Leading with a Towel

On last Sunday’s feast of Christ the King, Pontius Pilate and Jesus are discussing Kings and Kingdoms.  The kind of Kingdom Pilate has in mind is the King of the Roman Empire.  His throne is the seat of power and his army controls the borders, his weapons include horses, lances, bows and arrows, and his riches provide a luxurious life-style.

And Jesus’ notion of a king is a Servant King. His throne is the cross.  His army are His disciples.  His riches are the poor, the leprous, the marginalized, the prostitutes and sinners.  And He leads with a towel.  It’s the towel of a servant King who washes feet.  And that Servant King asks His followers to lead with towels too. 

Our Servant King is in charge of the final judgment. He will separate the sheep from the goats. The sheep will enter the Kingdom because they fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the homeless, visited the sick and imprisoned. And our Servant King says: "What you did for my least brother or sister…you did for me."

Question: How are you leading with a towel this week?   

                                                              Gratitude

I’m trying to broaden the scope of my gratitude.  And I invite you to do the same.

Who have been your best teachers in school or in life?

What’s the tastiest meal you’ve had?  With whom did you eat it?

What’s the most interesting place you ever visited?

Who are people behind the scenes of your life who really help you?

List the beautiful things in our natural world that you relish and enjoy.

Think of a piece of music or a work of art that has touched your soul.

Remember a time when you laughed so hard that you cried. 

When did you feel closest to God in the last week or two?

Who loves you most?  Why do you think that person loves you so much?

                                        Happy Thanksgiving.  F Ron

                                          I Will Praise You…For I Am Wonderfully Made

                                                                       (Psalm 139:14)

How wonderfully made are you? There’s something a little unnatural for me (and probably for many of us) to describe ourselves as wonderfully made.  It sounds like we are bragging.  But God really has made us wonderfully.

 

In my morning prayer I almost always say: “Thank you Lord for loving the total package that I am.”  And that includes my sins, foibles, idiosyncrasies, etc. But it also includes the gifts that God has given me.  Can you name 5 gifts that God has given you?

The way I see it is that I am a child of God.  And just like I take after my parents in some ways, I also believe that I have some qualities that God has passed on to me too.  It’s what I call my Spiritual DNA. 

Take time today to identify your DNA markers that are God-like.  And then think about the people closest to you.  Can you see how wonderfully made and God-like they are too?

                                                            God-Sent Moments

Last weekend I was struck by Mark’s placement of the story about the scribe who approved Jesus’ insight into the 2 great commandments.  In Mark’s Gospel, that story occurs on the Tuesday of Holy Week…a time when opposition to Jesus was growing rapidly. 

The previous day Mark described Jesus’ visit to the temple when He turned the tables upside down and used a whip to get the money-changers out of there.  Many Jewish leaders saw that as proof that Jesus had to be killed. 

So on Tuesday each opposition group sent people to confront Jesus.  It was a horrible day until the Scribe came.  He asked Jesus which commandment was the greatest.  And when Jesus described the two commandments of love, the scribe genuinely affirmed Jesus.  That was a God-sent moment that helped Jesus face the agony that was coming soon.  

Sometimes God-sent moments come directly from God, but most of the time they come from people that God puts into our lives.  Who was a recent instrument of a God-sent moment in your life?  And how were you recently an instrument of a God-sent moment for someone else?