Lookin' for Love
Love Wins
April 9, 2023
: During the season of Lent leading up to this moment, we have been asking ourselves if we are lookin’ for love in all the wrong places, if we are giving our attention to the things that do not really sustain our lives and add to love in this world. This day is the culminating message from the Gospel. In the end (or is it the beginning?), we find out that love always wins! All things of this world pale in comparison to what resurrection looks like in our lives. New-found meaning, purpose, attention, wholeheartedness, wellbeing, peace: these are the things that matter–the things the Teacher shows us. And no matter how many “wrong places” we’ve looked for love, the graves give way to the light of a new day as we learn to love as Christ loves us.
Look for the Shepherd
March 19, 2023
We have been focusing on where love is to really be found during this season of Lent. We too often look for love in the security of powerful figures, sure that they can “fix” things for us. It was no different for the people of the First and Second Testaments. They were looking for Kings, Saviors, Liberators who would offer peace and security in uncertain times. And they often looked “in all the wrong places.” The Pharisees just can’t believe that this trouble-maker, rule-breaker named Jesus is the One, the Son of God and Savior. Time and again Jesus uses the unlikely metaphor of a Shepherd to teach us how we ought to love and care for each other. No wonder, the Shepherd does what is needed, when it is needed, regardless of the “rules.”