if we have been crucified and buried with jesus, we are also raised with him

failure may sometimes loom as if it will serve as an early grave for us. when this happens, it is easy to believe that life is essentially over, that our voice has been silenced, that our purpose – the very thing we were created to do – is now lost to us, that we are dead and impotent, that a large immovable stone has been rolled upon our heart and soul and marked with a permanent seal which now defines us.  and even though a part of us agrees with this assessment (even if it’s only 1%), easter tells us otherwise. easter means we don’t have to stay in the grave. in fact, easter means it is impossible to stay there.

raised to live a new life

easter means that we are new. not just that ‘things have changed’ – this is not merely circumstantial. easter means that we have never breathed this air before and the lungs that are pumping it have never inhaled or exhaled before. indeed, every molecule of our being is now part of new creation. we have just become what the abba of jesus had in mind when he knit us together.

he put thomas’ fingers into his side and showed him his hands, the scars

jesus could have been raised without scars. even john the revelator, in his visions, sees jesus at the end of time…with scars. praise god for that 1% that remained! how many would not have believed if it were not for the resurrected scars? so it is with you and me, my friend. that part of us which can’t let go of our failure, can’t forget the past, can’t detach from old creation…it will, in time, become a hope and a blessing for many. dear lord jesus, please, easter in us…do not make us have to wait too long…

thought i might write it out

can’t quit thinking about faith

and how it relies on doubt

a painting needs a painter

a sculpture needs a hand

my faith would be much fainter

if on doubt it could not stand

man with the answers still gots the blues

look too long you ain’t gonna see

leave too fast you’ll never get free

absolute talk makes it hard to speak

first you gotta find a bucket that don’t leak

only thing i’ve found down here or above

nothin’s more true than the moment of love

but the head still bleeds

bludgeoned by the damned expectation

of insecure needs

hope yet hampered

undying still

hindered from rising high as it will

are my desires mine

is there glimmer of you

is there hope yet

for hopes that have died

who’s passing I’ve justified

“it wasn’t your will”

“just misguided whim”

“you’ve corrected my course”

“better-off without them”

did i give up too early

too easily let loose

miss all the beauty

pain would produce

the issue then not

self-ambitious desire

but aversion to suffer

to stay in the fire

true dreams bend on struggle

staying the course

pain the path

to fulfillment and source

to tell the truth in certain terms

to over-shadow and outshine

a life lived so far below

to momentarily align

speech and being now in tune

to say and live one harmonizing chord

to be present

real

long last the embodiment of eternal desire

jesus is the image of the invisible god, the firstborn of all creation

how does his image, post-ascension, remain visible? to be sure, when the every-member-functioning ekklesia is assembled into one body with jesus as the head. however, i’m not sure that this image is an inherently public one. it is not the assembling of the ekklesia that shows jesus to the world but, rather, it is the daily living as the type of human that jesus revealed. the public image of jesus does not even appear in an open proclamation like ‘jesus is lord’ – no matter how heartfelt it may be – unless it is accompanied by love in action. jesus lives only when ordinary people have enough faith to prove they believe in him by living, themselves, the way he lived. by loving both friend and enemy. by considering themselves a bit less than they consider others. indeed, by refusing to see anyone as an ‘other’ or ‘enemy’ at all. living as true humans in the way of jesus and loving scandalously reveals him. it will also, by nature, bring hardship and suffering to any who choose to follow that way. they will be making up for what is lacking in the suffering of christ – as the apostle paul mentioned. at the same time they become a sign and a wonder – the image of the risen lord.

thank you for the help

thank you for the ray of life

that keeps shining through the clouds

thank you for the faith

it’s helping me believe

thank you for the grace

for taking my place

thank you for the hope

boy pick up that stone and turn it into some bread

because i would have been left there with my mouth full of rocks

.

i’m glad it wasn’t me up on the temple top that day

with an offer to lean out and to let go and fly away

because i would have jumped so fast – right out of my socks

.

i’m glad he didn’t lead me up on that mountain high

to see the kingdoms of this world and promise they’d be mine

if I would just bow down

because i would have bent my knees to worship him

.

i’m glad i didn’t have to choose to leave that home on high

and wrap myself in earthly flesh then suffer on a cross and die

because i would’ve screamed out for ten thousand angels

faith is the substance and evidence of the things we are hoping for but can’t see yet.

the epitomy of the meaning of faith in jesus is living now, within history, as if the dream of yhwh were already actualized. faith is not shelving our hope until we reach some eternal disembodied existance at the end of history when it’s too late to participate in the dream coming true. faith in jesus means becoming, now, the kind of human being who will ultimately inhabit the culminated kingdom. jesus did not usher in a shadow of the kingdom but the kingdom itself. faith is (as i have previously stated) being human in the way of jesus. faith is being the human jesus was and still is on our behalf. faith is living the way of the culminated kingdom while still exiled within earthly kingdoms. faith is being completely naturalized into the new country and living in its way here and now. we need to look again at the words and walk of jesus. we need to stick with him a little bit longer on the mount where he gave that most important sermon. we will know at once where our allegiance lies and if we have exercised any faith in jesus at all. maybe we can start to understand how many will actually say ‘lord, lord’ yet still be unrecognizable to the lord of new humanity. maybe we can start to understand how notorious sinners will enter the kingdom ahead of the apparently righteous. maybe we could start to love.