A Daily Lent

Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent Daily Reading : Matthew 20:17 – 28 Focus Passage : Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!" Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. "What is it you want?" he asked. She said, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom." (Matt. 20:17 – 21) The reading lays the clear-headed, discerning way that Jesus dealt with life-matters alongside the illusions with which others operated on a regular basis. Jesus recognized the path that had been laid before him, a di...

Matthew 5:19 "Whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." The kingdom of heaven is not a kingdom of right belief. It is not a kingdom of orthodox thinking. It is an enacted kingdom, a kingdom of living, practicing, experiential belief. Ultimately, what you believe in your head may seem important, but it matters little if it is not soaking into your life, if it doesn't get down to where your roots grow, if it doesn't inform your speaking and living, if it doesn't shape who you are in connection with God, self, others, and the world. Belief, in and of itself, is very hollow and has almost no power to transform. In the United States, current conversations nationally and politically are being shaped by those who adhere to particular beliefs and who project themselves as people of principle. By their public discourse, they imply that belief and principle are the most important things. Not surprisingly, they say little a...

Matthew 20:17 – 28 Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!" Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. "What is it you want?" he asked. She said, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom." "You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. ...