Ministry Updates for Friday, April 10th, 2020
Scripture for Reflection – John 18:1-19:42
Please read this passage on your own, or with your family or those you live with.
Reflection
It is normally my pattern to keep reflections or sermons on the passion story to a minimum. I feel like the story is meant to be felt, and not explained, and the focus should remain on Jesus. However, in this unique time, and I feel obliged to say a few words, since we have no music or choir to help us feel the passages.
I have heard it said (my apologies in not remembering the source), that ‘leadership is knowing the difference between the unpalatable and the disastrous’. The implication is that once we know the difference between the two, we will choose the harder, less pleasant, but more productive path.
I feel for our state governors and the President and their staffs, having to lead us in this time, as they strive to balance health of our necessary livelihoods with the health of our necessary bodies.
I believe God had to choose between the unpalatable and the disastrous. We hear, watch or read the passion story and ask ourselves, ‘Surely God could have found another way to save humanity’. As pastors and as Christians we wish this story were ‘more palatable’. It is not. But through the suffering sacrifice of Jesus, we avoided ‘the disastrous’. Maybe it is my failure to be able to explain it, but I believe this mystery cannot be explained. In my experience, it can only be felt. Please read the passage striving to feel it. I pray you would find God’s love in it, if not for the first time, then again and again, each time you read or hear it in your life.
Prayer
God of mystery, God of love, God of the broken pieces, we humbly step into this Good Friday believing that the story of Jesus has something to do with us. It has something to do with our sin. It has something to do with our suffering when others sin against us. It has something to do with our calling. It has something to do with our death. It has something to do with love, real love which does not die, but beckons us to live forever. On this day when we walk with Christ, at a safe distance, we give you thanks that he disregarded his safety, in exchange for our eternal life. Amen.