Verse of the day
And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” … Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last.
– Matthew 27:46, 50
Voice of the day
The cross and the lynching tree interpret each other. Both were public spectacles, shameful events, instruments of punishment reserved for the most despised people in society. Any genuine theology and any genuine preaching of the Christian gospel must be measured against the test of the scandal of the cross and the lynching tree.
– James H. Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree (2013)
Prayer of the day
Irony of all ironies is that the darkest Friday is called good, / because though it put you in the tomb, it brought you back again. / … So we fast and pray, / and in our attempts to understand, / we stop and say that we will never quite grasp / the greatest irony of all: / that you take us in our tired skin and bones / and tell us we’re worth / all the ironies of the cross.
– Kaitlin Curtice, “A Prayer for Good Friday”
Just before the pandemic lockdown, Denise and I were able to visit San Francisco. The Balmy Street Murals were both powerful and beautiful. This photo is of one of the murals we saw.
Today is Maundy Thursday in the Christian liturgical calendar. On this day during Holy Week we remember the last Passover meal that Jesus shared with his disciples before his arrest, torture, and execution by the forces of the state. At that meal, Jesus washed the disciples feet according to the Gospel of John (John 13:1-17). The Teacher and Lord took the role of a Servant and modeled the sort of work Jesus had called his disciples to do. He even washed the feet of his betrayer, Judas Iscariot.
In churches and places of worship all over the world, feet will be washed and Jesus’ followers will break bread and share the cup as Jesus did with his disciples long ago. As a pastor and Air Force chaplain, I have served communion in many different settings around the world. Perhaps my most memorable experience was when I shared communion with a gathering of exhausted and dusty airmen in the desert north of Las Vegas, Nevada. They were in the middle of a training and selection course to earn the honor of going to the Army’s Ranger training. When I offered communion at the end of worship each one of them came up to receive. I didn’t know their faith background and before that moment we had been strangers who shared the common bond of service in the Air Force. The table was big enough for each of them to come forward to receive the bread and the cup.
In today’s society, separation and differences highlight how we interact with each other. There have been and continue to be squabbles over who is worthy to come to the table (news flash—none of us are) and receive the gift of love and grace which Jesus offers us. Instead of being an instrument of disunity, I firmly believe that the table should be a place of unity. My fellow blogger and faith leader John Pavlovitz talks about that table and the call to make it bigger in his book A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community. Jesus reached out far beyond the boundaries of his own faith community with his message. The outcasts (in the eyes of the religious purists of his day) were the ones he spent time with. They received healing and hope that wasn’t offered by the religious purists. His ministry sought to unify all of God’s children. Yet it was the religious divisions created by the powers that be that murdered him.
Thomas Merton reflected on such a unity in his Asian Journals which he wrote during the last few months of his life. The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words. It is beyond speech. It is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity, but we discover an old unity. My dear brothers and sisters, we are already one. But we imagine we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be, is what we are. (The Asian Journals of Thomas Merton)
My prayer is that as the followers of Christ gather around the table on Maundy Thursday, they might make room at the table for all of God’s children. In so doing, May our original unity be recovered.
“Grace is a gift offered freely that helps us to return to alignment with our Self and the Divine.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD,Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal
When have you recognized the experience of Grace?
To register for the self-study companion retreat to the book with extra resources and guidance click here>>
Verse of the day
After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had reclined again, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
– John 13:12-14
Voice of the day
Could we allow this moment in time to return us to the quiet room with our servant King Jesus as he kneels to wash our dusty feet? Could we surrender our pride, our self-importance, and addiction to self-preservation to pick up a basin and towel in love for the other?
– Stephanie Lobdell, “The Bold Imagination of Maundy Thursday Love”
Prayer of the day
Lord, your son washed his disciples’ feet to set an example; may we not think of ourselves as being above this act of care but see this as the very essence of what it means to be your people.
“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are [beautiful] in the broken places.”
Where Ernest Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms reads “strong” I’ve substituted the word “beautiful.” That’s because I’m going to talk about the resurrection. And the resurrection makes broken things beautiful
— Read on jakeowensby.com/2023/04/06/making-broken-things-beautiful/
The spiritual life starts at the place where you can hear God’s voice. Where somehow you can claim that long before your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your school, your church touched you, loved you, and wounded you—long before that, you were held safe in an eternal embrace. You were seen with eyes of perfect love long before you entered into the dark valley of life.
The spiritual life starts at the moment that you can go beyond all of the wounds and claim that there was a love that was perfect and unlimited, long before that perfect love became reflected in the imperfect and limited, conditional love of people.
The spiritual life starts where you dare to claim the first love. “Love one another because I have loved you first” (see John 4:19).
On Palm Sunday, my message/sermon focused on the new revolution that Jesus initiated when he rode into Jerusalem on a very humble donkey. Anyone who expected a warrior king like David to enter on a warhorse would have been disappointed. Yet as the crowds shouted out “Hosanna” (which in the Greek literally means “save us”), the message Jesus brought into Jerusalem was the same message he had been teaching for three years. He taught a message of love: Love God with all of your being and love your neighbor as yourself… and yes, that includes your enemies! As this Holy Week continues, I have been reflecting on the words from Thomas Merton in his book, Seasons of Celebration. The scripture reading that accompanies today’s reflection is 1 John 3:11-18. This particular verse spoke to me: For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. (1 John 3:11)
Perhaps we need to put on new interior “garments.” Instead of judgment, try on forgiveness… instead of hate, try on love… instead of retribution, try on grace… instead of war, try on peace… instead of following the crowd, why don’t we follow Jesus. Today’s world is so polarized and broken and it breaks my heart. The older I have gotten, the more I have come to realize what is important in life. What is important in life is how you live… to live with an attitude of love… to follow the words of the prophet Micah: do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God… and, of course to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength while also loving our neighbor (all of them, even those who are difficult to love) as ourself.
We are an interconnected creation. What one person does effects another person… what one community does effects the greater community… what we do as caretakers (stewards) of God’s creation affects the entire world. I believe that we can change the world, one relationship at a time. After all, if we don’t begin process change won’t happen. The words below from Merton speak to this interconnected way of living and being.
No man lives for himself alone. To live for oneself alone is to die. We grow and flourish in our own lives insofar as we live for others and through others. What we ourselves lack, God has given them. They must complete us where we are deficient. Hence we must always remain open to one another so that we can always share with each other. –Thomas Merton: Lent and Easter Wisdom From Thomas Merton (p. 74)
“The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.”—Martin Luther King, Jr.
Verse of the day
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
– John 5:12
Voice of the day
Love that does not satisfy justice is no love at all. … Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
– Martin Luther King Jr.
Prayer of the day
Today, we remember and celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. May your people embody a love that satisfies justice.
“Thresholds, liminal space, being on the edge, living in the borderlands when we have a spirituality that is committed to exploring these rich places, is the opposite of comfortable, safe, secure boundaries, rigid and unquestioned.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD,The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within
Can you allow yourself to surrender to something bigger and more meaningful, even as it calls you away from familiar patterns that are loved?
To register for the self-study companion retreat to the book with extra resources and guidance click here>>
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