Definitely Not Quid Pro Quo

In the brief Gospel reading for this week, Jesus uses the words “love” and “friend” 12 times. So, one does not have to be particularly scholarly, or even attentive, to discern that he’s saying something about the nature of love and friendship.

 And because this takes place during his farewell to those with whom he’s spent the last three years living and teaching and serving (and confronting and correcting), it’s probably something significant about what they are.

 And at least one thing they’re not.

I can come in, too?

This Sunday we read the account of St. Philip sharing the Gospel with a Eunuch from Ethiopia. He had been in Jerusalem to worship God and was returning home, but his worship was from far off outside the temple for a multitude of reasons. Nevertheless he persists and desires to study the Scriptures for himself.

Philip meets him on the road, and tells him the best news he ever heard, the fulfillment of a promise which speaks to hopes of the hearts of all of us who stand far off, outside the Temple, longing to come inside.

Skin in the Game

“Skin in the game" is an aphorism popularized by Warren Buffet referring to the benefit of executives investing their own money in the business they’re running...having a personal risk, or stake in its outcome.

It’s a simple fact of human nature that we generally take something more seriously when we have an ownership stake. It’s why most of us are familiar with the phrase, “drive it like it’s a rental.” When it is, we do.

Jesus knew this facet of our nature, and used it to contrast his commitment to the sheep he owns versus that of a hired hand when it comes to facing down wolves.

He most definitely has skin in the game.

Both/And

In a culture that’s become increasingly driven by divergent ideologies, we’ve become more and more attuned and susceptible to “Either/Or” thinking. “Both/And is something you’re hearing less and less.

The church, because it’s full of humans, isn’t immune from an either/or way of seeing things…even in its orientation to worship. It’s often expressed as Word or Sacrament, one of them being by far dominant.

But Jesus, on the afternoon of the Resurrection sets a pattern for both/and that’s served his Church since.

In fact, it’s how he’s known.

Patterns vs. Particulars

When Redeemer was founded eleven years ago, its leadership laid out seven key characteristics we were hoping for in our stakeholders. Number seven was, “Is drawn more to patterns than particulars.”

That one’s especially important as we pursue our shared vision of the mission of God in the world. Because in order to really understand this, we’ve got to look at some of the bigger stories that reveal important patterns in the Scriptures.

When we get lost in particulars, we lose patterns. And so, we often can’t see the forest for the trees.

But it wasn’t always like this.

Facts without Meaning

When Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Easter morning, he rose as the beginning of the new world God had always intended…and will result in the restoration of everything that is now corrupted, which is everything (Colossians 1:20).

That’s the first—and perhaps most important—thing to know about the meaning of Easter.

And it’s meaning that matters.

I believe that the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from death is a fact. But facts can often be rendered meaningless without a frame to give them meaning.

This is especially relevant in a day in which an unrelenting shower of unframed facts inundates us every day.

Why do we call it ‘Good’ Friday?

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have purposed to save us from our sins and all evil.

The Sacrifice that Saves and Sanctifies

When we celebrate Holy Communion, often the prayer of consecration concludes with the acclamation “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us”, with the people responding “Therefore let us keep the feast”. Why does Jesus identify himself with the Passover? What does this tell us about his death?