Luke 13: 22-35

Back in December of 2005, New York City Firefighter Matt Long was assigned as the fitness instructor at Randalls Island, the place where new recruits (probies) are trained to become one of New York’s “Bravest.” It was probably the best job for Long because he was the epitome of an athlete. Earlier in 2005, he had completed his 30th triathlon (yes, you heard that correctly THIRTIETH Triathlon!) – and if you’re not sure what a triathlon is, to give you an idea, the last one included swimming two and a half miles, biking 112 miles (!!!) followed by running 26.2 miles. You could say the man was in phenomenal shape. On this cold December morning in 2005, there was a transit bus workers’ strike going on which had effectively crippled New York City. There were restrictions placed on people, forbidding them to drive into the city. Firefighter Long decided he would bike it to work. Sure it was cold out, but he figured it was only 3 or 4 miles anyway. He got up at 5 am and started to make his way to work. As he was en route, a bus that was hired by a local company to bring employees to work, made a wrong turn and crashed into him...

Jesus the mother hen is determined to go to Jerusalem, where he will take up his cross. About the cross, preacher Barbara Brown Taylor says, “It may have looked like a minor skirmish to those who were there, but that contest between the chicken and the fox turned out to be the cosmic battle of all time, in which the power of tooth and fang was put up against the power of a mother’s love for her chicks. And God bet the farm on the hen.” “Depending on who you believe,” Taylor says, “she won. It did not look that way at first, with feathers all over the place and chicks running for cover. But as time went on, it became clear what she had done. She had refused to run from the foxes, and she had refused to become one of them. Having loved her own who were in the world, she loved them to the end. She died a mother hen, and afterwards, she came back to them with teeth marks on her body to make sure they got the point: that the power of foxes could not kill her love for them . . . They might have to go through what she went through in order to get past the foxes, but she would be waiting for them on the other side, with love stronger than death.”...

In his autobiography, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. expresses the same sort of resolve that we hear from Jesus. In his chapter about the events in Selma, especially the awful police brutality and public violence and murders while they attempted to march to Montgomery, he describes the painstaking spiritual and legal deliberations he and his colleagues had while deciding what was best to do as they stayed committed to non-violent action. Before setting out for another attempt at crossing the bridge on Tuesday, March 9, 1965, King told those gathered, “I say to you this afternoon that I would rather die on the highway of Alabama than make a butchery of my conscience. I say to you, when we march, don’t panic and remember that we must remain true to nonviolence...

As Jenny tells it, raising chickens was something she had thought about for some time, but until then did not have the space nor the time to devote to it. The purchase of a home outside the city limits and a pandemic which had her working from home meant that for the first time, she had both in abundance. And so, a coop was purchased along with chickens. When I reached out to her, I asked what she knew about chickens that she did not know before. She quickly replied with a whole litany of insights. Ordinary things like: They keep clean by flapping around in the dust. They can fly, but not far and not that well. They love snacks, especially blueberries and they know her as the giver of such treats. They grieve when a companion dies. They choose a ‘leader’ whose main job it is to watch out for predators, especially hawks, warning the others to take cover when one approaches. And on and on… She and I recorded a brief zoom conversation about chickens which you can find here if you wish...

But if you’ve ever seen a mother hen with its babies, that’s an amazing sight. I remember walking up to a mother hen once, and as I approached she scrambled around to push her little ones under her, scooting towards a corner for safety, while trying to stay on top of the eggs that had not yet hatched, ignoring the chicken feed I brought so that her chicks could eat it later, all while giving off a kind of warning growl, fluffing up her feathers to look bigger and scarier, as if to say ‘stay away from my babies!’ And then, as she’s trying to do all these mother multi-tasking things, her little chicks popped up from underneath her, not happy to be restrained, and showed their thanks to their loving mother by pecking her in the eye! (Those of you who are parents maybe can relate!) But the longsuffering mother hen just shut one eyelid and pushed them back down again, keeping the other eye squarely on her enemy: me...

I see a spirituality in Jesus’ swearing against King Herod, for his intolerance of Herod’s injustices led him to vocalise and verbalise his anger against Herod by calling him “that fox.” David Hayward, also known as the Naked Pastor, has drawn cartoons expressing swearing as a spiritual gift, and has written 10 spiritual benefits of swearing. Among those benefits, Hayward mentions that “swearing gives you a sense of empowerment,” and “it can help you get in touch with raw emotions that have been suppressed under religiously scrupulous observation. It just feels good.” For Jesus, expressing his anger against Herod by calling him “that fox” empowered him: as a prophet who speaks God’s justice in the world, Jesus was bold in discounting the power of Herod, something he could only do by the empowerment of the divine spirit in him. The spirit of God gives us courage to contest the unjust practices of power-holding people. Jesus did not try to pretend to sanitise his words for the sake of the religious world around him. This is what I call spirituality, where you can be your natural self, letting out your anger against injustice, expressing your intolerance against unjust practices without any pretense and verbalising your righteous anger against the person who exploits the innocent and kills those who speak against the powers. A spirituality of swearing lies in finding meaning and value in the so-called “irreverent.” Nadia Bolz Weber explains boldly that she seriously loves Jesus and she does swear a little, by which she navigates a deeper spirituality of her faith in Jesus Christ for herself and for folks out there who are comforted by ambiguity and who need a word of Grace which “is not covered in a strawberry syrup.”...

When I was growing up, I spent many summers visiting my grandparents in rural South India. Both of my grandmothers kept hens — loud, flapping flocks of hens — and as a little girl raised in American suburbia, I found the birds hilarious. After all, they weren’t the most elegant of creatures. They were squat and beady-eyed, nosy and boisterous. They couldn’t fly to save their lives, and they made the funniest noises. They could be fierce when they wanted to be; I learned young to keep my distance from their beaks. But there was something sad about their ferocity, too. Something defenseless. Something vulnerable. I remembered those hens from my childhood this week, as I reflected on Jesus’s startling self-description in the Gospel of Luke...

(includes lots of Greek help)

always good insights!

(excellent exegesis)

There is a story called “The Fox and the Little Red Hen”. In the story, Papa Fox sneaked up quietly behind the little red hen, grabbed her, and put her into his bag. Then he quickly ran off down the hill toward his home to eat some chicken dinner. Inside the fox’s bag, the little red hen remembered that she had some scissors in her pocket. So, when the fox stopped to rest, she cut a hole in the bag, slipped out, put a large stone in the bag, and ran away. When the fox got home, all he had in his bag was a stone. The little red hen was too smart for the sly old fox!...

Scottish Olympic athlete Eric Liddell is considered the most popular sports hero in Scotland to this day.[i] Liddell won the gold medal in the men’s 400 meter at the 1924 Paris Olympics. He’d originally been slated to run in the 100 meters, which was his best sprinting event. He refused the event, however, because the heats were to be held on Sunday. Being a devout Calvinist, he felt that competing on Sunday was a sin against the Sabbath. Following a record-setting win at the Olympics, Liddell could’ve gone on to a career in pro athletics. He was famous and popular and was an accomplished rugby player as well as a runner. He chose, however, to follow in his parents’ path and became a Christian missionary to China. He served in the Orient for the better part of two decades, first as a teacher of English for the children of wealthy Chinese, but later as a medical missionary in one of the poorer provinces. In 1943, after disregarding a warning from the British foreign office to evacuate, Liddell was captured by the invading Japanese and sent to an internment camp. There he became a kind of camp pastor, ministering to the spiritual needs of his fellow detainees, teaching the Bible, and coordinating the social life of the camp. He died there in February of 1945, just five months before the camp was liberated. The cause of his death was believed to be a brain tumor, exacerbated by hard work and malnutrition...

This may not be the most savory example but the spectacle in Luke 13 of the Pharisees approaching Jesus to help him and protect him allegedly from Herod reminds me of the scenario that dominates the last part of the landmark movie The Godfather. As the aging Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) approaches the end of his life, he hands the reins of power in their nefarious mafia business to his son, Michael. But the old Don has been around long enough to know that once he is out of the way, all bets will be off and the other East Coast mafia families will move in and try to kill Michael. And he knows something else: the betrayal will come from a trusted friend who will suggest to arrange a meeting between Michael and the next-most-powerful mafia kingpin, Don Barzini. “And at that meeting,” the Don tells Michael, “you will be assassinated. So whoever comes to you with this Barzini meeting, that’s the traitor. Don’t forget that.” No sooner is the old Don dead—indeed, at his very funeral—Michael is approached by long-time family friend Tessio (played by Abe Vigoda, pictured above with Michael played by Al Pacino) who says he’s got things all arranged to make peace with Barzini if only Michael will come to a meeting. Michael agrees but, of course, never goes to any such meeting. He knows that this “friend” trying to help him is offering him no real help at all...

On Friday I found myself suffering from a case of cabin fever. I’d spent the day working in my office and even though my desk faces a large window, the dull grey hue of the cold, overcast, afternoon made me long for spring, when the sunshine would entice me to open my widow and I’d hear the sounds of the world out there waking up from its long winter nap. From my office window I caught a glimpse of some kids who judging from the time of day, were heading home from school. As they trudged along the sidewalk, the sight of their mother tagging along behind them made me incredibly sad. Those poor kids were being escorted by their mother. How in the world were they ever going to have any adventures with their mother tagging along behind them? I know that the world has changed some since I was a kid, but the adventures that we could have on the way home from school, well let’s just say, what our mothers don’t know can’t hurt them. The kids walking down the street on Friday, were going straight home; something we rarely did. We wandered home from school, and it could take hours to get home. Now I know that some of you may be fond of saying that when we were kids, we had to walk for miles and miles and miles, and it was all uphill and the sidewalks weren’t ploughed back in the day and the snow, well you should have seen it back then it was piled as high as the rooftops and we had to trudge through snow drifts that were taller than we were. Yeah, yeah, kids today, they just don’t know how well off they really are. Or are they?...

A number of years ago the Swiss Chalet Restaurant in Truro re-opened after renovations and in order to entice people to come in, see the new decor and try their menu, an employee dressed in a chicken suit was sent out to the sidewalk to jump up and down and gesture at approaching cars in the hopes of enticing them to come in and eat, chicken! It was hilarious. This fowl employee looked really “into” his or her designated task, but I suppose was really glad that, unlike this picture, his or her face was not visible. On the next shift no customer would be able to say, “I saw you yesterday; cute chicken suit!”...

Most especially during Lent, we recall the prominence of lament in Scripture: the psalms of lament; David’s lament for Jonathan; the Lamentations of Jeremiah; Christ’s lament over Jerusalem. These laments bear witness to outrage, sorrow, suffering, fear, desolation. And through these passionate cries, the biblical authors allow us to experience and express—in God’s holy presence—our own stories of brokenness and loss. The visual arts make these laments visible...

For decades, once a year members of the Ku Klux Klan would don their robes and march down Sweet Auburn Avenue, the heart of black Atlanta, right by Ebenezer Baptist Church. Every year in those Jim Crow days, the African-Americans would close up their shops and retreat into their homes in fear. The Klan's strategy was working. Keep fear alive! But then, one year, some people in that community began to get a vision of their purpose - of God's plan for them. And the Klan began marching down the street, and all the residents came out - and laughed. Laughed at the silliness of it. The Klan never came back...

Written in response to the Mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 15, 2019.

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” At that very hour the New Zealand Chief of Police said to them, “Don’t go to the mosque today, for a cold-blooded terrorist wants to kill you. I know it is Friday, a holy day of obligation, but don’t go. He has already killed dozens of your brothers and sisters and he may have accomplices still at large.” And there were people of deep faith in those mosques on Friday who continued to pray even as the shots rang out and the bullets flew They had responded to the call to prayer and they followed that call even in the face of terror The shooter’s manifesto of hate said white European culture must prevail Those who are not us must be turned back We must glory in destroying them purging them from our midst terrorising them The muslims are a threat to us all, he said, they are terrorists who want to kill us...

Julian of Norwich says this Christ came in our poor flesh to share a mother’s care. Our mothers bear us for pain and for death; our true mother, Jesus, bears us for joy and endless life. Christ carried us within him in love and travail, until the full time of his passion. And when all was completed and he had carried us so for joy, still all this could not satisfy the power of his wonderful love. All that we owe is redeemed in truly loving God, for the love of Christ works in us; Christ is the one whom we love...

A farmer named Ike told the story about the day that the hen house burned down on his grandpa's place just down the road. Ike arrived just in time to help put out the last of the fire. As he and his grandfather sorted through the wreckage, they came upon one hen lying dead near what had been the door of the hen house. Her top feathers were singed brown by the fire's heat, her neck limp. Ike bent down to pick up the dead hen. But as he did so, he felt movement. The hen's four chicks came scurrying out from beneath her burnt body. The chicks survived because they were insulated by the shelter of the hen’s wings, protected and saved even as she died to protect and save them...

After nearly two decades of war, Iraq is rebuilding. Cities like Baghdad are bustling with new fashions in clothing and old favorites in food. Mosul, formerly a stronghold of ISIS, is further behind the process but still showing signs of renewed vibrancy. Across the country, the landscape is scattered with rubble of the old and reflections of the new...

One moonlit night a Fox was prowling about a farmer's chicken coop, and saw a Hen roosting high up beyond his reach. 'Good news, good news!' he cried. 'Why, what is that?' said the Hen. 'King Lion has declared a universal truce. No beast may hurt a bird henceforth, but all shall dwell together in brotherly friendship.' 'Why, that is good news,' said the Hen; 'and there I see someone coming, with whom we can share the good tidings.' And so saying she craned her neck forward and looked far off...

The farmyard was dry and dusty against the backdrop of a multiyear West Texas drought. What was once green grass now lay withered and brown around the coop where the chickens slept and laid their eggs. The hens were now out and about, pecking the ground for bits of seed that the farmer had thrown, teaching their chicks to do the same...

Back in my dim, dark past, when I was employed in the union movement, the wall of my office was adorned with a cartoon depicting an eagle, talons menacingly outstretched, swooping down upon a field mouse. For its part, the mouse had adopted the classic attitude of the condemned awaiting execution: a blindfold over its eyes, smoking a last cigarette. Except that the mouse also had one hand raised, and was making a rather pointed gesture at the eagle – a gesture which, ironically, I believe is known as “flipping the bird” – while the caption read: When faced with total annihilation, absolute defiance is the only alternative...

NBC’s Today Show recently did a story on 30 year old Jaqueline Adan, who shared a story of personal humiliation that caused a life transformation. Five years ago, while with some friends visiting Disneyland, she got stuck in an entrance turnstile because she was severely overweight. Recounting the story now, she shares that while she made a joke of it and laughed it off with her friends, as soon as she spotted the nearest bathroom, she went inside and broke down and sobbed. The rest of the day she needed to use a wheel chair just to get around the park. She felt mortified, and was shocked when she went to Jenny Craig and discovered she weighed 510 pounds.

Last week, as the professional basketball season reached its halfway point and conversation began heating up around various players’ contracts and potential trade deals, I heard a lot of discussion about a topic that I’ve probably encountered a million times but never really thought about: the 'opt-out clause'. The opt-out clause states that a player can have the freedom to maneuver out of his contract early if he thinks that he will be worth more on the open market than he is currently being paid...

"A few weeks ago, I received a video link from a friend. In the video, a young man performed a small-scale experiment, a 'social experiment' if you will, on the streets of New York. As he sat on the sidewalk by himself, leaning up against a storefront window, the young man held a sign that read, 'Homeless: need money for weed, drugs, and alcohol'. As people walk by in the video, numerous people stopped to give him money. After collecting a meaningful amount of money, his cup filled with cash, the screen goes dark. The video returns to the same young man dressed the same way, but this time he has a small girl next to him..." and another illustration

God bless Sue Klebold. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be the mom of a boy who turned out to be a mass murderer. You’ll recall—and I doubt any of us who were around on that horrible day in 1999 will ever forget—that Mrs. Klebold’s son Dylan was one of two teenaged gunmen who went on a murder-suicide rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, killing thirteen human beings before taking their own lives. For almost two decades Mrs. Klebold has tried to keep a low profile...

I got called to the hospital late after a meeting on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. A woman was entering hospice care. Most of her grown children were there. 'Mom is troubled,' they told me. 'She thinks she has not done enough. Can you assure her that God loves her?' Well, this is the classic Lutheran message of grace, of course and I did so with ease, as I have done countless times before. It was Tuesday. She would breathe her last among us on Friday. It was not too late...

Part of my lenten practice of fasting caused me to shun my regular Monday morning consumption of news media, as most of you know, I’m a bit of a news-aholic and so on my day off, I usually spend way too much time catching up on the news of the world. These days the news tends to send my blood pressure racing so, I avoided my usual media haunts in favour of enjoying a few movies and some exercise. As the week wore on, I developed a cold and so Wednesday and Thursday were spent drifting in and out of consciousness as I tried to sleep off the effects of fever and congestion. So, imagine my horror when I finally tuned back into the news of the world on Friday. The fox was actually in the hen house. There he was a fox whose sly cunning makes Herod Antipas look tame, attacking a beautiful tender sweet hen, who over and over again wants for nothing more than to gather children as a mother hen collects her babies beneath her wings. Donald John Trump was attacking the Pope! At first, I thought the decongestants that I was taking were causing hallucinations! Talk about foxes in the hen houses!...

We’re not sure that anyone is in hell, but the church insists that hell is a real possibility. Why? Because if you cannot say “no” to God—really say “no”—and have that response accepted, then you are nothing more than a distant extension of whatever stands at the core of the universe. You are not someone who choses, in freedom, to love, or not to love, God. God doesn’t narrow the gate; God doesn’t close the gate. Yet the gate is indeed narrow, and it may well swing shut. Not because of who God is. Because of who we become. Because life is like a gelateria. You only taste if you are willing to risk.

The pictures tell the story. Neither of the first two works here are 'religious' works and yet when we see them through the lens of the gospel reading, it is clear that Jesus fully understood his animal symbols as individuals and in relation to one another. In the top picture a fox sneaks into the picture space in the lower left corner, biting down on the hindquarters of an unsuspecting hen in its jaws...

Years ago, in Massachusetts, I knew an eye surgeon at a Harvard teaching hospital, an eminent man, who kept chickens in his yard in a rural town where I preached. One day, when his wife called to report a fox was in the chicken coop, he raced out of the hospital, jumped in his car, sped home, seized his gun and followed the blood trail of his chickens till he found that fox and shot him. 'Those were fine chickens', he told me later, 'gentle. I raised them. I loved them. And I wasn’t going to let that fox destroy them.'...

("In Mission, British Columbia, a fellow by the name of Ike tells the story about his Grandpa's hen house which burned to the ground one day. Ike arrived just in time to help put out the last of the fire. As he and his grandfather sorted through the wreckage, they came upon one hen lying dead near what had been the door of the hen house...")

(" The story is told about Calvin Coolidge when he was vice-president. One day while he was presiding over the Senate, a fierce argument broke out between two senators. One of them got so angry he told the other he could go straight to hell. The offended Senator approached Vice President Coolidge. 'Did you hear what he said to me?' he asked. Coolidge looked up from his book and said calmly: 'You know, you don't have to go....")

("Evidence. It's that crucial factor sought in court trials, scientific experiments, medical theories... It's the thing that makes the difference between theories and 'the truth'. Think back over the last few months we have heard stories of pretty high profile court room trials. Probably the one that was the most intense and had nationwide attention was the trial of George Zimmerman...")

("Already in Grade 3 Jack had a soft spot for Sandy. It wasn't cool for the boys in Grade 3 to include girls in their circle of friends but secretly Jack thought Sandy was truly someone special. Of course, he always denied it vigorously when his mates 'accused' him of having a girlfriend...")

("The Pharisees of Jesus' day were unwittingly participants in Israel's long history of failures--but don't tell them that. They had neatly repressed the bad in themselves. So when Jesus sat at table with prostitutes, tax collectors, crooks, drunks, and multiple-partner adulterers, the Pharisees were sure they didn't fit in and so refused to take a seat even when Jesus personally invited them to do so....")

(includes several quotes)

("At some point in my early high school years, I decided that I wanted quail for pets (don't ask why). I went to the local quail hatchery. My three new babies actually hatched in my hands...")

("The Pharisees of Jesus' day were unwittingly participants in Israel's long history of failures--but don't tell them that. They had neatly repressed the bad in themselves. So when Jesus sat at table with prostitutes, tax collectors, crooks, drunks, and multiple-partner adulterers, the Pharisees were sure they didn't fit in and so refused to take a seat even when Jesus personally invited them to do so...")

Barbara Brown Taylor tells this story about her nephew Will’s first birthday party. He was a chubby and bald little boy, typical only child, used to being the center of attention, not spoiled because he didn’t know yet how to manipulate love for his own ends. He just thought that everyone was loved the way he was, and he gave his love away as fast as he got it...

("Joan Chittister, Christian contemplative, tells this story about paying attention: 'Where shall I look for Enlightenment?' the disciple asked. 'Here,' the elder said. 'When will it happen?' the disciple asked. 'It is happening right now,' the elder answered. 'Then why don't I experience it?' the disciple persisted. 'Because you do not look,' the elder said...")

("Some years ago graphic scenes were beamed from USA to our TV screens of riots, the beatings, destruction of property, wholesale looting, people breaking into stores, stripping them bare of their merchandise, and laughing as they did it. A TV reporter interviewed a man who had broken into a music shop and came out carrying a box...")

Once upon a time a very important public official visited a certain family. They were all honored to have him in their house and they served him some of the best Irish soda bread in all the world. Then, instead of listening to what the man might have come to say, they began to talk. Indeed they babbled...

("One year, during Holy Week, my dad came home with a package. It had holes in it, with little sounds coming from inside. When he showed us our Easter surprise, to our delight we found three little chicks, one for each of us three boys...")

Have you heard the story of the farmer who went to the convenience store to buy some supplies? Well, this farmer goes up to the cashier and after putting down his other purchases, asks for an 'Insta Pik' ticket. The teller punches the required button on the lotto terminal, hands him the ticket and says to him, 'Say, Charlie, what WOULD you do with all those millions?'...

("There is a wonderful, deep, moving poem written by the 17th century English Poet George Herbert that describes the dynamic so very well: 'Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back, Guiltie of dust and sinne. But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack, From my first entrance in, Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning, If I lack'd any thing...")

("Dr. James Gilligan has a fascinating book and study. The title of his book is VIOLENCE and the subtitle is A RISING NATIONAL EPIDEMIC. Dr. Gilligan works at the Center for the Study of Violence and that center is located at Harvard University. Dr. Gilligan’s primary thesis is that our culture has become addicted to violence...")

A baby was born to Mary Teresa Hickey and her husband in 1945. The parents came from Cork, Ireland. The baby was a Down Syndrome boy. Mary Teresa held the baby tightly, saying, “He’s ours and we love him. He is God’s chosen one.” The family lived in the Dorchester section of Boston. Their other boy was Jimmy. The dad died young of a heart attack, and Mary was left to raise the two boys, nine-year-old Jimmy and seven-year-old Danny. To pay the rent she scrubbed floors at a chronic care hospital. Jimmy took good care of Danny. Dan felt at home with all the kids because no one told him he was different. Then one day, as they were boarding a trackless trolley, some strange kids shouted, “No morons on the bus!” That was the day Jimmy Hickey learned to fight. It was also the day Jimmy decided to be a priest. Little Danny attended the Kennedy school in Brighton and eventually obtained a job. In 1991, Mary Teresa Hickey died at age ninety-one after showering her sons with unyielding love all their lives. Father Jim Hickey had been a priest for thirty years. In every parish to which he was assigned, Danny went along with him. The people were favored with both men. In October 1997, Danny was in the hospital. His fifty-two year old body was failing. One night when ordinary people were eating supper, watching a ballgame or going to a movie, a simple story of brotherly love played itself out at the bedside of a man who never felt sorry for himself or thought he was different. Father Jim held his brother and asked, “Do you trust me, Danny?” “I trust you.” “You’re going to be OK.” “I be OK.” Eight hundred people stood in line at his wake. Parishioners packed the church for his funeral. They sang and cried and prayed. Later that day, Daniel Jeremiah Hickey was gently laid beside his parents at New Calvary cemetery. The granite headstone bore his name and the inscription: “God’s Chosen.”...

Swimming Upstream, a 2003 Australian film, is the true story of a dysfunctional family which nevertheless produces remarkable children, one of whom becomes an Olympic medalist and a Harvard graduate. The father, who was abused as a child, vacillates between drunkenness and choosing victims from among his five children whom he will alternatively try to fashion into the man he never became...

("A small child, not even old enough for school, went into one of those mirrored mazes at an amusement park. When her father discovered that she had slipped away he saw her trying to find her way out and beginning to cry in fear. She became increasingly confused by all the paths, until she heard her daddy call out, 'Don't cry, honey...")

("Having done a study some years ago of how Jesus died, and having preached on the texts many times, I can say that the depiction of the scourging in the movie 'The Passion of the Christ' was not over done. The actual event would have been much worse than shown in the movie. As Jay Leno said, 'The movie is so good they are planning to write a book'...")

LENT IS Forty days till Easter, Not counting Sundays. LENT IS actually Six and a half weeks Of very violet repentance And very purple passion. LENT IS Watching a man go to his Death and not being able To stop it. LENT IS Helping send him To the cross. LENT IS Knowing this And letting it sink in. LENT IS Not getting off The hook. LENT IS Taking sin seriously, Taking life seriously, Taking death seriously, Taking everything More seriously Than usual. LENT IS, Among other things, Having to wait for spring. LENT IS Six more weeks Of shivering In the cold. LENT IS Not a very happy time. But it is what You have to go through To get to Easter.

("John A. Martin comments on this passage, 'These remarks were revolutionary to Jesus' hearers. Most of them assumed that because they were physically related to Abraham they would naturally enter into the promised kingdom. However, his next words were even more revolutionary - in fact devastating - to those who assumed that only the Jewish nation would be involved in the kingdom...")

("in Dante's Second Circle of Hell are those who have fallen by sensual sins. It holds a huge number of souls, but they never touch one another because they are blown by a powerful whirlwind. Dante recognizes two famous lovers: Paolo and Francesca. Like sparrows in a strong wind, they move in tandem - up and down, one side to the other...")

("Jesus' warning about the narrow gate, the possibility of being left out, comes down to this: Our present life is serious - and the stakes are enormous. Incalculably greater than the outcome of any election or war. C.S. Lewis expressed it incisively: 'People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, "If you keep a lot of rules, I'll reward you, and if you don't I'll do the other thing."...")

("I have a friend who grew up on a farm near Mission, B.C. He tells a story about the day that the hen house burned down on his grandpa's place just down the road. Ike arrived just in time to help put out the last of the fire. As he and his grandfather sorted through the wreckage, they came upon one hen lying dead near what had been the door of the hen house...")

("Dr. Eugene Brice once read an account written by a woman born near the turn of the century. She wrote of raising a family on a farm during hard, hard times. She told about one terrible winter when their 18-month-old daughter came down with a cold, then flu, then pneumonia, then diphtheria..." and other illustrations)

("The Tour de France, the world famous bicycle race, is well known for its grueling intensity. Lance Armstrong, born in Plano, Texas and raised in Dallas, has won the race five times since his first victory in 1999....")

("There is a story about a little girl who had a large collection of dolls, of every description. It was obvious that her dolls brought her much pleasure. A visitor asked her which of her dolls was her favorite. 'Just a moment,' she said as she rushed into another room. In a moment she was back with a doll that would have been rejected by Goodwill..." and several other illustrations)

("A few years ago twin hippopotami were born in a zoo. A local celebrity was asked to name the two babies. The only hitch was that the mother hippo wouldn’t let anyone close enough to determine whether the babies were male or female – an important piece of information when it comes to giving names...")

("Heidi was in love. The boy who had won her affection was the captain of the football team. Quite a catch since every other girl she knew was trying to get his attention. Each day Heidi would ring her best friend and tell her how much she loved Kevin ... how she stayed home at night waiting for him to call...")

Ann Hutchins was a school teacher in the Texas frontier. There was not really a town, only farm houses and ranches, so the school sat out by itself. One day there was an Indian attack on the school. By the time the residents got there, all the children were gone and Ann was found dead at her desk. When they moved the desk and lifted the trap door under her feet, out came the ten children...

Once upon a time there was a daddy who prided himself on his abilities as a driver. He wouldn’t let the mommy of the family drive when he was in the car. Ever. Nor would he let the one legal teenager drive. They were simply not competent enough, careful enough, responsible enough...

("Can you imagine what it's like to experience an earthquake? I don't mean a tremor that makes the china cabinet rattle -- I mean an EARTHQUAKE that cracks streets, splits open houses, throws people to the floor, an earthquake where walls move, furniture slides, and you're desperate to hang onto something solid. Can you imagine what it's like to experience an earthquake?...")

Thirty six year old Wyatt Williams had a time like that. He was terminally ill with metastatic bone cancer. His lungs had been ravaged. In an attempt to prolong his life so that he could be with his two young boys just a little longer, he asked for a very experimental surgery on his lungs. His doctors put his chances of coming out of the surgery at about 50%...

"Once upon a time there was a prairie farmer who had a barnyard full of laying hens. There was one hen though, the farmer's favourite, who had a brood of chicks. One day a grassfire swept through his yard. Tragically, it burned almost everything in sight. Surveying the damage the farmer noticed the charred carcass of his favourite hen..."

("Tony Campolo tells of the time he went to a funeral for a man named Kilpatrick. His mother had been after him since he was a boy always to go to funerals. He knew this man Kilpatrick, and so he went to his funeral. He arrived at the funeral home, went into the chapel, and nobody was there..." and other illustrations)

"An arrogant, smug highway department employee stopped at a farm to talk with an old farmer. “I need to inspect your farm for a possible new road,” he told the farmer. 'OK,' the old man said, 'but don’t go in that field.' The Highways employee snapped 'I have the government authority behind me and I can go wherever I want..."

("I can think of another Isaac...a young man who grew up hoping to be a school teacher, but God called him to the ministry. He was painfully shy, and wondered how in the world he would ever be able to stand up in front of a congregation to preach from week to week...but he did. Like Isaac, he was religiously conservative; he broke no new theological ground..." and other illustrations)

("There is a Peanuts cartoon that has been around for years. In the first frame, Lucy is standing next to a tree. Looking up, she shouts to Linus, 'What are doing in that tree?' Linus answers from the branches, 'Looking for something....' Then he adds, "Can you see Snoopy? We climbed up here together, but now I don't see him.'...")

("Have you ever noticed that there are critical moments in history when something happens and life is never the same? In 49 BC, Julius Caesar, Rome’s great general and governor of Gaul, now France, had grown so powerful that the Roman Senate decided to remove him from power. Caesar, realizing that they were out to destroy him, gathered his army, and decided to march on Rome...")

("'Will it sell in Peoria?' That question is often asked by professional marketers, especially if you belong to the Coca-Cola Corporation and you want to start a new Coca-Cola product. Where are you going to start your new product? One of the places where they always field test products is in Peoria, Illinois....")

("Once upon a time, not too long ago, a fox and a chicken were on a journey. Then one day they came to a river. The chicken said 'I can't swim'. 'No problem,' says the fox, 'I can swim and I will carry you in my mouth.' 'Oh, I don't think that is a very good idea,' says the chicken, 'for the minute I was in your mouth, and you tasted me, you would eat me up.'...")

("The Stand tells a fictitious story about a biological plague that sweeps across the world and the story of the survivors. Some of the survivors are drawn to an African American woman who lives by herself in Nebraska. A very old devout woman who plays her own guitar, plucks her own chickens and as she says 'I's bakes my own bread.'...")

("Walter Wangerin tells this story about his son Matthew. It would probably be easiest if you simply let me tell his story as he does, in the first person: 'Three times I tried to get my son Matthew not to steal comic books! This is the truth! I'm not sure why, but my son started this comic book collection. And when he couldn't get them fast enough by buying them, well, he then began stealing them...")

I was very struck by the story of the young girl who was dying of cancer. She was offered the opportunity to have her last wish granted. She could ask for anything she wanted. She could have gone to Disney World. She could have had fun in any way. Yet, she asked that the wishes of all the children suffering from cancer like her might be granted. Her wish was for the funds to be raised to grant her compatriots their wishes. She exhibited love, deep love, and compassion for others. She was willing to give up her opportunity for other people. If I am not mistaken that is the definition of sacrifice. The love she had for others is easy to identify. We know where she comes from. God knows where she comes from. The narrow door is opened...

("As authorities prepared to arraign school murder suspect Charles Andrew Williams, this community spent Tuesday asking questions no one could answer, searching for consolation and worrying that blood in a high school hallway may stain the town's conscience. Sheriff's investigators, despite hours of interrogating 15-year-old Williams, were still without a motive for Monday's rampage...")

Propelled to stardom in 1979 for his portrayal of a cop who becomes a road warrior in the movie Mad Max, Mel Gibson then enjoyed a string of successful films in which he defined the role of action hero. His stardom brought his fame, wealth, power and booze, despair and self-hatred. Struggling with suicidal thoughts, Gibson was driven to his knees only to discover the God who died for his sins. That spiritual journey gave birth to a cinematic mission-how could he depict on screen what God had done for him in Jesus Christ. The idea percolated for 12 years during which he read the historical studies and devotional classics on the death of Christ. He took his idea to various studios but everyone turned him down. Some questioned its audience appeal others were uncomfortable by its religious focus. Others thought it would be a career-ending move for Gibson. Undaunted, Mel Gibson decided to finance the production personally and began filming in August of 2002...

("A little girl and her older brother were wrestling in the playroom. What began as some good natured-fun slowly degenerated into a more combative struggle. When the older brother began to dominate the contest his little sister become increasingly frustrated...." and other illustrations)

("To grow spiritually we must detach, we must let go, we must enter through the narrow gate. St. John of the Cross put it this way: To reach satisfaction in all desire its possession in nothing. To come to knowledge of all desire the knowledge of nothing. To come to possess all desire the possession of nothing. To arrive at being all desire to be nothing...")

("In his wonderfully evocative novel, Son of Laughter, Frederick Buechner imagines Jacob recalling how his father Isaac would speak to him about his grandfather. 'When I was a boy, he sometimes talked to me about his father - Abraham, the father of fathers, the Fear's friend. Abraham was a barrel-chested old man, with a beard dyed crimson and the hooded eyes of the desert...")

("I would like to begin with a quote from the Irish poet William Butler Yeats. In The Second Coming, he says: Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the center cannot hold...")

("A man worked long hours developing a new way to organize the assembly of a product in the factory where he worked. When it was done, his boss took his ideas and implemented them, taking the credit for himself. Our creative friend received neither compensation for overtime nor the recognition of his contribution. He might have responded in a couple of heartfelt ways...")

I do find “The Passion” to be both a serious film worthy of study and discussion and also a quite devout reflection on the meaning of Jesus’s Messiahship, and on the importance of Jesus’s suffering and crucifixion for our theological self-understanding, both as humans and as Christians...

It was a true mystery! The members of Blessed Redeemer Lutheran Church couldn’t figure out what was going on! Something was very wrong – or actually, very right! Maybe “unusual” would be a better way to say it. You see, the kids at Blessed Redeemer actually wanted their parents to bring them to Sunday School! Even on Sundays when mom and dad wanted to sleep in, the kids were waking them up and sometimes even begging! “We WANT to go to Sunday School!” Now this was just not normal! I mean, you know how kids are! And to add to the Sunday School mystery at Blessed Redeemer Lutheran Church, it came out that the children were all clamoring to attend the class taught by Mrs. Gladys Olson, a shy 80-year old widow who’d never even had children of her own...

("I've always found magic fascinating. It is the art of illusion, the art of deception. Sometimes the simplest tricks seem the most amazing and the most elaborate tricks are actually the simplest to perform. Take for example, making the elephant disappear or making the young woman instantaneously transfer from one tower to the next...")

("Jesus won't be king of the jungle in this or any other story. What he will be is a mother hen, who stands between the chicks and those who mean to do them harm. She has no fangs, no claws, no rippling muscles. All she has is her willingness to shield her babies with her own body. If the fox wants them, he will have to kill her first...")

("When I was growing up, Grandma and Grandpa said to me, 'Dionhoe, it is very important that the very first thing you do in the morning, before you do anything else, is sing a song.' I said, 'Grandma, Grandpa, why is it important for me to sing a song first thing in the morning?' They said, 'Because we told you so. That's why.'...")

("When one has a purpose you can overcome amazing obstacles in life. A few years ago, football player Jerry Kramer, former Green Bay Packers guard, wrote a book called Instant replay: the Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer. He remembers the legendary coach Vince Lombardy telling his backs one day: 'This is a game of abandon. You run with complete abandon. You care nothing for anybody or anything..." and other quotes)

I have on my shelves a book called The Cost of Discipleship. You can try to ignore the title, but you cannot ignore Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the person who wrote it...

("It was a bleak, rainy day, and I had no desire to make the drive from the beach to the cold mountain at Lake Arrowhead where my daughter Carolyn lived. A week earlier, she had called and insisted that I come to see the daffodils some woman had planted at the top of the mountain. So, here I was, reluctantly making the two-hour journey...")

("The following words of Russian author, Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his book From Under the Rubble certainly speak to the people of Canada today as much as they did to the Russians when the author wrote them. 'The gift of repentance, which perhaps more than anything else distinguishes (human beings) from the animal world, is particularly difficult for modern (people) to recover...")

("They tell me that it used to be that when an emperor or empress of Austria would die, that the royal guards, with much ado and fanfare, would take the body in a huge and elaborate carriage through streets of Vienna -- that beautiful city -- up to the doors of St. Stephen's Cathedral. Once there an officer would stride forward and pound on the door for the priests to open up...")

("There was a little boy named Bobby. Bobby was like most boys of the age 6, he liked to run and play. But Bobby had problem with his ears. It wasn't a problem that the doctors could help him with. Bobby's problem was, he didn't like to listen when he should...")

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includes several quotes

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Many aspects of our lives are built on this concept of being chosen and pumping us full of false pride. Last night I was watching the Little League World Series. A twelve-year-old boy pitched a no hitter with sixteen strikeouts. He pitched the first shut-out in the history of the series. The press is having a field day. They are already comparing this boy to past pitching greats in the major leagues. He is being chased by the press. He has gained the attention of a large following of young ladies. He is already being approached for autographs. I do not want to take away from his accomplishment. However, what do we think is happening inside this young boy? After awhile I fear he may start believing the press. We all know this kind of notoriety has been the downfall of many an athlete, entertainer, or politician. The pride of feeling particularly chosen or special can be deadly...

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Back in 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. explained it this way. Speaking to his most bitter opponents in a sermon on Christmas day he said: 'We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. …Throw us in jail and we shall still love you. Send your perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you...