Hearing Jesus’ words, the crowd believed he had to be either a prophet or the Messiah. Unaware of Christ’s birthplace or lineage, the chief priests and Pharisees argued that Scripture clearly states that the Messiah would be born in David’s city, Bethlehem, and that no prophet had ever been born in Galilee. Alas, there were no birth certificates! Sound familiar?
We acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God — but do we really understand what that meant to Jesus and what it means to us in our relationship with Jesus? As he courageously sought to make himself known in the temple in Judea, can we then unite ourselves in spirit with Jesus? Do we have the strength of conviction and a strong enough commitment to Jesus to overcome our fears and prejudices?
Am I ever stiff-necked? Words like “haughty” and “rigid” come to mind. Not me, right?! But do I often find myself looking at someone on the subway and thinking: Why doesn’t she lose some weight? What was he thinking with that hairdo? And break from my routine or change my plans? Not easily.
Ascension will be donating $1,000 from its budget to help build a mill in Matel, Haiti, so that a new Episcopal school will become self-sustaining by grinding local farmers’ millet and corn. We invite friends of the parish to learn more and join us in this endeavor; the amount needed to finish the building is $2,000.
In today’s section, Jesus explains that he is the Son of God. This relationship is very interesting, and confusing: Jesus can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees his Father doing. He is distinct from the Father, as he is the Son, but he is not autonomous. While Jesus can’t do anything by himself, he does have a will of his own.
My third great grandmother, Elizabeth (Lizzie) Ellerman left Germany with her four children after the death of her husband in 1855. Her family sailed for New Orleans to find a new way of life. The eleven week voyage was tedious and tragic, with Lizzie losing her daughter, Anna, along the way.
Find the center in quiet and stillness where you are not experiencing the world as good and evil. Where you do not judge, where you are not dominated by fear of or fear for. In this stillness let go of good and evil, judgment and fear. Find God in yourself and have compassion for the snake when it appears.
Lent can get a little heavy. But there’s a secret that can lighten it up. Just like the one Gabriel announces to Mary. Out of the dreary Nazareth sky comes an angel, no less, fancy-talking about how she, little Miss Nobody, is going to be the mother of God.
Many years ago, I worked on a therapeutic team on a psychiatric unit in a small hospital in Massachusetts. The head psychiatrist would reply, when we reported on what the patients were telling us, “It’s not what they say, it’s what they do.” I have relied on that wisdom to name my own resistances and to understand others’.
Just reading the morning paper, my muscles tighten and my stomach clenches. Like the “strong man, fully armed,” my guard is up before I’ve even left the house. I recognize this state of righteous indignation, of being tense, resentful, willful, intransigent, described in very simple terms in the readings for today.