01-18-26

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 18, 2026
As you’ve probably heard me say before, I am a big fan of the 80s TV series, West Wing. Recently, I was rewatching an episode where CJ Cregg, the press secretary for the president, offers a speech at her high school reunion, and she says: “America is a terribly difficult idea filled with promise, impossible to live up to. Promise is inchoate and promise is what binds us.” I acknowledge that I am listening to life through the ears of a minister, yet I heard those words and I thought to myself, “You could change out the word ‘America’ for the word ‘church’.” When done right, church is a terribly difficult idea, filled with promise, impossible to live up to. Yet like America, we still feel compelled to try. If it was easy, we would have solved this love and justice thing 15 minutes after Jesus ascended to heaven. Yet Jesus said to his followers, “Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29-30). This makes it sound as if everything is easy-peasy. However, just a few chapters earlier, Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, where he laid out extraordinarily challenging expectations, including: Loving our enemies or praying for those who persecute us. What I think Jesus means about his yoke is that joining ourselves to him is beyond easy. It is already done because of God’s unbounded and unconditional love. And that won’t change. Instead of thinking we’ve got to earn it or follow enough rules to achieve it, Jesus is saying that there is no burden to divine love. It’s then, as we bask in God’s amazing grace, that we seek to do the very things Jesus did… the things that helped to reveal to us the beauty and depth of God’s love. That’s where it gets challenging, yet our successes and failures will have absolutely no impact on God’s love for us. That’s a very different place to start from. So yes, it is a difficult idea, yet once you realize that it begins with love that will never let you go, then the step is much easier… and the one after that. 

Thank you for making the so-called bar of expectation nonexistent when it comes to your love. Holy Lord, Gracious God, I am beyond thankful for the way you had already fully connected all humanity through your unconditional love. Now teach me how to honor this gift with a life that seeks to reflect such amazing grace. Amen.