Photo a day for Lent: Far

Far.

Life is a journey.  That's all there is to it.  On a day off, I decided to go to my favorite little cafe and drink tea.  This was after an accumulated 36+ inches of snow.  On a normal day, this is a 10 minute walk.  It took me over an hour to get there.  The final steps were literally up to my waist.  This is the cafe.

I enjoyed that cup of tea tremendously.  Things are worth more when you have fought for them.  

A new defense

Luke 4:1-13

Last week we talked about the part of the Lord's Prayer where Jesus prays "and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."  Today's story begins with the strangest line.  This line is recorded in three of the gospels.  It says that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness - and it was in this wilderness that Jesus was tempted

Sometimes we find ourselves in the wilderness.  We call them dry spells or desert times - the times when our faith is emptier than we would like.

This is a significant theological point.  We would like to believe that Satan is the one who leads us into the wilderness - but in this case at least, it is God's Holy Spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness where He is tempted.

I want to tell you about two instances in my university days when my faith was improved greatly.  The first one is very simple.

I had a lecturer at my university that I absolutely hated.  He was a grouchy, mean old man.  He was a jerk.  And he taught about the Bible.  This never made any sense to me, because I'm one of those crazy hippies that believe that Christianity should make you a nicer person and that at a Christian University everyone should at least try to be nice.  I spent the first few months of class just fuming with anger.  But, I got to know him a bit better.  His heart was in the right place, he just couldn't convince his face that he was happy.  His wife was nice and smily and friendly ... and one day in class he stated that his wife smiled enough for both of them.  It was a bit unorthodox, but it made sense in its own way.

When he talked about this passage, he talked about God leading us through the desert places.  he said, "Most Christians believe that the only thing to do in a desert place is to get out of the desert place.  This is stupid.  You are all so stupid.  It's only in the desert place that you LEARN ANYTHING.  When you are in a desert place, a dry spell, a wilderness - your job is not to figure out how to get out of it ... you job is to learn something while you are there.  I have been in desert places for years at a time - and God has taught me much."

This was a real revelation for me.  I had always assumed that when things were bad, or I was sad, or things weren't going my way that it was because I had sinned or done something wrong.  It was a real revelation for me that I might be in this place because God wanted to teach me something.

The second is a bit harder.  It's more personal.  When I was in university, I decided I didn't want to be a Christian any more.

I had a lot of Bible classes, and I was taught a very strict, hard theology.  People around me used the Bible to advance the causes of hate.  They used scripture to put women down to a lower position.  They quoted scripture to prove their point.  They used scripture to show that they were right and everyone else was wrong.  They believed that if you didn't agree on every tiny theological idea that you would burn in hell for all eternity.  It was during one these Bible classes that I realized I didn't believe any of these things, and that those around me really did believe it.

I was studying to be a missionary, and I realized that to be a missionary I probably needed to be a Christian. I went to the head of my department, and I sat in his office and I told him that I planned to leave the department. That was what I planned to do.  To get a form signed.  And then I told him that I planned to leave the university.  That wasn't planned.  Then I told him that I was leaving the Christian faith as well. And that wasn't planned.  And then I started to cry, because I hadn't heard myself say the words out loud before that I didn't want to be a Christian any more.  And it certainly wasn't my plan to sit in the head of my department's office and cry.  I told him that I had learned all of these things about the Bible, and I didn't want to believe in a book filled with hate.

And Dr. Smith, he was perfectly organized.  His office was perfectly neat, and all of his books were organized alphabetically.  And at the center of his desk was a large scheduling calendar, with each day and time filled in down to the quarter of an hour.  And Dr. Smith looked across his perfectly neat desk, in his perfectly neat office at the absolute mess of a student sitting in a torn hoody with months of beard stubble forming something less than a beard - and he pushed his perfectly neat scheduler aside.  He said, "Michael, let's meet twice a week and read the Bible together.  My schedule is perfectly empty.  You name any time, and I will meet you then.  If you still feel this way in a couple of weeks, I will sign the form and let you leave the department.  We met for lunch twice a week for months and read the Bible together.  It was a different Bible than I had read before.  We talked about how Jesus turned the world upside down, about how God's grace is greater than all of our sins.  We prayed together, and each time it got easier and easier to pray again.  I remembered why I had fallen in love with God in the first place.

And so, when I read this story of Jesus being led into the wilderness - and of the devil using scripture to tempt him away from God's plan; it rings true for me.  It was scripture that pushed me away from God, and it was scripture that brought me back.  

Last week we talked about prayer, and tonight we talk about reading the Bible.

I love the Bible.  I love reading the words of Jesus.  I love the way that those words challenge me.  The Bible is filled with wonderful stories, words to challenge us to live in a better way, and songs and prayers that can lift up the worst day.

But the Bible is filled with lots of other words as well.

There is one joke about a man who was in dire straights and opened the bible randomly. His eyes fell on Mt 5:27 "...and he went and hanged himself." The poor fellow slammed the book closed and thought, "that can't be right". So he opened the bible again and his eyes fell on Luke 10:37, "...Go and do likewise."

As the devil proved in tempting Jesus, you can take out random verses from the Bible to prove any point you want.  If you pick and choose and slice verses away from their books and context.  My mother always warned us when we were growing up that if someone ever came and talked about religion, that we should always listen to what verses they were quoting.  If they gave very strong value to one verse over the others, it was a clear sign that it was a cult and we should get away from them.

When one of my friends fell into a sect in American a few years ago, we sat down and talked about it.  They were pushing a verse in the Bible where Jesus said you should love God and the church more than your family - that God's family is your new family.  They were trying to get her to stop talking to friends and family.  Sadly, she saw these words, saw that they were in the Bible, and fell for the trap.

We need to know this book.  We need to know the Big picture the Bible paints, and we need to know why we believe the things we do.  If someone is picking out a few verses to prove some point that sounds wrong, you need to be able to show them the bigger picture.

But, let me be clear, that you will never know this book well enough.  Don't let that discourage you from starting.  I know that many people just feel that they don't know the Bible well.  While a group Bible study or some Bible classes can help you understand the context and history better - there is nothing than sitting and reading the Bible every day.  Whenever I am troubled, I can always pause and ask myself when the last time was that I just sat and read from the Bible.  Usually the answer is , more than a few days.  When you sit and read the Bible, God challenges you in different ways every time.  I have been reading the Bible for years, and I always find a new story or am hit by a verse that never seemed special before.

[Olia Kryvycka will come and say some words about reading the Bible]

This book can sit at your house and never be more than a book or it can be the book that changes your life.  It can hold up the short leg of a couch, or it can hold up your life. It's your decision.

These words can just be words to you.  They can be boring words - nothing more than ink on a page ... or these words can bring life to you and everyone you love.

We read scripture through the lens of history, reason, and tradition.  We will always read scripture through some lens.  My eyeglass lens help me see clearly.  Without them I can't see anything.  If I didn't need them, I wouldn't wear them - but I do need them, so I do wear them.

We aren't living in the Holy Land during the first century.  We live in Ukraine in the 21st century. It is important for us, when we study and reflect, to come as close as we can to understanding the meaning behind these words.  We search out the history - what was happening in that country when these words were written.  We read through the lens of tradition.  When we hear some theological idea, we need to ask how long people have believed that.  There are some theological ideas that are popular in America - that no Christian believed before the 1890s.  We can read the words of the desert fathers and the early church councils and Martin Luther and John Wesley and see what the church has believed for hundreds of years and what are our modern inventions.  We read the Bible through the lens of reason.  If someone reads some Bible verse and gives some crazy idea about it ... that idea might be crazy.  It's important to think through what we read.

These are the three lenses that we read the Bible through.

But, here is the new defense.  These words they change our lives.  They call us out of darkness.  These words they fight the powers of evil and wickedness - but only if we read them, and only if we live them.

I use this phrase a lot, but it's true.  You might be the only Bible that someone will ever read.

In some African American traditions, they often end prayers with the words, "And Lord, help us to walk your words today."

Our new defense is that we live out these words.  Our lives lived in pursuit of the words of Christ give power to those words that he spoke two thousand years ago.  It is important that we know these words, that we can hold out against any attacks we might here - but it is much more important that we try to live out these words, that the attacks won't be able to hurt us.

Lord, help us to walk your words today. Amen.

Photo a day for Lent: Roots

Roots.

There is nothing about this city that I don't love.  I love even the sewer smell in the summer months.  

For years, I was a wanderer.  I went from place to place.  I was a Pilgrim.  It was here in Lviv that I finally grew some roots.  My life is so perfect, and I love the people I am surrounded by.  

We had a Korean American bishop who preached this sermon called Roots and Wings.  I only remember it because, well, say the name of the sermon in a stereotypical asian accent and you'll understand.  

We as Christians must have both roots and wings.  We must have the patience to grow roots where God plants us, and the courage to grow wings when God asks us to.  

Roots. 

Photo a day for Lent: cup

Cup.

You should always make time to sit down and have a cup of tea with friends.  A few of my best friends work together, and I occasionally will just go and set up shop in their office.  

It is in these conversations that you can understand life and community.  It's a terrible pity when we fail to realize the value of sitting with a good cup of tea.  

Cup.

Photo a day for Lent: Help

Help.

These are my pets.  I promised I wouldn't post pictures of my pets every day, but it is what it is.  

When I picked up Masik, he was a dog on death's door.  He had survived being hit by a car in January.  He lost a paw, and had huge open wounds all over his body.  He had been living on the street, and a dog bite had become infected to the point that he couldn't stand.  After dozens of trips to the vet for x-rays, antibiotics, vaccination, and general care - he is a happy and healthy dog.  I gave him two baths, but the water still ran dark brown, and he smelled so bad.  In the end, his hair had to be cut off to clean out the under-layer of fur and to get rid of the fungi causing the smell.  

Now, it's a funny story because the woman who had been watching Masik when he lived on the street doesn't trust me.  I'm a foreigner, and a human, and for these two reasons I can't be trusted to take care of a dog.  She was disgusted to learn that I was buying him name-brand dog food and made me a list of foods he can eat: porridges, cottage cheese, meat, etc.  During Lent I am fasting from meat, and it makes me sad to see that my dog is eating better than I am!  Masik was skin and bones, and now he is getting a healthy layer of muscle.  She was very upset that I had his hair-cut, but it had to be done for him to be healthy and happy.  

This week Masik was deemed healthy enough to be castrated, and he is recovering from that surgery.  

I know he looks bad right now.  I know he looks naked, and coned, and skinny.  But, this was what had to happen for him to get the help he needed to get the foundation from which he can return to full health and happiness.  

When I walk on the street and children laugh and old women ask me why I'm beating my dog.  I just smile, because each day as I sit with this dog and work or play with him (he is potty trained, can sit, and dance - still working on stay and lie down) I am reminded of Hosea.  I am reminded of the way that God works our lives to represent the truth we need to hear.  

When I took this dog, there was absolutely no reason.  I just woke up one day and knew that I needed to adopt a three legged dog.  My Ukrainian teacher knew all of the shelters and found Masik within a few hours.  We got there just in time to save his life.  

As I look around at my life and ministry, I am so thankful to have Masik by my side, for God to continue to teach me where my help comes from.  God continues to teach me that scars fade, that sometimes things have to look a little worse before they can truly start getting better, that sometimes there is pain in growing and healing and that these things are not bad.  In the end, this dog is one of the happiest, kindest, gentlest dogs I've ever met - and in the end, all will be well with this mut, with my life,and with my ministry.    

Help.

Photo a day for Lent: Home

Home. 

Jonathan's favorite song towards the end held the lyrics, "Home is wherever there is you."  

While I love my job, friends, country of adoption, and life in general here in Ukraine.  I wish I could be home and sharing this great time with my sister.  I'm going to become an uncle this summer.  Now, basically everything about my personality suits me to become the greatest uncle ever.  All of my friends with children call me uncle and treat me like an uncle.  That's just my personality. 

I'm so excited for Rebecca and Mike - and so excited to meet little Hemi Tucker Miller. 

This photo was my idea!

Home. 

Photo a day for Lent: beloved

beloved. 

"So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?"

- Wendell Berry

I have heard it noted that we have words for when we lose a spouse.  Widow, widower.  We have a word for children without parents. Orphan.  But we don't have a word for a mother who has lost her child.  The sorrow is too great for any word to ever hold it all.  

And at the townwide performance of a play, done in memory of her son by the cast he acted with, they asked her not to cry.  "Look at how many children you have gained," the bubbliest one said, "we are all your children now."  

Beloved.  

A new prayer

When I served a little Methodist church back home in Pennsylvania, the congregation kept asking me to preach a sermon on prayer.

"We just don't know how to pray.  Could you teach us how to pray?"

It's one of the jobs of a pastor to be able and willing to pray whenever asked.  At every family gathering, I am asked to bless the food.  In many cultures, on special days the priest is brought from place to place and paid to offer up the prayers that we can't make on our own.  As a student pastor, I would put a lot of thought into my "pastoral prayers" to make sure that they were beautiful and theologically correct.

The truth of the matter is, this probably isn't right.  I'm not saying it was sinful for me to work so hard on writing a moving and beautiful prayer.  Or that it is wrong for me to bless the table at every family gather.  But it teaches the wrong idea.  As Christian leaders, we always have to think through what message our actions send.

When I prayed a well written prayer, I accidentally taught the congregation that prayers should be prayed in fancy words.  When I pray at family functions, I send the signal that God listens more closely to me because of my profession.  Now - these are obviously not intended, but the message gets out by accident, and we must work to fix that.

The disciples come and ask Jesus to teach them how to pray.  They have spent some time following and observing Jesus.  And they see that he is a man of prayer.  He sits and spends a lot of time in prayer.  It is as though he is having a conversation with God.  And there is also this sense that the disciples are frustrated.  They have become disciples, and they want to learn a skill.

In a movie from my childhood, The Karate Kid, a young child goes to a karate master to learn how to defend himself.  The karate master spends weeks teaching him how to clean a car, how to paint a house, how to sand a floor - but not how to fight.  In the end, the young man is incredibly frustrated, feeling that he has been treated as a slave - only to learn that he has learned all of the fundamental skills he needs in order to be a karate master.  [Show video clip]



And the disciples have followed this teacher for so long, but they feel that they haven't learned how to pray yet.  I think this idea is a bit frustrating to Jesus as well - because they have had every opportunity in the world to observe and to learn how to do things the correct way.  But, the disciples ask for it to be spelled out for them.

Jesus gives them some words to speak, but before that he addresses the attitude or prayer.  He begs his disciples to approach prayer with humility.  He asks us to cast aside the big, professional prayers that sound so nice - and to instead pray from our hearts.

This is the simplest instruction, but it is the very hardest.  Sometimes I start talking in one of my classes at the University, and I instantly regret that I opened my mouth at all.  The other day I started talking about my irrational fear of leaving a voice message for someone's cell phone.  Luckily, most people here don't use this setting - but back home, almost everyone has an answering machine that you are supposed to leave a message with.  I am unbelievably bad at leaving messages.  I don't know what it is about taking to a machine that freaks me out, but as soon as I am left alone with the recorder I turn a bit crazy.  I will forget who I am talking to, say Uhmmm about twenty times, and even when I'm calling some shop or company I will accidentally end the phone call with "Ok, love you, bye."

And after embarrassing myself terribly in front of my class, I began to think about why I have such a problem with such a simple task.  I think it is because people leave such good answering machine messages for me.  It seems like everyone is completely professional.  They leave their name, number, and a quick message explaining the need and asking for a call back.  They make it sound so simple, and I think this is what freaks me out more than anything.

I wonder if we feel we are bad at prayer because we hear such nice prayers by those around us.  I have this small memory of one of my first prayers.  My grandmother was praying with me before going to bed, and I prayed "God bless mom, and dad, and Rebecca, and the whole world. Amen" and I remember my grandmother corrected me and told me that I needed to be more specific.

I know my grandma meant well, but what I learned that day was that I was praying wrong.  I didn't pray for a while after that, because I thought my prayers were wrong or not good enough.  As a Christian, I've heard countless people ask me to pray for them because they don't know how to pray.

And here is the message I want to give everyone about prayer.  There aren't any wrong words to a prayer.  There simply aren't any words that are wrong to use when you are praying.  Your prayers could be long or short, pretty or plain, deep or simple.  Your prayers can be in any language, or no language at all.  Your prayers can be four hours long or four letters long.

Because when we pray, we connect with God.  It is not the words of our prayer that matter, but the one to whom we pray.

A long time ago, a friend told me that in the face of some situation we needed to have strong prayer.  What does it mean to have strong prayer?  There is nothing in our words that makes our prayers strong.  The strength comes from the one to whom we pray.

And this is where the attitude and position come into play.

Because, the problem that people have, is that they forget who they are talking to.  They start a prayer, and as soon as there are a few people to listen - they forget that they are talking to God, and they start talking for them people around them.  As soon as we have an audience, we forget the audience of one we are talking with.

The pastor of the largest church in Korea was praying in his office when the secretary knocked and said that the President of Korea was in the office to meet with him.  After a few more minutes, the secretary knocked again and said that the President was sitting in his office waiting to speak with him.  When she knocked the third time, she was afraid that something terrible might have happened and he might have died in his office, so she charged in.

He looked up, and asked why she had disturbed his prayer time.  She indignantly replied, "Didn't you hear me?  The president of the country is sitting in your office and is here to meet with you!"  The pastor slowly turned to his secretary and smiled kindly saying, "Why would I stop talking to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords just to talk to the president."

This is the new prayer that we pray.  When we pray we are talking with God who is the creator of the entire universe, and we also talk to God who is our loving father.

The new prayer that we pray is based on our attitude.  We are never afraid of saying the wrong words.  We are never praying for the admiration of anyone.  God knows our hearts, we do not need to try to impress God.

I think one of the greatest tricks of the devil is to make us feel that because we do not have deep enough faith, that we should try to hide that from God.  The devil tries to trick us into thinking that if we don't have the prettiest words coming from our heart that we should be silent.  This is a lie.  From the devil.

Here is a prayer from Mother Teresa:

"Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me?  The child of your love - and not become as the most hated one -- the one You have thrown away as unwanted -- unloved.  I call, I cling, I want -- and there is no One to answer - no One on Whom I can cling - no, No One.  Alone.  The darkness is so dark- and I am alone.  Unwanted forsaken. The loneliness of the heart that wants love is unbearable.  Where is my faith?  Even deep down, right in, there is nothing but emptiness and darkness.  My God -- how painful is this unknown pain.  It pains without ceasing - I have no faith ... "

This woman was a saint, and one day soon she will be officially recognized as a saint by the church.  One of the men who stands against her becoming a saint, he is an atheist who stands against all people of faith, he quotes this prayer to show why she should not be declared a saint.

Well, this shows how little he knows and understands how Christianity works.

The idea is that we should hide these dark feelings of doubt and pain from God - but our new prayer, our new attitude of prayer is one of a humble, gentle child coming to a loving parent.  We can say anything.

Jesus gives us these words, will you pray the Lord's prayer with us.

   Our father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name.  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done - on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil - for thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever Amen.

Our father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name.  We are reminded that our God is holy.  We come to God filled with humility.  

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  We want to expand the Kingdom of God.  We want to see more of God's will in our own will.  We pray for the opportunity to live as God would have us to live.  We don't just sit and wait to die so that we can experience heaven - we fight to create heaven here.

Give us this day our daily bread : we are reminded that everything we have is a gift from God.  It is not ours, it is on loan from God.  We take only what we need and we give the rest to others.

and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. We are as great as our forgiveness.  We are as weak as the power of hatred we have for our enemies.  If you hate someone, or if you can't forgive someone - they have full power and control over you.  Don't let this happen.  Be reminded that God has forgiven you of your great sins and expects you to forgive others of their great sins.

 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil : Our lives are difficult enough.  There is temptation enough.  We find enough trouble on our own, we don't need to challenge God to test us!  We pray that God would deliver us from the evil around us - but this us, it calls all of us together.  Deliver us from the evil that surrounds all of us.  The war, the poverty, the hunger, the abuse, the sin.  Deliver all of us from all evil.

for thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever, Amen.. : This was likely added a bit later, but it is a good reminder that God is able to do all of these things.  We do not come to God in prayer in vain.  We come to God who is willing and able to answer our prayer.

This is our new prayer.  In Lent, we are called to renew - we are called to pray.  Please pray for this community.  Everything our leadership team tries will fail unless you all hold this ministry up in prayer.  Pray for me, for one another.  We need it.  Pyro Night will be Monday at 6:30.  Please come and spend some time in prayer - whether you have pretty words or not, come and let your hearts be quieted and filled.

In the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

some thoughts

This is an incomplete sermon.  But, it's a lot closer to finished than I thought it would be by now!

John 12:1-11

It’s odd, even for the odd Gospel of John. Jesus is in Bethany entertained by his good friends Mary and Martha. (John 12:1-11.) John casually remarks that Lazarus, whom Jesus has just raised from the dead, is there at the table.

Lazarus whom he has just raised from the dead? Are you kidding?

Imagine being seated at that dinner table. “You know our rabbi, Jesus, don’t you?  And seated next to him is our brother Lazarus, who died last week. Thanks to Jesus, he’s back among the living. No stench of death, even. Please make yourself comfortable between them.”

Settling uneasily in your seat, just being polite, you ask the table companion on your right, “Had a good week?”

Your fellow dinner guest replies, “Well, I was sick unto death, my sisters were frantic with worry, then I died, was entombed for three days, wrapped like a mummy. Jesus graciously stopped by the cemetery, shouted, ‘Lazarus come out!’ and raised me from the dead just in time for my sisters’ dinner party. How was your week?”

The guest to your right, the young rabbi, says, “Unfortunately, no sooner had I raised Lazarus, than my enemies vowed to kill me. I give myself no more than a week before they succeed.”

Where are we?

Welcome to the good news we preach.  This is our Gospel.


And welcome to the truth about what God in Jesus Christ is up to in the world. God isn’t just good and great, God is on the move toward us. Jesus joins us at the table and, whenever Jesus shows up, get ready; corpses rise from the dead and we are shocked that God is more active than we imagined. The predictable, dull world is rendered strange, and even at a meal Jesus, though unarmed, is extremely dangerous.

But this story is just starting.  We are just sitting at the table with Jesus and this family.  And Mary pulls out a pound of very expensive perfume and begins anointing Jesus' feet, and drying them with her hair.  And this story is radical for all kinds of reasons.  This is a woman touching a man's feet in public, this is a woman letting down her hair and touching it to a man, this is a huge amount of costly perfume being wasted.  This is a radical story.

This is a story we don't understand.  This is one of those Bible stories that is a puzzle with either too many or two few pieces, and Bible scholars can't piece it together.  All four Gospels tell the story of a woman anointing Jesus' feet.  Luke tells of a woman who had been sinful all of her life, Mark and Luke have an unnamed woman at the home of Simon the Leper, John has the story of Mary the brother of Martha and Lazarus at Bethany, and history remember Mary Magdalene as the demon possessed prostitute who did the same.

So, we have a few options for interpretation.

1) Either this was an act that happened all the time.  Like drinking tea, women just threw themselves at Jesus' feet non-stop.  Different women, for different reasons.

2) This was all one event and one woman.  Last names were blurred and applied at whim, so it wouldn't be unreasonable for this Mary to be Mary Magdalene (although this doesn't piece together well for a few reasons) who was the unnamed woman and the disciples just got a few details out of order because there were many details to remember.

3) John was righting the record.  Although John was the last Gospel to be written, many believe it was written by the actual beloved apostle John.  He was closest to Jesus, and perhaps he felt that a few important details had been missed and that the record should be corrected.

Or perhaps it is some combination of these three options.

It is interesting to think that this Mary could be the Mary who was "sinful all her life."  In our first encounter with Mary and Martha, Mary is lifted up for her faith - and this wouldn't go against the idea of a bad girl.  Jesus routinely looked into the eyes of people so sinful that they were discounted by the world and praised them for their faith.

A careful reader of the Gospels will see that we are apparently missing something about what it means to have faith.  Because Jesus goes to the religious elite - those known by the world for being faithful - and he yells at them and drags them through the mud for their disgusting sin :: and then he goes to the despised and unreasonable people and comments on their great faith.  Well, I'll just my opinion that we continue to miss the point about what it means to have faith.

But we see Mary, we see this woman who's life has been changed by Jesus sitting at the table with her sister who's life has been changed by Jesus and her brother who's literal life has been saved by Jesus and Mary is overwhelmed by emotion.

She does one of those crazy, impulsive praise things - and goes and gets a giant offering to give to Jesus.

And close your eyes, and you can just feel her emotion. She looks at her brother, whom she had mourned and cried and sobbed over - because he had been dead.  And then she looks at her herself - and she realizes that she had been dead, too.  Whether she was the sinful woman, assumed to be a prostitute, or just Mary the disorganized, scattered sister of Martha who played with her hair while talking to people - she had been dead inside before Jesus.  He brought her soul to life.

And yes, we celebrate these tremendous miracles of Jesus bringing the physically dead back from the grave - or from the edge of death.  But we have our own story to share, we hold our own miracle in our hearts.  We remember how dead our souls were when Christ found us, or we remember how often we've been so close to spiritual death only to be brought back to life again by God's grace.

Mary felt in her own heart that she had been dead and that now she was alive.  But, more than that - she felt that the things leading her to death had died themselves.  There was only life left!

5:16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Paul's letter states that we no longer regard people from a human point of view.  How do you think that Lazarus looked at the world after spending three days in the tomb?  Do you think that he looked at everything in the same way after that?

I don't know if I've ever shared this story with you before.  I told a friend this story a few days ago, and as I said it I felt that maybe I had never shared it with anyone before.  A few months after my arrival in Ukraine, I was walking from the apartment to the student center and I slipped and fell on the ice and slid under a bus.  I don't know how the bus stopped on the ice before crushing me.  I slid away from the bus' tire and then I climbed out from under the bus.  I checked all of myself.  I was all still there.

I remember this feeling, as I continued walking to the student center - that everything was perfect.  All the colors were brighter, all the smells stronger, all the sounds louder.  Everything was sharp and clear because I was alive.  For months and months, I walked around with this certainty that every day was a gift and I wasn't going to waste a second.

[Jonathan]

* I started off with a sermon by Will Willimon.  There's not much of it left - I loved it and played with preaching it straight up ... and I might come back and preach the rest of this sermon later on in Lent. Excerpted from MinistryMatters.com. Read more: http://www.ministrymatters.com/all/article/entry/3669/dinner-with-jesus#ixzz2MfzL5mYd
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Photo a day: Night

Night.

This great little doggy found his way to the roof of this derelict building.  I essentially want to adopt every dog I see now.   

Lenten Photo Challenge: bless

Bless.

Pastor Volodya and I traveled to Stree to visit Lyudmilla Onoprienko.  She blessed us in so many ways.  She cooked for us and shared her stories with us.  This was Illya's desk, and these are some things Lyudmilla has to remind herself of her son's life.  Illya blessed all of us, every day.  These cards, icons, and mementos remind her of the blessing her son was to everyone around him.  These remind me to work on being a blessing to people around me. 

Bless. 

Photo a day for Lent: thirst

thirst.

This is an old picture.  I've come to the realization that although my life is very interesting, I only bother getting my camera out when my pets do something of note.  I'm sorry.  I stopped posting for a week because (I got super busy) I was embarrassed at how poorly I was doing.  My friends all had great ideas and perspective, and I was posting pictures of pictures and pets.  I'm going to try to finish this out. 

Jonathan Pound and I made the front cover of a large metropolitan newspaper.  We joined a Tea Party protest to get extra credit for a class.  Christian College. We didn't believe in this cause, but we wanted to learn more about social movements.  Jonathan ended up being the star attraction, as apparently Tea Partiers couldn't get enough of his rugged good looks and boundless enthusiasm for the flat tax.  

I loved Jonathan's thirst for justice.  Although this was a spoof and this picture a mockery of a "movement," this is how I will always remember Jonathan.  Jon-boy was fearless in standing up against those who stood in the way of justice.  When I was arrested while protesting a few years later, some months after his death, I cried because I knew he would have been right beside me in the cell.  

thirst. 

Photo a day for Lent: leave

Leave. 

The average number of people on any public transportation vehicle in Ukraine rivals the attendance at most professional sporting events.  This is the first time I have ever been the only passenger, and it was like this for three stops.  For a while I was paranoid that there was something visibly wrong with the tram or the driver that was keeping people away. (Yesterday, I saw a news item of a tram that crashed into a building - which is rather spectacular considering trams run on tram-tracks.)  But, eventually the tram began filling up.  Every time I leave Lviv, I exit by way of tram.  The tramline to the train station has become my little ritual; the steep incline, the quick turn at Chicken-hut, and the church stop where most people exit.  These are the signs of leaving Lviv.  Of leaving home and going somewhere new and uncomfortable. 

Photo a day - prophet

Prophet.

Valya is my favorite prophet.  She is one who speaks prophetic words long before they are popular, easy, or even acceptable.  She loves fiercely and fights for her friends.  Every time I see Valya at some restaurant, I cannot help but be reminded of Jesus partying with sinners and tax-collectors.  It seems she is always surrounded by a group of people that most Christians would reject.  It seems that our idea of a prophet is usually one who is rejected by society for living out the way of the church so fiercely.  And yet, time and time again in our Holy Scriptures, we see that prophets are rejected by the church for making the church feel uncomfortable.  If God makes you comfortable, you likely need to go and visit a prophet.