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| ps from ps “I came not to be served, but to serve.” Jesus, in Mark’s gospel…and Matthew’s….and John’s. Seems important when three out of four mention it. We just moved through Christ the King Sunday in the church year. (I’m sure most of you exchanged Hallmark greeting cards this past weekend to mark it.). A weekend where we remember that the type of king that Jesus came to be is not our normal paradigm. To serve and not be served. He was different from what they expected. He brought them more than they could have imagined. He shattered paradigms and boundaries and reach and heights and depths. A different kind of king. We are now invited into a perspective change and wonder what that could look like. And as we come out of that invitation, culturally, we move into our most wonderful, frantic, crowded, busy, stressful and amazing seasons – Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas. A time where we spend more. Do more. Gather more. Eat more. Love more. Hurt more. Just….more. And I wonder today, how can Jesus invitation to “serve and not be served” shape this season? How can a faith that invites us to focus on the poor and hungry be held in tension with a life that calls us to shop extravagently ranging from local to Amazon? How can we hold the tension between the joy of gathering with loved ones and the grief of seeing empty chairs? The answers today will be different shapes for all of us. I just know that this coming season brings more opportunities for a lot more things. I hope you will wonder with me. Enjoy the blessings of Thanksgiving this week. Honor the people that are around your table. Take time to remember and grieve those who aren’t. I hope and pray that each table and meal you gather around this season will remind you just how blessed by God you are and give you a chance to wonder how to live those blessings out. Lord, we give thanks for many things and your invitation to wonder what to do about them. Amen. Still in One Peace, ps |
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