5th Sunday of Easter

Our readings for the 5th Sunday of Easter are:

1. Acts 13: 14, 21-27
2. Psalms 145: 8-9, 10-11, 12-13
3. Revelation 21: 1-5a
4. John 13: 31-33a,34-35

• The chosen
• The capacity for the early apostles to delegate seems almost surreal to us today.  The message of Jesus was entrusted to the new disciples almost before the ink dried on their confirmation certificates.  Yet there are surprisingly few accounts of leaders gone bad.
• Who have been real leaders in your life, men and women who inspired others, brought the best out in them, led by example?
• Were those leaders formally recognized?  Did they have a title?
• Did they need one?
• How do true leaders emerge?
• What makes you so sure that you're not one of them?

• You are not alone
• Great need, great suffering, great sorry tends to isolate us.  No one else has a good sense of what it is like to be you when you are suffering, and it is painful to explain over and over again.
• Our God is a God of compassion.  If we choose to follow Him, we too must have God-like compassion.
• Who in your community needs a hand to hold, someone to journey with them?
• How can you show them that you are there for them?

• Behold
• The temple of the wandering Jews in the Sinai desert was a sacrament of Presence.  Just as God's people wandered the harsh land, no permanent home, no idea what tomorrow would bring, no comfortable cities to rest in, so too did God journey with them in a tent.
• As those nomads made their way from one camp to the next, did they carry their God with them, or did God carry them?
• How is God present in your life?  Maybe cherished memories of divine consolation, friends who courageously call forth the best that is within you, maybe work that fills you with joy and builds God's kingdom ...
• How do you bring all of that to worship with you?
• How does your worship and the rest of your prayer life nourish the Presence of God in the rest of your life?

• I love you, tell me how
• Following Jesus' example is terrifyingly simple, yet enigmatic.
• If someone asked you "how does Jesus love today" what would you say?
• If that same someone asked you "and how do you love" what would you say?
• Are those two loves sprung from the same well?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Where is God calling me to lead today?
2. Where can I be mighty in empathy?
3. Where is God in my life today, this week, the past month?
4. How can my love of Jesus find more authentic expression?

The Metronome

The monitor beeps softly, keeping time like a metronome.
Reassuring me that he is still home to a heartbeat.

The small bones of his hand are so pronounced.
The flesh barely covering them.

Cheeks sunken in,
Skull barely clothed.

His needs are simple now.
He just needs a hand in his.

I've forgotten what my plans were for the day.
This watch I mount eclipses less important tasks.

In a rush I see myself,
Midwifing him into eternity from this side.

And a host of angels ready to receive him.
I am but a small part of a vast throng.

The air around me thick with Presence.
That Presence thick with love.

I came here wanting to do something
Something meaningful, and important.

When I leave this sacred space.
I hope that I will have been meaningful.

That I have learned a little
How to join my melody

To the great swelling chorus of all life
All holiness.

Shalom!