This is Holy Week. A week full of table turnings, parables that point towards a reckoning of some sort, and an unnerving and poignant last supper where Jesus washes the feet of his followers and redefines what power looks like. And of course, the passion of Christ. The one who had all power and might, who had all things at his disposal, who chose to give up all power and humble himself to die a death of thieves. A king who suffered the injustice of accusation, mockery, betrayal, torment, beatings and indignities until his ultimate humiliation and anguish on the cross.
All this for LOVE. Love that conquered evil. Love that conquered death. Love that has the power to redeem and reconcile everything and everyone.
Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. [John 15:13]
All this for US. The objects of God's love and affection. The friends of God. The recipients of this abundant new life and freedom. Awakened now to our true vocation to co-create healing and renewal in the world.
This is the redeeming work of God. This is the ministry of Jesus. This is what the Spirit is all about in the world. Calling us out of death into life. Calling us out of darkness into light. Redeeming the most twisted and painful stories of heartbreak into something so achingly beautiful that we are overcome. Compelled like Mary to fall down at the feet of Jesus and to break open the alabaster jar as the tears fall freely.
There is something so cosmic and yet so personal about his death. Redeemer of all creation who subversively conquers evil for all people and for all time.
And my friend. I imagine having dinner with Jesus in his final week. The richness of friendship as he ate at Lazarus' home. The shocking intimacy of Mary anointing Jesus' feet. And the even more scandalous act of Jesus' washing the feet of his disciples, of washing my feet.
And it is hard to wrap my head around Jesus' passion and humiliation on the cross.
As I consider the cross, it invites me to an extravagance of worship and to a deeper surrender of all I hold dear. Jesus gave His all for LOVE. And this love invites and compels me to do the same.
My prayer as we journey through Holy Week is that we will encounter the extraordinary love and grace of God and hear the invitation of the cross. To die so that we might live.
This extraordinary love and grace that means nothing until it becomes an embodied experience. Until it fills flesh and bones til they tremble. Until it is shared around dinner tables and community forums and across socioeconomic and racial divides. Until it humbles us, enlarges us, and transforms us to be more fully human. Until we grasp that this divine love is both profoundly cosmic, larger that we can comprehend, and yet deeply personal and more intimate than we want to believe.
As I consider my neighborhood, this holy ground, this patch of the earth where God has placed me, the neighbors I know, the neighbors I don't know, the needs, the gifts, the inequities, the dreams and the struggles -- I want to be a part of the ache and the beauty here, to give up my small and piecemeal life to enter into the much larger story of redemption and renewal that includes all of us. To bear witness to the creative life of the Spirit that is making all things new, even me.
by Jessica Ketola
Join Us For Easter!
We will celebrate this new, abundant life, this creative, energizing spirit bursting into the world, and the power of love. Join us for a service, easter egg hunt and a brunch as we put on our dancing shoes, throw our heads back and proclaim that LOVE WINS!
All this for LOVE. Love that conquered evil. Love that conquered death. Love that has the power to redeem and reconcile everything and everyone.
Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. [John 15:13]
All this for US. The objects of God's love and affection. The friends of God. The recipients of this abundant new life and freedom. Awakened now to our true vocation to co-create healing and renewal in the world.
This is the redeeming work of God. This is the ministry of Jesus. This is what the Spirit is all about in the world. Calling us out of death into life. Calling us out of darkness into light. Redeeming the most twisted and painful stories of heartbreak into something so achingly beautiful that we are overcome. Compelled like Mary to fall down at the feet of Jesus and to break open the alabaster jar as the tears fall freely.
There is something so cosmic and yet so personal about his death. Redeemer of all creation who subversively conquers evil for all people and for all time.
And my friend. I imagine having dinner with Jesus in his final week. The richness of friendship as he ate at Lazarus' home. The shocking intimacy of Mary anointing Jesus' feet. And the even more scandalous act of Jesus' washing the feet of his disciples, of washing my feet.
And it is hard to wrap my head around Jesus' passion and humiliation on the cross.
As I consider the cross, it invites me to an extravagance of worship and to a deeper surrender of all I hold dear. Jesus gave His all for LOVE. And this love invites and compels me to do the same.
My prayer as we journey through Holy Week is that we will encounter the extraordinary love and grace of God and hear the invitation of the cross. To die so that we might live.
This extraordinary love and grace that means nothing until it becomes an embodied experience. Until it fills flesh and bones til they tremble. Until it is shared around dinner tables and community forums and across socioeconomic and racial divides. Until it humbles us, enlarges us, and transforms us to be more fully human. Until we grasp that this divine love is both profoundly cosmic, larger that we can comprehend, and yet deeply personal and more intimate than we want to believe.
As I consider my neighborhood, this holy ground, this patch of the earth where God has placed me, the neighbors I know, the neighbors I don't know, the needs, the gifts, the inequities, the dreams and the struggles -- I want to be a part of the ache and the beauty here, to give up my small and piecemeal life to enter into the much larger story of redemption and renewal that includes all of us. To bear witness to the creative life of the Spirit that is making all things new, even me.
by Jessica Ketola
Join Us For Easter!
We will celebrate this new, abundant life, this creative, energizing spirit bursting into the world, and the power of love. Join us for a service, easter egg hunt and a brunch as we put on our dancing shoes, throw our heads back and proclaim that LOVE WINS!
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