Our friends Danielle and Krispin are always working at loving people and asking tough questions. Fellow wrestlers, they are.
I think this piece at A Deeper Church is something worth your time. Read it when you have time to sit with it.
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Lord, Lord, I know what you told me to do: aspire to be righteous, know all the right answers, speak with a surety in your voice and heart. Seek after happiness, an American birthright. Pursue positions of power and importance, for that is where you will effect the most good. Be satisfied with where you are, with what you know to be true for you and yours. Work hard and you will be rewarded, everyone is responsible for themselves. Punish the evildoers, set right what is wrong (and use force, if necessary).
Make sure you are well-liked, adored, that you get the accolades you deserve. Be the toast of the town, the poster boy or girl for your particular brand of religion. Be easy, safe, accessible to all, the person everyone wants at their parties, full of small talk and pleasantries.
Be palatable, honey. Tone it down, blend in.
CLICK HERE to read Danielle's full re-write of the Sermon on the Mount.
Beware, it is difficult.
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On her own site, she wrote these words...
He painted Christ, in the center, and around him he filled in the broken-hearted. A woman kneeling with her dead baby clutched in her hands. A refugee with a walking stick. A man lost at sea, a man who killed himself with his own dagger. A poet imprisoned as a madman, three generations of women, all abused. The oppressed throughout the ages–a Polish independence fighter, a Greek warrior, a Roman slave, an African slave. A dying man, with Jesus taking off his shackles. Mary Magdalene, the famously forgiven, kneeling at his feet. Everyone is pleading, stretching, shackled, in agony–and everyone leaning into the Christ.
And he consoles them.
It’s what he came to do. like he always has done, throughout the centuries. He comforts the imprisoned, the sick, the sad, the dying, the lonely. The burnt-out, the lost at sea, those floating out ever farther from the land they staked their lives on, adrift and unmoored by the suffering and pain of the world.
And we who are lost are brought back by one person alone, and that person is the Christ. The one who suffered like us, with us, for us. Who promises to break all the chains, to bring his new kingdom here in this earth. Who hangs out with the outsiders, the ones the world forget. Who sees us for who we are, as the bringers of his kingdom.
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The past weekend was an unusually quiet one - no births at Heartline - it seems like most babies come on the weekends. (Well, quiet is a relative term. Quiet save the little concussion Lydia suffered Saturday. Slightly scary, some puking and small d drama - but she's 100% fine now!)
We are thankful for the pocket of peace this weekend and the time to reflect and talk and pray and read and run and be.
This week in Haiti is a big deal (it is Karnaval week). - Schools are closed at least 3 days this week, some all week and tomorrow is the gwo fet (big-par-tay) before we all repent on Ash Wednesday. I'm gonna skip Fat Tuesday and start repenting early. Seems like a better way to go. This week is a big deal for us because Noah turns ten on Wednesday. I don't know that I am a spokesperson for all moms -- but having the babies turn five, ten, thirteen, sixteen, and twenty-one all feel like really big ones to me. We are looking forward to celebrating the life of our family comedian.
