God's Odd Benedictions V: The Merciful

Lent

March 10, 2024 • Katie Lancaster • Matthew 5:1–7

In late 2015, Pope Francis designated a year of mercy. He called it a Jubilee of Mercy. I love this. 1.3 billion people energized, motivated, galvanized, ignited in the direction of mercy. A time for all to go out and offer mercy, to live out the mercy that God has for us. Pope Francis says that “The name of God is mercy”, that the very name of God is mercy, and he says “Jesus of Nazareth by his words, actions, and entire person reveals the mercy of God.”[1] Jesus of Nazareth is the living face of our God of mercy. The very character of God, the very nucleus of God, the core identity of God is mercy.

[1]Pope Francis. "Misericordiae Vultus." Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Vatican City, 11 April 2015.

IV: That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade by Brad Aaron Modlin

August 25, 2024 • Christine V. Hides • Mark 10:13–16

In the time and place Jesus lived, children had no power or status. #_ftn1So it isn’t surprising that the disciples turned them away, they had important adult work to do. What is surprising is that Jesus pays attention to the children. Jesus paid attention to all kinds of people who society deemed unimportant or unworthy. Jesus puts children right in the middle of the story of God’s unfolding kingdom. Not someday when they get older or pass a test. Present tense: “Children are at the center.” The disciples learn an important lesson about how followers of Jesus are meant to include those on the margins. The children then and those who hear this story 2,000 years later learn that in a world where children are hushed and left out and overlooked, they matter to Jesus. As we begin the school year, adults who care for children are mindful of the stressors in our community. Sometimes it feels as though there is never enough time to do what feels required for our children’s success. It is easy to overfill our days with practice, test prep, enrichments, and carpool. #_ftnref1 See “The Least and the Greatest: Children in the New Testament” by Judith M Gundry-Volf in The Child in Christian Thought edited by Marcia Bunge.

III: About Standing (in Kinship) by Kimberly Blaeser

August 18, 2024 • Katie Snipes Lancaster • John 13:12–15

And then across the chasm of centuries, there is Jesus. Stooping to wash his disciples feet. His great gift… his own labor of love under the “forgotten architecture of friendship…” wherein he discloses what it means to follow him. Like this. Stoop. Bend low. “find healing in the leaning, the closeness.” One scholar puts it this way “It’s always easier to follow Jesus in our heads than it is to follow him with our feet on the Via Dolorosa.”#_ftn1 The Via Dolorosa, the way of sorrow. The Via Dolorosa, sacrifice. The Via Dolorosa, the servant’s path. And Jesus replies to his disciples, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done to you.” This is the “forgotten architecture of friendship.” This is how to follow Jesus on the Via Dolorosa. Like this. Stoop. Bend low. “find healing in the leaning, the closeness.” #_ftnref1 Herhold, Robert H. "Foot Washing and Last Things (John 13:1–20)." The Christian Century, March 9, 1983, 205.

II: Small Kindness by Danusha Laméris

August 11, 2024 • Katie Snipes Lancaster • Matthew 5:39–43

And what about that moment at the library, when I filled my arms with so many books they fell like lemons, spilling across the aisle, and a man 30 years my elder, stooped to help? And stooped again when I dropped two more? Jesus says “remember? The world is arranged by an-eye-for-an-eye, and a-tooth-for-a-tooth”…but it doesn’t have to be that way…try it another way…try it like this. We’d written the injunction “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” in the millennia before Jesus as a stop gap against escalation: so that when someone punches your lights out, you don’t retaliate by burning down their village. Keep it simple: an eye for an eye. Violence need not surge. Brutality need not mushroom. So Jesus takes this ancient ethic and moves us further toward his vision for human thriving: “try it this way…turning the other cheek… try it…walking the second mile…try it…”