Tuesday, March 12, 2013

 Today’s text

Luke 19:35-38

So they took the colt to Jesus and, throwing their cloaks on its back, they lifted Jesus on to it. As he moved off, they spread their cloaks in the road, and now, as he was approaching the downward slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole group of disciples joyfully began to praise God at the top of their voices for all the miracles they had seen. They cried out: Blessed is he who is coming as King in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens!

Reflection

This Saturday we will be led by children. Behind a cross held high, 10 third-graders will process into the sanctuary, having been prepared to receive the Holy Eucharist for the first time.

Their minds will little know or comprehend the mysteries of what the church teaches about the meaning of the Eucharist.

As they come forward to be given the broken bread and cup, I hope they will look at their empty hands cupped to receive. Their hands tell them all they need to know about who they are … and who Christ is.

Christ is the giver; they are receivers of eternal life and deathless love.

They receive, even as they are received by God and fed with a bread that lasts forever.

They will march into church, small, possessing no great strength or influence, largely innocent of life, but much loved by their families and congregation. When the right time comes families and friends will usher them to the table, opening their empty hands with them.

We will join them in this community of the empty-handed, this communion of compassion and companionship in which we all receive from the fullness of the One in whom all fullness of life and love dwell.

This is the community, the kingdom that Jesus brings, and it is for this that the crowds hailed him as the bringer of heaven’s peace to the heart of the earth-bound.

This is his glory. The angels proclaimed it at his birth” Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on Earth.”

The chief miracle of Jesus was not his healing of the broken and blind, nor even raising the dead to life.

The greatest was the creation of a community where all that really matters is the heart’s willingness to receive the blessing and welcome of God--and to share in this communion of gracious welcome.

This is not something we teach to the children. The children teach us.

Pr. David L. Miller