Friends,

As we prepare to celebrate Holy Week our thoughts have turned towards the passion of Christ.  Listening in church this morning as the entire passion narrative was read from the Scriptures we were struck once again with Jesus’ response to violence and suffering.  It illustrates the ‘withness’  of God which is a dominant theme for us in this season. This quote from Tish Harrison Warner sums it up for us.

“Mysteriously, God does not take away our vulnerability. He enters into it.  Jesus left a place where there was no night to enter into our darkness.  He met with blisters and indigestion, with fractured relationships and the death of friends, with an oppressive empire, the indignity of poverty, and the terror of violence . . . . . God did not keep bad things from happening to God himself.”

Tish Harrison Warren, Prayer in the Night

It is hard to watch the news right now.  There seems to be no end to the suffering.  Knowing that we have an advocate, in Jesus, brings comfort.  Knowing that Jesus chose to become human and experience what we experience, even the suffering, is the very definition of ‘withness’.  He didn’t come as a King, although the kingdom was already his.  He was born into poverty, not power.  He sought out the marginalized and made them his friends.  He brought healing to the hurting, ignored the politicians and confronted religious leaders who did not have compassion for those who are powerless and on the edges. Emmanuel, God with us. 

Go and do likewise.

Rich and Jayne