May 28, 2017 Easter 7

John 17: 10-11  (The Message)

Jesus is praying: “10 Everything mine is yours, and yours mine, And my life is on display in them. 11 For I'm no longer going to be visible in the world; They'll continue in the world while I return to you. Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life that you conferred as a gift through me, So they can be one heart and mind
11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.”

 “The petition that this community of believes be kept in God’s name is in effect a petition that love be the sign and seal of their common life.  Just as love marks the unity of the Father with his Son, and of the Son with his followers, so love shall mark the unity of God’s people and provide the power for their mission.”  From Proclamation

Our unity lies not in our sameness but in our love which transcends, embraces, encourages, applauds differentness.








“Living in love, not sameness,
is the mark of unity.”












Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, may love be the mark of unity for me.  Do matter what differentness I confront.”

May 21, 2017, Easter 6

 John 14:15-21  (The Message)

15 "If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you. 16 I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. 17 This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you! 18 "I will not leave you orphaned. I'm coming back. 19 In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you're going to see me because I am alive and you're about to come alive. 20 At that moment you will know absolutely that I'm in my Father, and you're in me, and I'm in you. 21 "The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that's who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him."

“Love is, as much as it is anything, a struggle together that is always seeded with new possibilities and challenges...even in old age.”    Eugene Kennedy

Jesus is talking about such a struggle in our text for today.
He is not talking about a comfortable system for getting into heaven.
He is talking about the struggle inherent in loving one’s neighbor as one’s self!
(This is how we love him!)

Jesus can be very demanding.  To know of his amazing grace is also to learn of his demanding love.  For once we are loved and know it, we have to love so others know it.

This is no extra curricular activity we are called to do. This is the heart of it all.  
We have been loved with a great love!  We are to love with a great love!

Prayer thought for the week:  “ Lord, help me to remember that nothing is too small for love.”





 

May 7, 2017 Easter 4

John 10:10

"I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly."     Jesus

In the book, “The Little Prince”, the following conversion takes place between a boy and a fox:    The fox is speaking to the boy:

“I have no need for you, and you, on your part, have no need of me.  To you, I am
nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes.  But if you tame me, then we will need each other.  To me, you will be unique in all the world.
To you, I shall be unique in all the world.”

That’s the key to an abundant life, to be unique to someone!
And when that someone is God, life is abundant indeed!

God won’t live our lives for us; God will live our lives with us.
This is the uniqueness of faith, which becomes "a power and passion in authority
among the powers and passions of life."  P. T. Forsyth
And opens us up to an abundant life

"Faith is a power and passion in authority
among the powers and passions of life."
P. T. Forsyth










Picture: Bri Sykora

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, thank you for making me unique.  Help me to be unique
as I walk my journey in faith, hope, and love.  And may it be with power and passion!”