a blessing instead of insults. 

And friends, I’ll be honest with you.

I don’t like going through bad times. 

I don’t like getting knocked down.

I don’t like being called names.

And when I do, I really want to fight back.

I really want to give as good as I get.

But when we decide to play by their rules we have already lost.

When we decide to play by their rules we have already lost.

When we decide to play by their rules we have already lost.

God does not call us to give as good as we get… God calls us to give better than we get.

Jesus could have raised an army — Jesus had a lot of followers, some of them even had money.

Jesus could have called down fire, or flood, or plagues or whatever – like God had done before.  But God had already tried that and it didn’t work.

Being mean doesn’t change people’s hearts and minds.

It just doesn’t.

So Jesus let the Roman government, and the powerful religious leaders do what they were going to do and simply showed them that no amount of violence, not even death, can keep love down.

These are scary times.

But God keeps meeting us on our way.

Throwing joy into our fear, like dunking chocolate into peanut butter.

Meeting us with compassion, 

Meeting us with friendship, 

Meeting us with opportunities, 

Meeting our needs,

God keeps meeting us, on our way, with love.

Love is unkillable.

Love Rises.

Love wins in the end.