"In Our End is Our Beginning"

John 20:1-18



Looking in the rear view mirror is a good idea, but not if that is the only place you're looking.  If you only look in the mirror, and not out the windshield, you are likely going to crash. And that's never pretty, is it?

The women at the tomb and the disciples were despondent. They were beside themselves. One who they truly believed to be their Messiah was killed. Dead. Entombed.  They truly did not know where to turn. So they retreated, hid within their own walls and within their own sadness, and began to only look in the rear view mirror.

And yet, Jesus appears to Mary outside the tomb.  And when she finally realizes it is, indeed, Jesus she cries "Rabbouni!" (teacher)

and he says to her

"Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Jesus implores her to do two things: 1) don't stay focused on the rear view mirror and 2)Go and tell the others that you are changing course... that a new direction on this road is clear to you now.  

That is what Easter brings to us.  New direction. Change of course.  Unexpected detour down an unfamiliar, even unbelievable road.  

So just when we think we have reached the end of the road.. we see that it isn't the end, it just curves into a new beginning.

What unexpected curves have you encountered on the highway of life? How did they become blessings?  What sense of resurrection do you feel in your life today?

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Are We There Yet?

Luke 19:28-40

The classic road trip words "Are we there yet?"  Remember saying those words? Remember your kids saying them?  I remember my cousin always following "Are we there yet?" with the classic, "Is it as long as it has been?"

This Lenten road trip feels that way right about now.  We see the palm branches waving ahead and the hosannas being lifted on high and we get a little excited "Are we there yet?" This feels like a party!

But of course, we haven't even done the hardest part of all yet. We have yet to die to self, we have yet to put our former selves in the tomb, we have yet to figure out how to achieve resurrected lives.  We are already wondering if we can head down the road of the cross after all. And I fear somewhere about Thursday or so of next week we will begin to cry "Is it as long as it has been?"

The hosanna shouts and the parade of palms sometimes lulls us into thinking our final destination is just off the next exit. But of course, it isn't.

We will start our journey on Sunday with On Fire playing for us "Here Comes the Sun." We will dance in the aisles and party our way forward with palms.  But we won't end there.  We will end our time on Sunday with the stark revelation that we most decidedly are NOT there yet, and we will read the scriptures that remind us of that.


What road trip memories do you have of thinking you would never get there? Why are road trips so hard?  Why does it take longer to get there than it does to get home, sometimes?

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Hello, Goodbye

John 12:1-8

This intimate moment between Jesus and Mary, sister of Lazarus, is surely a significant one in the witness of the disciples and the stories passed down about Jesus because it appears in all four gospels.  It is a moment that is almost too intimate to witness, even amongst the pages of a book, because it shows Mary pouring her whole heart out for Jesus, in front of everyone.

She takes a jar of perfumed oil and pours it on Jesus feet, tenderly wiping it with her hair. 

I am not sure if the disciples react so negatively because, as they say, she wasted an expensive perfume, or because they are so uncomfortable with the intimate scene in front of them. Perhaps they didn't like a woman so blatantly showing a deep affection in a public way.

Now, I don't know, and it doesn't really matter, whether this was an intimacy that involved a romantic link. But I do believe that this is the time and place that she first sees Jesus' journey clearly. She sees what he is headed for. She knows what awful death lies ahead. And so she anoints him with a perfume that would have been used for a burial rite. Publicly, in front of everyone, so that all may be aware.

But of course, they miss the point. It is just too hard to see. No one wants to face the cross in front of them, so they ridicule Mary and her extravagant actions and scold her for being wasteful.

And yet, here she is, trying not to waste any time, trying to show Jesus her devotion before it is too late. Trying to make sure that Jesus sees her understanding of his path.

She is saying hello, welcoming him into the evening meal in a common way, by washing the feet, but also goodbye, letting him know that she is aware of what is happening to him by anointing his feet with a burial oil.

When do we see the inevitable on the road in front of us but pretend we don't?  When do you take an exit and say hello to the wrong place?  How do we equip ourselves to head into the stream of hellos and goodbyes we face in our own lives in the years ahead?  

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U Turn

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

The classic Prodigal Son story.  What a great story about redemption and forgiveness, jealousy and blessings. And also a great story about realization and stopping dead in your tracks and making a U-turn.

Have you ever noticed how many places U-turns are forbidden. It seems like almost everywhere I desire to make a U-turn when I get twisted around in my directions, it is forbidden. And I feel frustrated and aggravated and, sometimes, at a loss. Do you ever make that illegal U-turn anyway?  Sometimes we do, sometimes we want to, sometimes our car might be too big to make it work, but we still contemplate the idea of it!

In this parable, the wayward son partied away his inheritance and then his life fell apart. He had set no real goals for himself, no real plan of action.  And when things fell apart, he had no one to turn to and nothing to fall back on.

The road sometimes is full of obstacles, but we decide to drive on it all alone. We decide we'd rather stay out of the rush hour traffic and hit the open road with just me, myself, and I and no one to tell us what to do or how to drive or where to go.  We decide we need no one on our journey from A to Z.

And then, we realize that we do. We realize that the relationships we have let wither away are far away from us just when we need them the most.  

A few years ago, a dear friend of mine gave me a CD by Patti Griffin with a song on it called, "When It Don't Come Easy," which speaks to how important it is to have even that ONE person who you know you can go 'home' to no matter what.  One part of the song goes like this: 
You're out there walking down a highway
And all of the signs got blown away
Sometimes you wonder if you're walking in the wrong direction

But if you break down
I'll drive out and find you
If you forget my love
I'll try to remind you
And stay by you when it don't come easy

The Prodigal Son decides to risk going home to his father.  He decides that even though he hasn't kept in touch and has failed to be there when the family needed him, he will see if he can be some part of his father's life anyway.

And when he gets within view of his father, his father runs up to greet him and embraces him.  "If you break down, I'll drive out and find you. If you forget my love, I'll try to remind you." 

Even if you feel no one on earth could possibly fill that place for you, know this: God will always fill that place for you. Just imagine God saying to you those lyrics above.  And know that God is there, waiting for you to return.

Thoughts? Comments? Email me or comment below.

"Driver's Test"

Luke 13:1-9

How do we know if we are bearing fruit for God?  How do we know if what we do is worth doing?  In this parable, Jesus tells of a man who found no fruit on his fig tree for three years. The man felt he should cut it down because it was of no value. The gardener told him to lovingly tend to it for one more year...

Give it another chance....

On this road we are traveling during Lent, we might need to go back and re-do our Driver's Test.  Remember that? When was the last time you took a driver's test? The last time I took one was almost 30 years ago!  Goodness knows I probably don't know half the rules of the road, and yet I am out on it every day anyway.

A little refresher course wouldn't hurt.  Teaching at teenager to drive has been good for me. I learned, through Jake's instruction, things that I had forgotten or never knew.  Some lessons Jake taught me I am quite sure I never learned!  It is a good refresher for me!

So how do we stop and test ourselves along the way?  When we feel like what we are doing is fruitless and will never be of value, perhaps we should stop, re-evaluate, test our assumptions and give it another chance.  We need to be patient and loving with this journey we are on. We need to be grace-filled in the middle of the long and winding road.  We need to give it all a chance to redeem itself.

The road has an end point.  How we get there is up to us. We can plow headlong into it without a thought and without listening for the still small voice. Or we can pause, take a little driver's test, nurture our growth process a little and maybe learn something new in the process.

Thoughts? Email me or comment below.

Staying on the Main Road

Psalm 27

Philippians 3:17-4:1

One thing about following a road to the cross is that it isn't actually that much fun.  When you know that agony lies ahead, how can the journey be pleasant? And yet, we can't focus on the pain in our lives, as we journey, or we will stop dead in our tracks and never reach resurrection. So, we plow forward, regardless.  We plow forward and cry for help.

Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!
 "Come," my heart says, "seek his face!" Your face, LORD, do I seek. Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!

This might be the time to add some inspirational CDs to the car's disc drive, or set the Sirius Satellite radio on inspirational healing talks with folks like Marianne Williamson or Oprah Winfrey.  Time to get a pep talk to keep things from falling apart.

Or maybe we need to hear from our faithful apostle, Paul, encouraging the Philippians to carry on.

... my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. 

It is hard to stay on the main road, the road that leads to the cross, when we would rather turn off at the fun and easy road exits instead.  When we see off to the side of this road a bright and colorful amusement park, and off to this side we we see a lovely mountain stream and a picnic lunch, all we want to do is go off the exits of fun and relaxation. Staying put on this road is endless. And perhaps a little dull. And definitely a little depressing. So why do we have to do it?

Why can't we hang out in the fun and easy places during Lent ?

What's wrong with a little distraction?

Thoughts? Email me or comment below.

Hitchhiker from Hell

Luke 4:1-13

Jesus gets baptized and then gets thrown into the wilderness with the devil. What a great baptism party!

This scripture, about being thrown into the wilderness, always reminds me of a scary movie, where the people are afraid of what is lurking around the next tree... you know, a movie like The Blair Witch Project or something.

I just finished reading a Stephen King book called Desperation that also comes to mind when I think of the temptations all around Jesus.  The book takes place in the southwest US desert, no man's land, and is horrific.

I don't pretend to know the horrors that Jesus went through in his journey in the wilderness, his time of fasting and fighting with the devil.  But it can't have been easy and it probably came close to breaking his will to go on.

During Lent, sometimes, we feel like we have the devil on our back. We drag ourselves down into depressing moods and negative attitudes, particularly if we have decided to give up something like caffeine or smoking or some other highly-addictive drug that keeps our moods calm. We have allowed a faithful Christian discipline become hijacked by the negative energy of evil.

We have allowed our ROAD TRIP to become miserable because we have picked up the hitchhiker from hell and we just can't get that hitchhiker out of the car or off the road. No matter how hard we try.

This Lenten season we will be journeying through a sermon series called RESURRECTION ROAD TRIP. We are looking at images and metaphors of what it is like to be on the road toward the cross, and ultimately on the RESURRECTION highway.  We have a long way to go before we reach resurrection. Starting with figuring out how to get that Stephen King-esque hitchhiker off our backs.

Thoughts? Email me or comment below.