brian shivers

On the Monday of the week we call Holy in the Christian tradition - holy in a way that somehow is different than the holiness of every other week -  we find a small  vignette tucked into the narrative story of the final week of the life of Jesus. After coming to the city of Jerusalem, Jesus enters the temple and finds that the most sacred of spaces had been converted from a house of prayer into a marketplace where goods were bought and sold at the highest prices. A place that was to be a place of prayer and connection with the divine for all nations had become a noisy shopping mall. The authors tell us that Jesus cleansed the temple of all that clutter, clamor, and clatter. Jesus then called the people back to that for which this space was originally set apart.  We, too, have a habit of taking that which is supposed to be a place of prayer and connection with the divine and turning it into a distracting marketplace. Those spaces may be physical places or may be internal....

Jesus . . .  moves toward Jerusalem to face the largest challenge of his ministry and his life; Jesus . . .  the one who taught humility and lived what he meant by " the last will be first, and the first will be last; " Jesus . . .  fulfills the prophecy he read in the temple at the beginning of his ministry, " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor;" Jesus . . .  the rabbi who dined with the outcast and received those thought to be unclean; J esus . . . comes "humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey." This is the way of this one who is called the Messiah, the anointed one, the Christ, a king.  This Sunday - Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday - we remember together the moment when Jesus rode into Jerusalem not on a steed, n...

I have personally become aware of how much I carry with me everyday.  There is the grief over lives lost and loved ones missed . . .  There is the uncertainty surrounding what may be ahead . . .  There is the sadness about opportunities missed . . . There is the guilt over things done and things left undone . . . There is the weight of unreasonable expectations I place on myself or what I think others expect of me . . . There is the fear of letting others down . . . There is . . .  This list could go on. Maybe you have a similar one. Today, we find ourselves halfway through this Season of Lent - a season of the Christian calendar that opens the door for reflection, introspection, contemplation, and renewal. As a part of this journey, what if we took the opportunity to take a long look at all of the things we carry? What if we examined each one and reflected on where they come from? What if we then asked if this particular thing is something that is ours to carry? Wha...