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This is what I love: "Jesus sat down."

Sometimes when I tell it around the house, I say: "Jesus took a knee."

 

Just like in the story of Blind Bartimaeus, with all the noise and crowds and needs and squawking and soldiers and disciples running interference, Bartimaeus shouted out, and "Jesus stood still". You gotta just say it and savour the moment: when Jesus becomes the still-point in the middle of the chaos.

 

Jesus sat down. I'm thinking "took a deep breath" and "went back to Square One with his students". <sigh.....>

 

The community has been moving toward Capernaum, sometimes listening to Jesus talking and teaching - sometimes off on their own, arguing about who is the greatest of them all. Do they understand anything at all? Have they made any connection between his words and their lives? I remember singing and preaching in a congregation about the expansive, welcoming kingdom of God, and then sitting for refreshments at a table near someone who referred to a neighbour as "trailer trash". Couldn't help but feel my time was not exactly paying off. <sigh....>

 

Jesus is the still-point in the middle of our chaos and, even while it pleases me to imagine him inwardly face-palming, I do believe he starts again and again with where we are, invites, pulls and sometimes yanks us into Reality. I expect that, later in this season, we'll hear stories of "Time's up!" and "Choose now!", but for this moment, I am going to take a knee with Jesus, ponder my futility, and the possibilities for greatness that humility, weakness and servanthood hold. 

 

Speaking of which, have you voted..?

Linnea

What We Do
Worship