4-30-21 - Connected

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

“Apart from me, you can do nothing.”  Context is everything. In some instances, these words could sound insufferably egomaniacal, pompous, even abusive. Spoken by Jesus, to his closest followers, shortly before he takes leave of them forever? They sound like loving truth about where the power for ministry comes from.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”

If we’re talking vines and branches, it’s clear: the branch cannot generate fruit if it is cut off from the vine. And a branch cut off from the vine, whether by pruning shears or by withering, is good for nothing. But what about when we’re talking people? Disciples? Can there be no good done in the world without its doers being connected to Jesus?

This passage does not address that question. Jesus is talking here to insiders, believers, disciples. He has been training them in the ways of the Kingdom of God, equipping them to participate in the mission of God to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation to wholeness. THAT fruit, he says, is not possible apart from him. There might be all kinds of holy people, makers of peace, bringers of justice who have no discernible connection to God in Jesus Christ. But ministers of the Good News? We need to be connected to the Vine.

What kind of nutrients come through a vine to its branches and ultimately the fruit they bear? I imagine there are sugars and enzymes needed for growth, for warding off diseases, for the formation of fruit. As the vine harnesses nutritients from its roots in the soil and the water it receives, and the chemicals catalyzed by the sunshine, it passes along to the branches what they need to be as whole and life-giving as possible. And the only way the branch gets what it needs to be fruitful is through staying connected to the vine.

Let’s transfer the metaphor to us. Jesus says he is the Vine, we are the branches. He is rooted in the long tradition of God's activity since before time. He is himself the source of Living Water. He is glorified in the light of God; indeed, he is the Light of the World. Through our connection to him - united with him in baptism, renewed in him in prayer and holy eucharist - we receive everything we need to exercise ministries of transformation.

And how do we stay connected? By spending time with him in prayer; by gathering with other branches regularly; through the Word, the sacraments; through the exercise of ministry in his Name – which means, letting his Spirit work amazing things through us. We can feel the difference between doing good work on our own strength, and how it feels when we're running on Holy Spirit wind. When we allow ourselves to be filled and "loved through," those nutrients come through to us from the Vine.

Branches are not responsible for the fruit they bear. We just need to be as connected as possible, and if the vine is healthy, the fruit will grow. Our Vine is Jesus – we can trust there will be wonderful fruit as we are faithful. Here endeth the metaphor!

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Water Daily 4-29-21 - Fruitful

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

In the northern hemisphere, we are coming into the season of fruit – beautiful, juicy, luscious, abundant fruit of every shape, size, color and taste. Fruit is one of God's greatest gifts. And, according to Jesus, fruitfulness is the one criterion for success as a follower of Christ: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing... My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

And later in this long teaching, he adds, “You did not choose me. I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.” (John 15:16).

What does it mean to be fruitful? It goes deeper than simply being productive. Productivity involves generating outcomes and measurable results, things you can tick off a task list. Fruitfulness obviously includes a product – the fruit – but fruit develops in different ways on varying timetables. And we don’t “produce” fruit – we grow it. Or we allow it to grow; we can't make it grow. We can only create the right circumstances for it to grow. And we can't hurry it along. (Somebody tell tomato growers that...).

I love productivity – especially if I have produced things I can see: articles, songs, sermons, newsletters, gardens, a clean floor. On a day with many pastoral appointments and meetings, I sometimes have trouble feeling I’ve “done” anything, because I can’t see or measure the outcomes – but those are deeply fruitful days. Jesus invites me to value fruitfulness even more than productivity.

How can we assess fruitfulness? We look for changed lives. When we see people changing, healing, growing, turning God-ward, we are seeing good fruit. When we bring justice or peace or reconciliation to a community, we are seeing good fruit. When we experience greater joy and more love in our lives, we are seeing good fruit.

Where in your life do you feel the most fruitful? 

What branches seem barren, producing little?
What fruit do you feel is still forming in your life?  Does it have the water, sun and nutrients it needs? How might you foster greater growth?

What fruit do you see, and would like to see in your community of faith? How might you help cultivate greater fruitfulness, more changed lives?

Fruit forms well as it is attached to the plant that nourishes it. Our fruitfulness in life, and as followers of Christ, flourishes as we allow God’s Spirit to flow through us, to form and ripen us and our ideas, to bring us to the fullness of who we are intended to be. Then we bring delight to others, just like a luscious peach or a perfect strawberry.

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4-28-21 - Abiding

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

“Abide” is not a word we use these days the way it is used in the Bible. Which is a pity – it’s a good word, much richer than its nearest contemporary equivalent, “hang out with.”

A Google search reminded me that we do use the word – in the sense of something we comply with, or barely tolerate (“I will abide by the ruling”; “I can’t abide eggplant.”) But the meaning in this week’s gospel passage is nothing like that. It means to dwell with over time. There must be a connection between “abide” and “bide,” as in, to “bide ones time.” Abiding suggests resting with deeply, not rushing away. Oh! Maybe that’s why we don’t use it these days – we do so much rushing, so little “resting with deeply,” “ staying quietly with.”

Jesus used the term that our forebears translated as “abide” quite a bit, especially in these farewell remarks captured in John’s Gospel. He uses it as a verb and as an imperative: “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.”

This image conveys an even stronger notion of connectedness. To abide as a grape abides in the vine suggests that it both comes from and is connected with the vine, so connected it would take some force to part one from the other. This is not to undermine distinction and independence. It is a connection intended for greater fruitfulness: “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”

How do we abide with Jesus and let him abide in us? We hang out with him in prayer and conversation and praise and worship. We recover our awareness of how we are connected to him, despite the efforts of the world and its messages and the pressures of our lives to shake us loose. It is easy to feel disconnected from God except in those times when we consciously return. How would it be to carry that felt connection around with us daily?

That happens when we live into the second part – letting Jesus abide in us. We are promised that Jesus lives in us through baptism, a connection that is renewed at eucharist, through the Word, through prayer and ministry. So one way we abide with him and he in us is to make more space for him. Don’t toss him in a back room, stopping by to visit only when you’re feeling sad or stressed. Give him a seat at the table, when you’re doing dishes, paying bills, going to sleep. Don’t relegate him to a few moments here and there; make some time to nurture your connection.

Some monastics have practiced a form of constant prayer called “hesychasm,” the prayer of the heart, which trains one to pray with each breath, in and out, so that practitioners pray without ceasing. Whether we adopt that practice, or set alerts on our phones, or set aside times and places to rest deeply with Jesus, he promises us a more fruitful life through that connection.

And we can be sure HE is abiding with us. Even when we’re not paying attention.

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4-27-21 - Pruning

 You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

I was given a rose bush three years ago which blooms frequently and has done better than expected, given that I just plunked it in the ground. But I don’t know the first thing about if, how or when to prune it to make it healthier. Pruning is a painful process. No one wants to cut into living things, or beautiful ones, though a gardener or farmer – or surgeon – will do so in order to allow a plant to become as healthy and fruitful as possible.

Jesus said that even God is in the pruning business: 

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.”

Jesus talks both about the cutting away of non-fruitful branches, and the cutting back of fruitful ones. Nothing seems to be exempt from the pruning shears.

We prune to conserve resources so that the fruitful parts receive maximum nutrients. The same is true in our lives – and churches. Too many branches dissipate the focus and energy available to each one. Not every part bears good fruit. Some used to, and are now past the point of producing. We must undertake pruning processes, or allow God to work them within us.

Are there aspects to your life or work or relationships that no longer feel fruitful? Patterns of thinking or behaving or relating that are not life-giving? Make a list today of “branches” you might be willing to cut away, leave behind entirely.

As you read through that list, where do you feel the greatest sense of loss or failure? Where the most relief? Pray through it with Jesus and/or discuss it with a spiritual adviser or friend. Then act on what you've discerned.

What areas of your life, work or relationships feel fruitful? Are there ways you can prune or refine your involvement in them to allow for even more growth?

There’s an old adage that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” I suggest the same is true of an “unpruned life.” It resembles an overgrown garden – hard to move around in, lacking in differentiation and clarity, with healthy growth often impeded by weeds and undergrowth. Undergrowth! There’s a great term. That which is overgrown becomes undergrowth.

If we want to see growth in our lives and our spirits, not to mention our ministries, bring on the pruning.

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4-26-21 - The Looong Goodbye

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's Gospel reading is here.

If John’s Gospel is a reliable historical record (a question over which scholars have spilled much ink through the centuries…), the Last Supper would have lasted a Long Time. As John tells it, after the drama and rituals of washing feet, breaking bread and sharing wine, Jesus delivers himself of many Last Words. This discourse, filling chapters 14-18 of the Fourth Gospel, is dense, elliptical, sometimes repetitive - and full of nuggets of teaching that theologians would later mine in developing core church doctrines like the Trinity, Incarnation, the Holy Spirit, Heaven.

These words are not as a transcript. At best, they are a compilation of memories and themes, filtered through several witnesses some 40-50 years after the events being described, and in conversation with movements and controversies in the early church. Yet I choose to believe Jesus said much of what is set down here, if not in these exact words, sequence, or necessarily on that occasion. At some point Jesus spoke to his followers about vines and branches and abiding in God. And these words still resonate for us:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.”

Jesus is about to take his leave of these beloved and frustrating disciples. He has said he is going to a place they cannot follow, but know the way to. It’s a good time to talk about pruning and fruitfulness, as he is about to become the branch cut away -despite the manifold fruit he had borne in just three years, reflected in thousands of lives renewed, loves restored, sins forgiven and infirmity healed.

But Jesus is not referring to himself in this moment. He is the true vine, he says, and God will remove every branch in him that bears no fruit. That means the branches to which Jesus has given life. That means his apostles. And that means us.

This week’s Gospel passage is not long, but it is ripe with metaphor and meaning. Using the image of a vine and its branches, Jesus talks about how we are honed, and nurtured, and how to stay fruitful as servants of God, friends of God. Exploring this passage is a good opportunity for some spiritual inventory. So today let’s start by thinking about ourselves as branches connected to that True Vine.

How connected do we feel?
How fruitful do we feel we are?
How much in the way of nutrients is making its way to us?

Jesus needed to be sure his closest followers understood some things before the harrowing ordeals ahead, while he was still with them in flesh. Hence the Long Goodbye. But for us, these words are a Big Hello, for our fruitfulness is ever before us. Let's receive them as such and greet the exploration ahead.

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4-23-21 - Surf and Turf

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

When those disciples hauled their teeming nets to shore to meet Jesus, he was already grilling up a few fish. He invited his disciples to contribute to the feast from their catch. Their work as “fishers of men” was not finished; in some ways it was just beginning. Soon Jesus would be leaving the planet permanently (in bodily form, that is), and these men, now at a loss, would be gifted and empowered for transformational ministries. But first, Jesus had a little business to do with Peter, a leader in the community of Christ-followers. And so we switch metaphors from fish to sheep, from fishing to shepherding:

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

Biblical scholars call this the “restoration” of Peter. After his three-fold betrayal of Jesus, he is invited thrice to reaffirm his love and commitment. And three times he is commanded: “Feed my lambs, “Tend my sheep,” “Feed my sheep.” I don’t know why the transition from lambs to sheep, and “feed” to “tend” and back. What I take away from this exchange is that Jesus is making a connection between loving him and shepherding those whom he regards as his “lambs” (perhaps those young in faith?) and his “sheep” (believing members of the household of God?).

It’s easy to say, “I love Jesus,” but it can be an awfully abstract feeling, since our experience of Jesus is often so remote. We can love him in theory, or by faith. But when we fully love someone, we want to spend time with them, we want to give to them, and we value what they value. Jesus made it clear that he valued the work of God’s hands, the children, women and men made in God’s image. If we truly want to be known as people who love Jesus, we will take care to feed and tend the people around us. All the people around us – not just the ones we know and like, but also the ones we don’t know and find it challenging to like.

This story of the catch of fish and the picnic on the beach is full of metaphors, yes. But let's not only treat it symbolically. Jesus is inviting us to be makers of feasts, feeders of his sheep, in all kinds of places, all the time.

I am captivated by the notion that the followers of Christ can be like bands of guerrilla feast-makers, constantly pulling off surprising events of feeding and tending. What if each congregation made one feast in an unexpected place each month, in parks, bus stops, homeless encampments? What an explosion of love that would put into the world. What a rush of Holy Spirit energy would fill us.

“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”  You in?

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4-22-21 - Come and Have Breakfast

You can listen to this reflection here.

Were sweeter words ever uttered? “Come and have breakfast.” When we consider that these words were offered by a revered and beloved spiritual master who’d risen from the dead, they are all the more extraordinary.  
 
In the gospel story we explore this week, Jesus’ disciples leave Jerusalem after his resurrection and go back to what they used to do: fishing. But they’re not catching anything – until someone on the shore calls to them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. When they do, suddenly the nets are so full of fish they can hardly haul them. Pretty good story, right? But that’s not all! They realize that guy on the shore is Jesus and head in, pulling the nets behind them. And yet another gift awaits them:
 
When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.
 
What is more amazing – that someone risen from the dead was inviting them to breakfast on a beach, or that someone else ignored all this to count the fish! (David James Duncan paints a funny picture of this scene in his novel  The River Why, pointing out that one of those disciples sat there counting the fish while Jesus, the resurrected Lord of heaven and earth stood patiently by… but fishermen do like stats, as does the Gospel of John.) 
 
It is a beautiful thing to be offered breakfast after a hard night’s work, or anytime, really. Jesus already has the fire going and some bread and fish. All he needs is some more – and he invites his friends to bring some of the bounty they have just caught.
 
That’s how God works with us as well. God provides all kinds of blessings in our days, from actual feasts to times when the right song comes on the radio to cheer us up, to encounters that expand our spirits. Most of the time some of the material for those blessings comes from us, as we offer back a share of what God has given us in the first place. These blessings are often unexpected, as this one was for Jesus’ friends. Yet it helps to keep our spirits expectant, open to them.
 
When were you last surprised by blessing? 

What were the circumstances? Have you shared that story?
What do you have an abundance of in your life? Is Jesus inviting you to bring some of that to him to be blessed and broken and shared?
 
This post-resurrection fish fry is yet another reminder that God desires to set feasts before us, and to collaborate with us in the making of them. The more we recognize that what we have "caught" is itself what God has blessed us with, the more generously we will want to share it, to create feasts in unexpected places for unexpected people. What an Easter initiative that would be!

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4-21-21 - Out of the Boat

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Naked fishing? Sounds like the next big thing in adult vacation excursions. Who knew such things went on the Bible? Yet there it is, in print and everything. When the nets suddenly filled with an abundance of fish too great to haul, the disciples realized who that guy calling from the shore must be: the Lord! Here he is again! And Peter, we’re told, is so excited he puts his clothes on and jumps into the water:

That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

I can understand why he was naked – probably a hot night on the Sea of Galilee, and maybe the boat was messy. What is surprising is the idea of someone putting on their clothes to jump into the water. But that’s what Peter does. Maybe he doesn’t want to greet his Lord in his birthday suit. Maybe he just can’t wait until they’ve pulled the boat to shore.

This is the second time the gospels tell of Peter jumping out of a boat into the sea. The first time was when Jesus came toward the disciples’ boat walking on the water, and invited Peter to join him. Peter, with characteristic impulsivity, did so, and managed to take some steps before he realized that what he was doing was impossible, at which point he began to sink. And here he is again, quick to get out of the boat and into the water to get close to Jesus.

Maybe Peter had another reason for his hurry. Was he still haunted by the ease with which he had denied knowing Jesus after his arrest? Did he play and replay that conversation by the fire in the courtyard of the high priest’s house, daring himself to answer differently, to risk arrest and execution himself? Any chance to get near Jesus again, to renew that intimacy, must have been precious indeed. He couldn't wait; he was out of the boat and into the water.

What a wonderful metaphor for us as Christ-followers! Faith invites us to get out of our boats, our holding containers and comfort zones, and plunge into the Living Water of God-Life, trying to get close to Jesus. Whether it's for love or a desire for reconciliation or meaning or purpose, we can dive right in.

What “boats” are you currently hanging out in – boats of usefulness, perhaps, but also places that shield you from full-body contact with the Life of God? Do you jump out regularly? What would impel you to jump out of that boat to immerse yourself in the Living Water flowing from God’s throne – the Life of God at work in the world around you?

I’d like to think that if I saw Jesus 100 yards away, I’d jump out of the boat and swim to him too. What keeps me in the boat is all the tasks I think I’m doing for him; I’m too focused on fishing gear to see where he is. So my prayer is, “Let me see you, Lord; let me hear you calling, telling me where to cast my nets. Let me see your miracles around me, and let my heart sing with joy.”

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4-20-21 - The Right Way

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel is here.

I took a tennis lesson once. Once. I learned that I did not know the right way to hold the racquet, or the right way to stand or to move. And all that was just about the forehand! Backhand? Forget it. If I really wanted to learn to play tennis properly, I would have to unlearn all the wrong techniques I’d developed.

Peter and James and John, and the others in the fishing boat with them, thought they knew how to fish. It was how they’d made a living for years – before Jesus came along and told them he’d teach them how to fish for people. Could it be that, in all the retraining they’d been through the past three years with him, they had unlearned how to fish for fish? Because they weren’t doing very well...

They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.”

How annoying it must have been for seasoned fishermen to be getting advice from some yahoo on the shore. Like they didn’t know how and where to cast the nets in these waters? Come on! I can imagine the conversation in the boat… and finally someone level-headed saying, “Well, what do we have to lose? Put 'em on the right side.” 

So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish.

For every endeavor, there are right ways, wrong ways, and God's way. We can develop all the techniques and forecast all the conditions and plan out all the strategies – but if we want to see miracles, and not just good outcomes, we need to let Jesus do the work in us. That’s really hard when we’re skilled at something! We are invited into a tricky balance using the gifts God has given us, and the power of God’s Spirit working through us. It is through those gifts that God works, but if we try to do it without God, our outcomes are not as transformational.

What is something you’re good at? Have you been able to use that talent, while allowing God to work through you? Or do you feel you’re on your own?

What is something you really want to accomplish, maybe something you’re having trouble achieving. Where have you been casting your nets? What would it look like to do it God’s way? Is Jesus calling out to you where to put your nets? That's something to listen for...

The disciples had gone too far down the road with Jesus to return to their old strategies now. Jesus had to show them, in a BIG way, that he was going to continue to work for, with and through them. We too will see “greater things than these” as we learn the new technique of putting our whole selves into using our gifts, and at the same time let Jesus’s Spirit work through us. What a catch we will see!

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4-19-21 - Gone Fishing

You can listen to this reflection here.
I find the lectionary tradition designating the Fourth Sunday of Easter “Good Shepherd Sunday” odd. I don’t get interrupting the flow of resurrection appearance stories with Jesus’ pre-Passion “I am the good shepherd” discourse. We're not done with Easter! So this week, we will explore the post-resurrection fish fry in Water Daily land and at the Christ Churches.

Clergy and church musicians often take a vacation in the weeks after Easter – I managed a whole three days this year. We’re actually in good apostolic tradition – Jesus’ disciples did the same thing:

After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.”

Maybe they went fishing as a way of getting out of Dodge – they’d been holed up in that house for fear of arrest since Jesus’ death. And that anxiety was amplified by the weirdness of Jesus’ resurrection self showing up here and there when they least expected him. Maybe they wanted to get back home to Galilee, to feel safer, relax a little.

Or was “going fishing” code for “the old life?” Were Peter and the others going back to what they’d known before Jesus came along and said, “Follow me, away from your nets – I will teach you to fish for people?” Were they giving up the mission for which they’d trained? Maybe they thought he’d come back to pick up the work again. Or maybe they were too mystified, and too drained, to do anything but something they were good at.

Whatever their motivation, it was a very human response to a time of not knowing what comes next. They were in a transition time; Jesus would soon give them clearer instructions and then ascend into heaven, after which there would be another waiting period before the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them. But they didn’t know this was a transition. Maybe it was the end. We often don’t know we’re in transition – sometimes it just feels like we’re in limbo. Emerging from this year of pandemic and bitter conflict and lockdown can feel like that.

In your life right now, are you in a time of settledness, or transition, or limbo? Do you know which it is? Where is God in this time? It’s okay to ask – “Lord, how do you want me to use my gifts? Where are you calling me to make you known?” It might be in the same places and ways, and it might be in new ones. And always we can ask Jesus to be discernibly present with us in the not-fully-knowing.

Not-fully-knowing is where we live in this life. In times of grief or confusion, going off to do something relaxing, something we’re good at, can be the best response. And sometimes, like Peter and the gang, we discover we’re no longer so good at that thing – we have been re-purposed. And then we have to wait to be sent.

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4-16-21 - Forgiveness of Sins

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Jesus’ assurances of peace to his gathered disciples on the evening of the day of resurrection came with a charge: to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations.

…and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

Some people resist a focus on repentance and forgiveness – too much cultural guilt associated with the idea of sin. So that is not where we may want to begin our faith-sharing. But it’s not hard to get there once spiritual conversation is started. People in recovery from addiction understand innately the need to repent; others of us need only look at our behavior in relationships to quickly arrive at the same understanding. To comprehend that we are capable of hurting ourselves and others AND to grasp that a remedy has been provided is freedom indeed. This is the gift we have to share.

The promise of life in Christ goes way beyond forgiveness to healing and wholeness in every sphere. The balancing act we maintain as witnesses to this source of healing is to keep repentance in the picture while making room for the rest of the story of our of life in Christ.

Can you think of a time when you felt set free by being forgiven, whether that came from a person or from God? Can you imagine leading another person to that place of relief and freedom? Reflect on those moments of connection in your life, and then think about who you might be called to bear witness with.

That proclamation began in Jerusalem on Easter night. A few weeks later, it began to spread around the region and then to the ends of the earth. As we bear witness to freedom in God’s love, it will continue to spread until everyone has been drawn into Christ’s saving embrace and the need for repentance is over.

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4-15-21 - Open To Interpretation

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Yesterday I wrote about how challenging it can be to read and glean meaning from the Bible. That should not surprise us – what we call “the Bible,” as though it were one document, is in fact 66 different pieces of literature in many different styles – sagas, histories, novelettes, law codes, poetry, drama, prophetic utterance, apocalyptic vision, correspondence, treatises, authored by hundreds of people over hundreds of years, often attempting to encapsulate oral traditions dating back thousands of years… How can anyone glean meaning from that?

We cannot read the Bible without interpreting it. Before we even start, we encounter the interpretations of those who first wrote down the oral stories, those who selected and shaped the writings, those who decided which writings had authority for the religious community, and finally the translators, with their own theological lenses, who choose what words to use, and where to place the commas when the original languages lack punctuation. And we bring to the reading of scripture our own ideas, histories, traditions, mood and life circumstances on any given day we choose to open that book.

Scripture is never fixed in meaning. It is always being interpreted and re-interpreted – and according to the Gospel writers, Jesus was not shy about telling his followers how they should understand it: Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

The conviction that Jesus was the Messiah, and that the way the prophets wrote about the coming Messiah foretold the events of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection, was introduced early into the Christian communities’ self-understanding. While some read the prophets, especially the “suffering servant” sections of Isaiah, and come away with different interpretations (for Jews, of course, these prophecies were not fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth), Christ-followers read the scriptures through the views expressed in the documents of the New Testament.

This interpretation offered by Jesus is one with an ongoing life. It does more than look backward – it lays out the community’s mission going forward: to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name to all nations. The belief that, in Christ, God’s long plan of salvation was revealed, matters for Christ followers today as it did for the original disciples. Proclaiming that Jesus was the Anointed One foretold by the prophets, whose death effected forgiveness for all humanity, is something that offers life. We are in the business of offering life in Jesus’ name.

It is fashionable in some Christian circles to de-emphasize belief and focus more on spiritual practice, asserting that Christian life is less about truth claims and more about how we access the Holy. While spiritual practice is where we live, let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater. At best, our spiritual practice and our ministry grows out of our conviction that Christ was who he said he was.

For me, his interpretation, even if conveyed through the fallible conduits of gospel writers, scribes, editors and translators, has primacy. This risen Christ is the Truth. I want to be about the mission of offering life in his name.

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4-14-21 - Opening Our Minds

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Scripture can be hard to understand. We attach great import, meaning, even authority to these words set down thousands of years ago, which were invested with import, meaning and authority by the communities who preserved them. Wildly diverse in literary style, theological understanding, point of view – yet all of it is regarded as the Spirit-inspired Word of God. And so often it baffles, bores, or even offends us.

Not for nothing does the Book of Common Prayer contain a collect for the reading of Scripture: Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ…

Should grappling with Holy Writ be so much work? Turns out this is yet another part of the Christian life we are not to attempt on our own steam. That’s what Jesus’ disciples found out on Easter Sunday, not once but twice, when he explained how the hopes and songs and prophecies of the Hebrew Bible were fulfilled in his life, death and new life:

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures…

Ah! That’s how it’s done – we need Jesus to open our minds! That’s also how the two on the road to Emmaus described their conversation with Jesus: 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?”

There is a wealth of love and wisdom and beauty to be mined in the pages of the Bible, and like mines that produce precious gems, it doesn’t always yield its riches easily. We need tools and some sweat, and the help of others to interpret these ancient words for ourselves – in the way Philip asked the Ethiopian official reading Isaiah (Acts 8:26-40) if he understood what he was reading, and he replied, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?”

There are so many ways to try to comprehend the words and stories and teachings of the Bible – tools and techniques and forms of analysis to bring to bear: literary, linguistic, textual, symbolic. It can definitely help to read and study it with other people, to share perceptions from many different angles and ranges of experience. (You’re welcome any time at my online, now-international bible study on Wednesday nights from 7-8…here’s the link.) Perhaps the most important tool, though, and often the most neglected, is to ask Jesus to open our minds to understand what we’re reading. Before we even begin.

We can pray before we open up the Bible, “Okay, Jesus, you know my mind and its ways. Open it to your truth. Show me your love in these words.” And then let's open the book! Jesus’ desire is that these words and stories and people and songs have life for us as they have for the generations before us. He has opened minds before; he can open ours as we say, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

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4-13-21 - No Bones About It

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Who could blame those poor disciples for thinking they were witnessing an apparition? Who has the context to correctly interpret data like someone who's died suddenly materializing in a room! Well, I suppose, on this side of Star Trek, maybe we can imagine it a little... Not so Jesus’ disciples: They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.

The early church and the gospel writers had to overcome a lot of misinformation from critics, much of it around the issue of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Many found it unthinkable that a holy person or spiritual master could be put to death, especially in as gruesome and humiliating a way as crucifixion. People argued that simply could not have happened. Others claimed that if Jesus was divine, he must only have appeared to die, not actually done so.

And rising from the dead? We can find rumors and conspiracy theories in the very pages of the New Testament. Jesus wasn’t really dead. The body was stolen and hidden away. Someone who looked like him was making these appearances (someone so committed to this deception they had wounds in their hands, feet and side?) And the least far-fetched theory: that Jesus’ ghost was about on the earth.

As Luke tells it, Jesus is swift to dispel that theory.
He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

Here was unassailable proof for those who would be called to offer testimony to Jesus resurrection life. “A ghost does not have flesh and bones.”
A ghost does not eat, either – which Jesus did next:
While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

I feel that someone who’s been to hell and back, literally, deserves a little better than broiled fish, but I guess that’s not the point. What counts is that, in many ways, Jesus’ resurrection body looked and acted a lot like his pre-resurrection body. And in other ways, not at all.

What difference does this make for us? It matters that we proclaim a Lord who rose from the dead, not a ghost, not a zombie. We proclaim a Lord thoroughly, thrillingly alive.

There are people who traffic in the spirits of people who have died; that realm seems undeniably real. And Christians are explicitly told not to put our spiritual energy into that realm, or to open our spirits to it. We worship the Risen Christ whose Holy Spirit moves with us, inspires us, comforts us, and leads us into ministry in which others are transformed. As the angel said to the women at the tomb on Easter morning, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, he is risen!"

Deny the resurrection if you will, but don’t claim the risen Jesus was “just a ghost.” He was and is the Lord of heaven and earth. Let's make no bones about that.

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4-12-21 - How Did You Get Here?

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Imagine saying goodbye to someone in one town, and then finding them back home when you return. And knowing you did not pass them on the road. “How did you get here?”

The disciples whom Jesus met on the road to Emmaus (a story Luke tells just before this week’s passage begins) didn’t recognize him as he walked with them. But in Emmaus, they prevailed upon him to eat with them – and the moment they realized who he was, he vanished from sight. Then they hightailed it back seven miles to Jerusalem so they could tell their brethren what had happened:

That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Easter Sunday may be a few weeks back, but in church-land we’re still exploring the events of that day. This week we revisit the scene when Jesus showed up in that upper room Easter night – but now we get Luke’s version, which picks up as the two from Emmaus arrive back in Jerusalem and compare notes with the ones holed up in that room. Imagine the excitement those early encounters with the Risen Jesus occasioned in his followers. In that one day he’d appeared to Mary, to Peter, to a few other disciples, to Cleopas and the other on the road, like teasers for the big event. And now, Bam – here he is in Jerusalem!

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

"How did you get here?" That’s a question we might ask more often, the better we get at realizing when Jesus is with us. Perhaps we feel his presence at worship on a Sunday, and then are surprised to find him waiting at our kitchen table at home. We might experience him with us as we visit a sick friend, and find out that at the same time another friend experienced him in prayer. No longer bound to human flesh and space and time, Jesus can materialize wherever and whenever he wants – even ascended – because now he has us to make him known.

Flesh and Spirit – that is still how Jesus’ presence is mediated to the world. As much as we seek to train our inward eyes to discern the presence of Christ, we also want to be conscious about when and where we’re called to make known the presence of Christ. I’m always surprised when I realize Jesus has shown up in me for someone else, though he said he would. That’s how he can be everywhere, wherever there are faithful followers willing to bear his Spirit to the people around them. We are Christ’s resurrection body now!

And if we don’t know what to say, we can always start with the words Jesus used: “Peace be with you.”

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4-9-21 - I'll Be Seeing You

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

There was no rhyme or rhythm to Jesus’ resurrection appearances; it seems he just kept popping up among his friends, like he was living out the song, “I’ll be seeing you, in all the old familiar places…” And maybe there were sightings not recorded in the Gospels. John implies as much, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.”

One that was “written in John’s book” occurred a week after his first appearance to his disciples: A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Would Jesus be referring to us, who have to believe without benefit of seeing Jesus in the flesh? Some people find that a hurdle too far. Why bother believing if we can’t have any proof? But what constitutes proof? In a court of law, the sworn testimony of witnesses counts as proof. That’s in part why the Gospel writers labored to set down what they knew of Jesus’ life and ministry. As John says, “But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

Given the testimony of so many billions of Christ-followers throughout the ages, as well as evidence of transformation readily available to us, perhaps we have enough to support our heart-belief that Jesus was indeed the divine Son of God, and that he did indeed rise from the dead. Yet so often we let other evidence, the sad record of man’s cruelty to fellow inhabitants of this world, and our shameful disregard for the just allocation of resources, count for more than the “case for the defense.” When we allow that, we close off avenues of life for ourselves and others.

John suggests that there is a pay-off for believing, even when the evidence seems stacked against us: we receive life through believing in the power in the name of Jesus Christ. The spiritual practice of faith, i.e., believing in what we cannot see, increases our capacity to experience God, and to facilitate that experience for others. We can see Jesus in people, feel him in prayer, encounter him in worship.

Where did you last encounter Jesus? Was it in some ministry or conversation? In something beautiful or deeply moving? In a question or an answer? One way we might exercise our “believing” muscles is to make a note at the end of each day one way we bumped into the Risen Christ. And when we tell each other, we all build up our faith muscles.

As that old song goes,
“I'll find you in the morning sun, and when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon, but I'll be seeing you.”

As we truly learn to discern Jesus wherever we find him, and believe, we will find ourselves living more fully and deeply the Life he died and rose to make possible for us.

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4-8-21 - Unless I See...

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Nobody wants to miss a big event. Like when you’re in line for hot dogs at the stadium and you hear the crowd go wild at a homer with the bases loaded. That you didn’t see. Or you leave a party just before the A list guests show up (happens to me all the time… not you?) Or you relinquish your front row place at a parade and then hear that the President’s motorcade is in sight.

Perhaps the biggest “miss” in human history happened to Thomas, who ducked out for a smoke or some errand and missed the risen Lord of heaven and earth suddenly showing up for supper with his bereaved and confused disciples! And despite the fact that they all told the same story – “Jesus was here! He really was!,” Thomas refused to buy it.

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

Did he think they were prey to a shared hallucination born of wishful thinking? Were his credulity muscles worn out by the roller-coaster of the past few days? Or is it that Thomas was always a fast decider, and thus quickly evaluated the data available to him, and deemed it insufficient?

Is Thomas the patron saint of doubters? Or is he the patron saint of “trust but verify?” There was nothing wrong with Thomas’ faith, nor his courage. He was quick to follow Jesus into situations of danger if called for, as we see during the incident with Lazarus. But for some reason, despite having witnessed that miracle, he found it too far a stretch to believe on faith alone that Jesus was risen from the dead. He wanted to see, he wanted to touch.

He is not alone. How many people do you know who are drawn to the Jesus story, drawn to the life of the church, even inclined to believe – if only they could see some proof. Some people are wired that way, others formed that way by past experiences or disappointments. As this story continues, we see that Jesus was willing to indulge Thomas’ desire to see with his physical eyes – and he commended those able to believe on faith-sight alone.

Does Jesus indulge those who want proof in the same way? Not quite in the same way – after the Ascension, nobody got to see Jesus’ resurrection body or touch his wounds. But in many ways, God does allow us to “see” the reality of God-Life around us. We might use the same criteria that Jesus did when John’s disciples asked if really was the Anointed One they’d been expecting. “Go and tell John what you see,” he replied,“The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” (Luke 7:22).

We can see – and experience – amazing healing, transforming love, restoring justice, broken chains of addiction and destructive patterns. In some Christian communities, people even witness the (recently) dead raised. One message that Easter shouts to us is “Nothing is impossible with God!” The more we believe and live out that truth, the more evidence our senses and minds receive.

Christ is visible now through us, his body in the world. His wounds are visible in ours, and as our wounds become healed, as his were, healing can flow through them to others. Then everyone can see and touch and believe.

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4-7-21 - Sent With Peace

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

When Jesus showed up in a locked room with his disciples on that Easter evening, he gave them more than a good fright. He gave them his peace, and he gave them a mission. And then he gave them the only resource they would need on that mission, the Holy Spirit.

When it was evening on that day... Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

That very peace of Christ has been passed along, person to person, generation to generation, all the way from that room on Easter night to us. It is the peace that “defies understanding,” that comes to us in the most unpeaceful circumstances. It is a peace that can help us move through the hardest of times, so that others remark on our serenity. It is that peace we share during The Peace in our worship services – at least, it is what we are meant to be doing, when it doesn’t devolve into a chat-fest.

That peace of Christ comes with a mission. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Jesus’ statement may be general, but the actual sending is always to a specific place and people. Where are we sent? Wherever we feel the Spirit of God beckoning, enlivening us, getting our attention. Wherever we sense the Spirit of Christ already at work. We don’t have to start things. We can just come along and participate in what God is already doing. What freedom and joy that can be.

When we think of “mission” as something we are supposed to discern, prepare, and go out and “do,” it can feel daunting. So some Christians think it’s a big hurdle and stay in their pews (or, now, on their couches..). We think we’re supposed to be on top of it, ready, equipped, holy, have all the answers.

Wrong! The only thing we need to be is willing to let the Holy Spirit work through us. The minute Jesus told his followers they were sent on a mission like his, ...he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” It’s not a light thing to receive the Holy Spirit, but neither need it be heavy. The Spirit is the fuel that powers us we’re about the Mission of God to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation to wholeness.

Where do you feel sent? To whom? Do you have a nagging desire to address some need or injustice? Are you excited about certain kinds of ministry? That’s how you’ll know the who and the when and the what and the where of it.

And do you feel you are carrying the Peace of Christ? Have you claimed the gift of Holy Spirit passed along to you?

It’s nice that we adopted the ritual practice of sharing Christ’s peace with each other in worship rather than breathing upon one another. Either way, though, we have already received the Spirit and been sent with Christ's peace.

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4-6-21 - Peace Be With You

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

On the second Sunday of Easter (Easter being so great a mystery, it takes us seven weeks to fully explore it each year…), we always eavesdrop on one of those unexpected appearances by Jesus. This time he shows up right in the very room (or so we think) where the disciples last broke bread with him the previous Thursday – what must have seemed a hundred years earlier. So much had happened since that Passover meal; Jesus’ arrest, his sham trials, mocking and torture, execution. They’d endured all the shock and sorrow and fear that they’d be next, as his followers.

And then another kind of shock in finding his tomb empty – with several indicators that this was not a case of body snatching, but that the very laws of death and life had been overturned. And then – reports. More reports. A sighting in the garden. A sighting in Galilee. What must they have been feeling?

And now he materializes among them; he did not come through the locked doors or windows: When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

He is suddenly just there, inviting them to the impossible: “Peace be with you.” Peace would be the last thing I can imagine anyone in that room feeling. But when Jesus says, “Peace be with you,” it is more than a suggestion – it is a declarative action, one that accomplishes what it proposes. They were at peace. They must have been, for John tells us, “Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.”

I don't always feel any more joyful at Easter than I would any other day. Perhaps it’s because I’m often stressed and exhausted from Holy Week and the weeks of preparation before. Perhaps peace is a precondition for joy, and turmoil robs us of peace.

What kind of turmoil are you in the midst of?If none, give thanks! If there is some, can you imagine Jesus showing up in the middle of it? In the middle of your life, uninvited and yet very much there? Can you hear him say to your spirit, “Peace be with you?” And receive it as a declarative action with power to accomplish what it purposes? That is what the Word of God always does.

What happens next?

Ten years ago, an Easter song poured out of me – four long verses exploring several of Jesus’ resurrection appearances, and one aimed at us. The Christ Churches will be hearing one verse a week for the next several, going with the gospels for those Sundays. Here is a recording of the second verse, about the upper room appearance, and the last verse, which is about you.

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4-5-21 - In the Garden

You can listen to this reflection here. The Gospel for Easter Sunday is here.

He is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Before we engage the Gospel appointed for next Sunday, which talks about what happened Easter night, let’s spend a moment with what happened Easter morning. In John’s telling of the story, we start with a woman, Mary Magdalene, whom we last saw at the cross as they took down Jesus’ broken and bloodied body to lay temporarily in a borrowed tomb until it could be properly prepared for burial after Passover. As we know, that preparation never happens, because when Mary gets to the tomb before dawn, she finds the stone sealing the tomb moved and no body to be found. (However, we remember the dinner party in Bethany, when another Mary lavished nard, a burial spice, on Jesus’ feet, as if knowing there would be no need for it later?)

Mary summons some of Jesus’ male followers to investigate; they find the tomb empty. They all assume Jesus’ body has been stolen, though that scenario fails to account for the linen cloths neatly rolled up where Jesus’ body had been laid. (Which leads me to wonder, for the first time in my life, just what Jesus was wearing in all his resurrection appearances? I guess if his resurrection body could be visible at will, it could also appear clothed… or the gospels would have had even stranger tales to tell.) With no body to bury, Mary is distraught. The trauma and loss of Friday have been compounded by yet more loss.

Mary can only see this as loss. “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they have put him!” So it is with us – so hard to see in tragedy and disruption a possibility for God to work in ways we cannot imagine. This past year of church has been instructive – when the world shut down the second week of Lent last year, we grieved our lost Holy Week and Easter services – and found even richer engagement in those observances as we did them online. And then through the year, my two churches found more opportunities to pray and worship together, a richer mix of liturgy in our hybrid live-streamed service, and international participation in our spiritual growth activities.

Now, with the pace of vaccinations in our area, we are looking at a disruption of the disruption – that wonderful unity crumbling into distinct groups of in-person worshippers at two churches and the remaining group online. It looks like loss to me… yet I recall God’s unexpected gifts last year and have to believe the God of blessing will pour new gifts on us as we navigate this next phase in our worship life. Can we take the same view toward other profound losses and disruptions of this past year, even Covid deaths and lingering illnesses; racial traumas; political enmities? Can we trust that Jesus is not missing, is perhaps even standing right in front of us, unrecognizable because it doesn’t occur to us that might be him?

Jesus tells Mary to go and tell his friends where to find him. She goes, the first apostle, first witness to the resurrected Christ, aware of how insane her message sounds, yet convicted by her experience of Jesus’ life. May we do the same.

Ten years ago, an Easter song poured out of me – four long verses exploring several of Jesus’ resurrection appearances, and one aimed at us. The Christ Churches will be hearing one verse a week for the next several, going with the gospels for those Sundays. Here is a recording of the first and last verse, about Mary, the garden – and you.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are here.  Water Daily is now a podcast! Look for it wherever you get your podcasts, and please subscribe.

4-2-21 - Good Friday

You can listen to this reflection here.  This Holy Week, Water Daily looks at the readings appointed for each day and reflect from the perspective of one the people on the fringes of the story. We too are on the fringes of this story – and we are invited to come into its heart this week. May these holy men and women draw us closer.

Mary of Magdala: My name is Mary. I’m from Magdala. I’m one of those women, one of those who followed Jesus from Galilee and helped take care of him and the disciples.

This man, this man they killed today? This man healed me. He set me free from the worst kind of bondage you can imagine. He cast out seven demons from me, who tortured me constantly. I didn’t think I’d ever get free of those voices, the incessant chatter inside, telling me how worthless I was, how I’d be better off dead. He gave me back my life.

After that he was my life. I would have followed him anywhere. He was my Lord. So following him and tending to his needs and those of his disciples – what else could I do? He set me free, and all I wanted to use my freedom for was to serve him.

That’s how it was for all of us – this motley collection of people who had been set free – from demons, from sin and degradation, some from blindness, crippling diseases; some from despair and loneliness and meaningless lives; some from greed and lust. Just a bunch of people who love him because of what he did for us. Selfish kind of love, when you think about it. But it was real, it was real when you were with him. He made it real. He made us all able to love in a way we didn’t naturally know.

And now he's gone.

So... now we have to bury him. I hear some guy from the Sanhedrin has given him a tomb until we can bury him properly. It’s too late now to anoint him before the Sabbath begins. We’ll have to do it first thing Sunday morning… I’d better find the others and find out where they’re taking him.

Oh, my sweet Lord. My sweetest friend. What have they done to you? What have we done to you?

You are welcome to join my congregations for online worship at noon today - here is the link. Our Holy Week line-up of mostly online services is here.

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