Monday, March 15, 2021                   (today’s lectionary)
God is alive, magic is afoot
The royal official said to Jesus, “Sir, come down before my child dies,” and Jesus said to him, “You may go. Your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
It is just early afternoon, maybe one o’clock. Walking away alone, even leaving Jesus, just now I feel relief. My anxiety and fear lifts off me. Still, what is happening now? I cannot see through the fog into the world of spirit. I pray for my son, but does anyone hear?
I know God is in charge, and I can’t accomplish anything by my worry. For two or three steps I remember that, then the fog in my brain returns. Fear floods me, my face is flushed, I know it, it is hot and my tears begin to fall again. Oh, Jesus.
Your words are precious, Jesus. “You may go. Your son will live.” Remember … remember. Even now only thirty minutes down the road, I forget.
Weeping may remain for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. You turned my mourning into dancing, you removed my black robe of grief and clothed me with joy. Lord, my God, I will praise you forever!
All day the sun was hot. The sun set. I found a place to sleep. O Lord, my night seems to last forever. The inn where I stay offered me massive quantities of meat and wine, olives and grapes, but I ate nearly nothing.
How can morning look so serene? Joy comes in the morning. I don’t feel joy, Lord. I didn’t have a nightmare, I slept quiet, I slept heavy. I slept when I didn’t expect to sleep at all. I counted the sheep in the pasture, with my eyes closed, and sleep came. Rest poured over me. God is alive.
Now the morning unreels as my mind unravels.  I hurry back faster than I hurried away, and only a few miles remain. Is my son alive? When I left, I heard the catch in his breathing. His lungs were failing him. His face was so hot. He couldn’t even seem to open his eyes to say goodbye. O, my son! O, my son! I love you so.
While the man was on his way back his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.
Can you believe it? Jesus said it, and I believe it. I wish I could have believed it every moment of this trip.
The man asked them when he began to recover. They told him, “The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.
In the cosmic scheme of things, this was the second sign Jesus did when he came to Galilee from Judea. In my life, it’s all that matters. It’s all that ever was. Jesus gave life to my son, and he gave life back to me.
Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth. The things of the past shall not be remembered nor brought to mind. I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight.
(Isaiah 65, Psalm 30, Amos 5, John 4)
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