Monthly Archives: May 2011

Reflecting on 1Peter 3:15-18

Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.

The Martyrdom of St. Peter

Isn’t that beautiful?  The author of the second reading today is talking to the earliest converts to the faith, urging them to have a good reason on hand for why they are hopeful in their terrifying first-century world.

I like to think about those earliest Christians.  According to tradition, every single one of the apostles listed in the Gospels (except for Judas) experienced torture, and most of them martyrdom, because of their hope in Christ.  They “took on Christ” during the most violent years of the Roman Empire.  They faced up to Nero and Trajan and Domitian, and often converted their own jailers, who went to their deaths with them.

I recently saw the shatteringly beautiful movie Of Gods and Men.  It tells the true story of eight Cistercian monks who chose to stay with their Muslim friends in a besieged Algerian village in 1997.  Two eyewitnesses who survived recorded their memories of the agonizing community meetings that took place before the abduction and murder of the other members.

Why did they stay when they knew their lives were in imminent danger?  We know from the survivors that the love of Christ compelled them.  Their love for their neighbors, whom they doctored, and cared for, and worked side by side with, gave them the strength to face their radical Islamist assassins when they came for them one dark and freezing night.

The Christ who called them to Himself was the reason for their hope.  And hope does not disappoint.

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I have come to light a fire on the earth; how I wish it were already burning (Lk.12:49).

Reflecting on John 14:1-2

There are some things that the authors of the Gospels thought we knew.  But we read the ancient texts at a great distance, historically and culturally.  When Jesus says to his frightened disciples the night before his death, “In my Father’s house are many mansions” he isn’t speaking in metaphor!  He reaches into the most sacred vow a Jewish man can make.  He uses the exact words that a man speaks to a woman when he betrothes himself to her.

In Jesus’ day, as in ours, the betrothal of a man and a woman was a sacred celebration.  At the ceremonial meal the bridegroom said to his betrothed, “Do not let your heart be troubled.  In my father’s house are many rooms.  I am going now to prepare a place for you.  I will come back  for you, so that where I am you also may be.  If it were not so I would have told you.”

And then he left her.  He went back to his father’s house and built an extra room on to the family home where his new bride would live and they would raise their children.  A generation later, the sons born in that house would make the same solemn promise to their betrothed, and another room would be added on.

So that means that on the night before he died, Jesus the Bridegroom betrothed himself to us forever.  That’s what the author of John’s Gospel thought we knew.  And I guess that’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever learned in all my years of studying Scripture.

In what ways do you sense the covenant Christ has made with you?

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I have come to light a fire on the earth; how I wish it were already burning (Lk.12:49).

Reflecting on John 10:1-10

Several years ago, while traveling with a group of pilgrims into Bethlehem, our tour guide asked the bus driver to stop so that we could all flash our pictures of an extraordinary sight for all of us city dwellers: actual sheep, being herded by an actual shepherd!

Our guide then told us a very moving story.  When he came to Israel as a young man he was put in leadership over the small group of Christian churches in his particular denomination.  One of the elders of that group advised him that, before he ever tried leading anyone, he should intern as a shepherd for at least a week.  It was during that long week that he learned the tenderness of the shepherd in today’s psalm.

The good shepherd knows that sheep will drown in moving waters, and so leads them to still, restful waters.  In the dark valleys and steep mountains, the good shepherd calms the fears of the sheep by walking beside them, drawing them back from the cliff with his rod and staff.  At the end of the day, while the sheep rest in verdant pastures, he cleans the build-up of mucus out of their eyes with oil so that they don’t go blind.

Finally, at night, the good shepherd leads the sheep into the sheep gate, and then he sleeps outside the gate.  If any predators come looking for his sheep, they’ll have to get to them over his dead body.

Ah.  On this Good Shepherd Sunday, may you rest in the safety of the One who knows your voice, who knows your needs.  May goodness and kindness follow you all the days of your life.

In what ways do you feel tenderly cared for?

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I have come to light a fire on the earth; how I wish it were already burning (Lk.12:49).

Reflecting on Luke 24:13-35

And so it comes around again, this most beautifully developed of all the appearance stories.  It’s not new to us, but our hearts burn within us as we hear again of those two disciples who left Jerusalem that Easter morning.

Caravaggio

We know the name of one—Cleopas—but the second disciple goes unnamed.  I think she was probably Mrs. Cleopas.  Might this traveler have been the very Mary, wife of Clopas who stood at the foot of the cross in John’s Gospel?  If so, then her companions that dreadful Friday had been no less than Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus.  And yet now she and her husband, after the terrifying event, are leaving the city and returning to their home in Emmaus.

The tomb is empty.  Where is he?  What can it mean?  Is there any reason to hope that he’s alive?

And then of course they are met on the road by a fellow traveler.  Hasn’t he heard of all the events in Jerusalem these past three days?  And they begin to let their hearts break a little as they tell the stranger about him whom they love.

I wonder.  What if, in these Easter weeks of First Communions and Confirmations, we walked with our children for just a little bit and told them about him whom we love.  Take a walk this week with someone and talk about Jesus.  I’ll bet you he’ll show up right there, on the road, on the journey.  Draw near to him and watch him draw near to you.  And then get ready for some heart-burn.

In what ways do you sense the presence of Jesus when you speak with others about him?

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I have come to light a fire on the earth; how I wish it were already burning (Lk.12:49).

Reflecting on John 20:19-31

Afterwards, people asked me questions for the rest of my life.  Why didn’t I believe the others when they told me the Lord had appeared to them that Easter morning? Wasn’t I ashamed to stand before him after I had demanded proof of his resurrection?

Caravaggio

I don’t remember any of that.  When he entered the room that night everything changed forever.  My Jesus, my Savior, my Risen One was alive.  And all my deepest hopes came roaring back.

He showed me his wounds—his pierced wrists and his gaping side—but all the things I thought I needed to see and touch melted as he stood before me.  His face was so radiant with love for me, so full of joy for me, because he knew that with the words from his mouth I would come back to myself.

And then, after he ascended to heaven, I traveled far outside the Roman Empire to preach my Jesus, who loved me enough to come back to the room where I waited, longing, afraid to hope, secretly bursting with hope.

Are you afraid to hope that he will lead you out of your grave, just as he knew the way out of his own?  Listen to my voice, reaching you right now from the ancient Gospel.  He’s alive.

Is there a part of you is wrestling with unbelief these days?

What would YOU like to say about this question, or today’s readings, or any of the columns from the past year? The sacred conversations are setting a Pentecost fire! Register here today and join the conversation.

I have come to light a fire on the earth; how I wish it were already burning (Lk.12:49).