Our finest hour

This week we have a choice to make and it is a simple one: how will we live our lives? Will we live in concert with the whims and will of the people around us or will we go as God has called and drawn us? We get to decide.

There is a group of well meaning people who, well meaning as they are, don’t want Jesus to suffer the same fate that John the Baptizer did. John’s preaching antagonised the king and that landed him in jail and eventually got him executed. They have decided that they don’t want Jesus to suffer the same fate. So they go and try to warn him off of the path he is taking. “Don’t make him angry! Get out of here and go somewhere he cannot get to you!” they tell him.

In reply, Jesus dared them, “Go tell that sly, destructive worthless man that I am going to accomplish what God has sent me to do. Then it will be time to die.” Jesus is still living the plan. It had been decided before he came and his life has been all about healing and caring, restoring and redeeming that which has been lost.  It is if he had ripped a line from a popular movie, the Blues Brothers and he is boldly declaring to all who would try and stop or subvert him from his goal to “get outta of my way, I’m on a mission from God!” In doing so, Jesus declared that until he had finished everything God the Father had for him to do, nothing was going to stop him from doing it.

Then Luke notes the affection that Jesus has for the city and his sorrow over the fact that the city has not loved him back. He came and declared God’s affection for them and they offer heartbreak, pain, suffering and a grave in return for love. He wanted to gather in the people of the City of Peace and they rejected him.

I remember as a boy, there was one particular chicken, a hen who was considered to be the best hen of the entire coup. If you needed a hen to sit on eggs to get them to hatch then “Fonzie” was your girl. And Fonzie was special not only for the care and hatching of chicks, she was also special because her eggs were green. She was unique amongst all the other hens we had.

If we are to apply this to our understanding of who God is for us and for this moment, it is this: God cares for us all, wanting to draw us in and care for us. He wants to keep us safe while we are out there in the world and hold us close to him no matter when or how we come home.

So let me ask you this: what does the life, death and resurrection of Jesus mean to you? How does it change how you think, feel and live? And what might push you away from living the life that you are called to. Who will you honour and whom will you fear? God or the fox? You decide. And let this be the Church’s finest hour!

Jason+