Monday, March 17, 2025
St. Patrick’s Day
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Finn’s cousins
Not only does Finn have two big brothers, but he has two cousins who live in Illinois, and who came to visit yesterday. Chris’ family arrived around midnight on Sunday and will leave around 6 pm tonight, and Jack and Aly are packing lots of cousin time into these few hours.
When they leave Austin, they have plans to travel in the opposite direction for a little more vacation during spring break. Jack will take his scholastic bowl skills to a state finals tournament next weekend, and then to a national invitational a little later this spring. Even though her athletic seasons are over at school, Aly will practice basketball with her coach every day except Sunday. But for now, on a 75 degree Texas day, full of sun and blue sky, we all rested in the afternoon and basked in the beauty of family.
The Tomitas and the Springfield Sandels will be meeting again in July, although this time it will be in Tokyo. This will be the first trip for Jasper and Finn to the Old Country, and Miles’ second. Chris and Melissa are hoping to get to every continent before they become empty nesters. Why not meet in Japan? They made plans today, and booked their flights.
Margaret and I marvel at the spiritual and emotional health of our family. So many of our older friends look around and see division or faithlessness in their families. We are grateful. We don’t exactly take credit, but we know we have encouraged our kids to follow in the footsteps of Jesus’ poverty and brokenness, rather than in his glory. We have always looked beyond the Americanized prosperous Jesus back to the crucified, humbled, biblical Jesus.
The Kingdom is where everything is turned upside down. Those who are marginal, those considered not respectable, are suddenly proclaimed as the people who are called to the Kingdom. The part of us that is weak, broken, or poor suddenly becomes the place where something new can begin. Jesus says, “Be in touch with your brokenness. Be in touch with your sinfulness. Turn to God because the Kingdom is close at hand. If you are ready to listen from your brokenness then something new can come forth in you.” – Henri Nouwen
In this Kingdom of God there is never a need for more. In this Kingdom, joy does not disappear in the midst of pain or suffering. I can notice, acknowledge, name and confess my sin, and say yes to God’s love and forgiveness. His love and forgiveness never end.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.
In this Kingdom I can choose mercy and friendship, every single day.
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
This morning Aly will have a chance to hover ten feet in the air at the IFly silo just a few minutes from here. Then her trainer will take her high into the air, thirty feet even, and they will hold hands and make a snowflake circle, as they relax and slowly turn into the wind. They will descend at last, reluctantly, happily.
What must it be like to ascend to heaven? In the body, out of the body, at the moment of death or before? Clarence Heller hears God calling him as he sits to write what he hears:
You are my beloved,
wounded,
cherished,
a source of my joy.
I suffer with you,
I suffer in you,
and I call you to greater freedom,
freedom, not forgetting,
forgiving,
accepting my love,
and the truth of our goodness
and adequacy.
I am with you in your brokenness
because it is my brokenness too.
Allow me to be resurrected through your triumph.
 (Daniel 9, Psalm 79, John 6, Luke 6)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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