Today’s text
Luke 24:45-48
He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "So it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this.”
Reflection
We are witnesses, Jesus. We are those who have heard the proclamation going out to the ends of the earth. Our faith witnesses to the fact of that proclamation.
But it is being a witness to your resurrection that we most want, and to understand how it is written that you would suffer, die and rise.
All the Scriptures that speak of God’s suffering servant, the rejected witness of God’s righteousness are veiled to many eyes, and to mine, I suppose. Some of those ancient prophecies seem to apply to the nation of Israel, some to an individual who is present or one to come in the near future.
Yet, you treat those ancient words as applying to you, coming to the fullness of their meaning in your ministry, your witness, your death and resurrection.
And I believe you: the full intention of God to forgive and save, to love and make whole is fully realized in you. And that brings me joy, calling down the curtain on my restless search to know ‘what it’s all about.’
It’s all about you, experiencing you, nurturing in my being and in the world the life that I see and know in you, a life of continual turning from all that is not you, a life of knowing a graceful forgiving that is the heart of God.
This is a life of knowing that in each tiny moment of grace it is you that I know, Jesus.
It is you, and there I am a witness to the resurrection of your flesh into my own.
Pr. David L. Miller
http://prayingthemystery.blogspot.com/
Posts
All Comments
Friday, April 24, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Today’s text
Luke 24:36-40
They were still talking about all this when [Jesus] himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you!' In a state of alarm and fright, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said, 'Why are you so agitated, and why are these doubts stirring in your hearts? See by my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Touch me and see for yourselves; a ghost has no flesh and bones as you can see I have. And as he said this he showed them his hands and his feet.
Reflection
You are as wonderfully and tangibly as real as ever, Jesus. Amid the fears of human souls, you come with words of peace in flesh and bone.
Touch for yourselves, you say. And touch we must. For we need to see and know you alive and real and loving us. Failing this, we can barely believe.
But with the touch of risen flesh in eyes of faith we can and know that you live and live here among us, in the flesh and bone of the gathered community of those who love and long for you.
Leading us to constantly question: where do we see your hands and feet? What hands become for us the blessed hands of your blessing for us? Where do we see the suffering love, wounded in faithfulness to the great love of the One whose grace is unending?
What feet carry to us the word or your reality, bearing it into the midst of common days we had imagined forsaken and empty of divine presence?
Surprising is how you sometimes come to us. You come in the guise of those we were ready to reject, those we were prepared to defend ourselves against.
Where we least expect, where we expect condemnation or trouble or rejection, even there you have come to me in flesh and bone and words of peace. And I did not fear. No, my fearing soul instantly was transformed into a singing soul.
I felt alive, truly alive, as alive as you who come in flesh and bone. It is good feel this alive. Very good.
Pr. David L. Miller
Today’s text
Luke 24:36-40
They were still talking about all this when [Jesus] himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you!' In a state of alarm and fright, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said, 'Why are you so agitated, and why are these doubts stirring in your hearts? See by my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Touch me and see for yourselves; a ghost has no flesh and bones as you can see I have. And as he said this he showed them his hands and his feet.
Reflection
You are as wonderfully and tangibly as real as ever, Jesus. Amid the fears of human souls, you come with words of peace in flesh and bone.
Touch for yourselves, you say. And touch we must. For we need to see and know you alive and real and loving us. Failing this, we can barely believe.
But with the touch of risen flesh in eyes of faith we can and know that you live and live here among us, in the flesh and bone of the gathered community of those who love and long for you.
Leading us to constantly question: where do we see your hands and feet? What hands become for us the blessed hands of your blessing for us? Where do we see the suffering love, wounded in faithfulness to the great love of the One whose grace is unending?
What feet carry to us the word or your reality, bearing it into the midst of common days we had imagined forsaken and empty of divine presence?
Surprising is how you sometimes come to us. You come in the guise of those we were ready to reject, those we were prepared to defend ourselves against.
Where we least expect, where we expect condemnation or trouble or rejection, even there you have come to me in flesh and bone and words of peace. And I did not fear. No, my fearing soul instantly was transformed into a singing soul.
I felt alive, truly alive, as alive as you who come in flesh and bone. It is good feel this alive. Very good.
Pr. David L. Miller
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)