LRC, Houston - the weekends-free church in Houston, Texas

Every now and then you hit a nerve, a vein of gold, pay dirt, a motherload, or whatever. Yesterday’s commentary seemed to hit home with a lot of people. Suffice it to say that I received more positive emails from it than any other recent commentary. We live to journey on yet another day!

The questions don’t get any easier though.

Let me ask you if you’ve been troubled by a verse that resonated within me today. It rolled around like like a loose cannon within my spirit, and finally made its way to my brain with enough clarity that I think I can express it to you. The verse is John 3:2. Like with so many things that Jesus said, it’s what Nicodemus implies here and not what’s stated.

He says that Jesus could not possibly be doing all the miracles that he’s heard about unless God was with Him. We need to be cautious here that we don’t take this literally (tongue-in-cheek) lest we say something about ourselves that we’d rather not.

We can have God “with us” and NOT do miracles, right? Tell me YES!

But, here’s the question that’s not that much less compelling. If it’s not miracles, WHAT MAKES IT CLEAR THAT GOD IS WITH US? I can tell you, I’ve asked that personal question too many times to want to keep track. I KNOW Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, and the sacrament that the Bible represents to me. Those four things convince me that I am FAR from BEING who I was created to BE! I know there is so much more; however, finding out just exactly what that “more” is has not been easily found.

Am I being piggyish about life: have I eaten too much pork?

I’ve found the church to be giving answers to too many questions the world was not asking questions about, and I’ve done a lot of that early on as a pastor as well. In the opening chapter to Brian McLarens just released book, he asks this troubling question, “What if Jesus of Nazareth was right- more right, and right in different ways, than we have ever realized? What if Jesus had a message that truly could change the world, but we’re prone to miss the point of it?”

Prone you ask?

I think the real question is WHY have we missed it and how serious are we about embracing it? The answer of course has too many dependent and independent variables to cover in any of these commentaries. I have engaged them though every Sunday of this year and if you are so inclined you can give a listen any time of the day or night. Only time will tell if the current path that we’re on is His as well.

My lead up to Easter is to try and define Him for ME, and for those that are following, (the teacher always gets the greatest benefit) some foundational things that His life expressed. Of the infinite things He is and was; included are these five- Spirit Person, Wisdom Teacher, Social Prophet, Movement Founder, and Son oF God (to which I owe much plagarism to Marcus Borg). I know not who he copied or who that person copied. You know that concept all too well by now, right?

And it’s to the Holy Spirit that we must look for these answers and to life completely.

Got microscope (immanence) and telescope (transcendence)?