Topic: Grief

In a world that is hell-bent on self-destruction, Jesus calls us to gather to him and to love faithfully and vulnerably with him, rather than surrendering to the hate and fear.

It is not from the halls of power but from humble places that the love which offers wholeness and healing and peace erupts into life.

Suffering raises painful unanswerable questions, but Jesus leads us into a life where the sharing of our honest questions is part of shaping a community of healing and hope.

The life that Jesus calls us too will not be found and enjoyed until we give up trying to engineer the life we dreamed we were supposed to be living.

In the face of tragedy, we naturally cry out “Why?” Jesus meets us in the suffering and helps us find the path of life.

Jesus went up the mountain and was transfigured, and we assume that it was a wonderful experience. And so it was, but maybe not in the way we think. What if the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus at that moment was the face of utter human vulnerability?

Meeting us on the road of despair, Jesus reveals to us that suffering and defeat are God’s means of bringing new life and hope.

Jesus died an apparent failure, but in his resurrection, the failure’s power over us is broken for ever.

In the violence and suffering that surround the Christmas story, we find the revelation of a God who does not inflict violence and suffering, but suffers violence to bring love and peace.

Events of global chaos probably aren’t signs of God’s next big move, but we need to take seriously the call to live faithfully and courageously in the midst of them.

Honestly owning the rage that sometimes consumes us is an important part of maintaining our resistance to all that stands in the way of a Jesus-shaped life.

Sometimes God has to kill off our hopes and destroy our faith structures in order to create space for new life and truth to arise among us.