Up and under. Up to Jesus’ cross. And under our own. As we continue the Lenten journey, we consider the cross bearing that we share with Christ and that he shares with us: The cross always brings rejection, and to our astonishment, that rejection has glory hidden in it.
Our Lenten journey this year begins with the Lenten journey of Jesus and his disciples as it was so many years ago. We hear Jesus’ call to go with him up to Jerusalem and to the cross in Luke 18:31-34:
Are you familiar with this song? “The ball is tipped…And there you are…You’re running for your life…You’re a shooting star…” Any guesses?
“Judah is a lion’s cub ….the scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until the one to whom it belongs comes.
A 17-year-old author named Pliny the Younger watched, as a firsthand witness, as Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, burying the city of Pompei. He wrote about the event and said that a dense cloud shot up like a pine tree and the ash of eruption spread out in the air like the branches of a tree.
Do you remember Matthias, the apostle? If you don’t, don’t worry.
There was a commercial a few years ago which took place in a baseball dugout. The team, made up of community adults were watching their at-bat play out.
I can’t imagine traveling in an open air jeep on a safari, only to watch as a lion springs out in a murderous ambush upon its prey.
“Forward!” that is the motto here for the State of Wisconsin. And it’s a good one. Cities have mottos.
Really? God can do immeasurably more than all I can ask or imagine?
