"And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor." --Luke 2:41-52 Tucked at the end of the second chapter of Luke's gospel, extending from the narrative of Jesus' birth, is the one account we have of Jesus growing from a child into an adult. Jesus is twelve years old, the same age as several of our class members. He is accompanying his parents and family on the yearly pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. At the conclusion of the Passover observance, the family sets out toward home in Nazareth to the north. Jesus remains behind. When his parents realize he is absent, they return frantically to the capitol city, and after three days they find him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers. He is "listening to them and asking them questions." The storyteller adds: " And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers." An anxious Mary and Joseph overflow with angry emotion a...
"Prayer is acknowledging that we are always in the presence of God." -- Desmond Tutu "Prayer is the language of Christian community." --Henri Nouwen "Prayer is yearning, beseeching, beholding." -- Julian of Norwich "Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer." --Simone Weil
Jesus enters Jerusalem with his followers at the outset of Holy Week. We call the scene Palm Sunday, remembering the leafy branches laid on the road as Jesus rode into the capitol city on the back of a borrowed colt. The branches and the simple outer garments of some of this followers (the only coats they have) create a humble "red carpet" for our Lord. It is the group travelling with Jesus, in front of him and behind, that are shouting their "Hosannas!" On Sunday I asked everyone to imagine the Palm Sunday procession in their mind's eye. Are you someone who is watching Jesus come into town, or someone travelling with him? If you are "on the move" with him, you are part of a fascinating crowd, all people whose lives have been changed by his love. You are walking in the midst of poor people from Bethany, the "House of Poverty," people like Mary and Martha and Lazarus, who are giving testimony to the new world that is coming! You...
My favorite are the last two. The second to last takes place in a cave and not a manger, and the last one is more abstract and surreal than the rest.
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