Lent (Page 3)

Jesus' temptations in the desert represent his trying to understand how his people lost their way and how he can align with a path to wholeness.

In his life and ministry, Jesus invited his followers to fololw Isaiah 58's call to be 'repairers of the breach.'

The kind of fasting and worship that God desires is the kiind that sets people free, promotes liberation and has direct impacts for people who are hurting.

In the gospel today, Jesus reminds his followers that going with him on the journey will inevitably cost us something and require sacrifice.

Jesus' followers are encouraged to return to God with their whole hearts and take up prayer, fasting and almsgiving for 40 days.

As Easter people, we are called to embody a hope that may make us seem to appear as fools according to the world's values.

As Easter people we are called not only to celebrate that death does not have the final word in our life but act accordingly in the world.

I often think of Holy Saturday as the feast day of broken dreams and broken hearts because we are asked to hold loss and uncertainty as we wait in the dark.

On Good Friday Jesus did not so much die for our sins as offer us a model of giving everything in the service of God's kin-dom.

On Holy Thursday, Jesus gathers with his friends and gives them a final lesson on being a servant in the world.

It has been easy for the church to portray Judas as outsider and traitor. Yet seeing ourselves in him offers us deep spiritual insight.

Like many people throughout history, Jesus is disappointed, betrayed and misunderstood by other people. We are often in the same boat.