03-29-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 29, 2024
As we take another step in this Holy Week experience, I am drawn to the words immediately before the arrest of Jesus, as he was praying in the garden, and you can feel his anguish. There we read, “Again Jesus went to pray and said, ‘My Father, if there is no other way, and I must suffer, I will still do what you want’" (Matthew 26:42). I am struck by the words chosen here, as Jesus desperately searched for another way but then conceded to do what God wanted him to do. In the never-ending debates over the concept of the Trinity, it sure doesn’t feel as if God the Father and Jesus are fully aligned in this moment. I find the reaction of Jesus and his hesitant capitulation to be helpful in my own understanding of these disturbing and uncomfortable days in the Jesus story. There is an unexpected power found in weakness, in the acknowledgement of one’s fear and frailty. And though I do not believe God sent Jesus to die, I believe the calling of the Spirit described in Luke 4 (…appointed to bring Good News…) offers us a picture of someone who was going to be pushing the buttons of the power structures in such a way that death might have been sort of inevitable. Whatever the case, I hear a Jesus who is neither excited nor fully committed to the idea of continuing down the path of arrest and death, yet he chose to remain faithful to the pathway of love and justice. 

There are days when my faith is a mess, yet I trust that your love remains faithful in spite of my fearfulness at the first sign of potential discomfort. Thank you, God, for a love that leads me forward, even when that forward movement includes a lot of hesitant stumbling. Amen.