On our first medical mission trip to China and Tibet one of the team members purchased two terracotta statues of the Qin Dynasty ruler Shihuangdi and had them shipped back to Fresno. They arrived in excellent shape and were placed in our meditation garden in front of the church. They have stood there for eleven years mostly unmolested. There have been cracks and some abuse but they have continued their watch much like those first soldiers day and night year after year.

Then one day I went out to the garden not paying much attention. When I realized something was missing. It was the emperor’s head. It had been knocked, chipped, levered, I’m not sure the method used, but the head was gone. I looked in the fountain, in the flower beds, along the path but the result was the same. We had a ruler with no head.

Read with me from the Gospel according to Mark 12:14-17, “They came to him and said, ‘Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity…Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?’…But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. ‘Why are you trying to trap me?’ he asked. ‘Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.’ They brought the coin, and he asked them, ‘Whose image is this? And whose inscription?’ ‘Caesar’s, they replied. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.’”

Dear God, we know this world is not our home. That the rulers of this world are often merely terracotta. They try to look good but are merely plaster. They make laws that do not lift people up. Nations go to war out of greed. So…what is the answer? We must be a changed people, we must ask God to give our leaders the heads of government wisdom, ask that they think not merely for their own agendas but look to raise a nation up. But…this is not always possible so we pray that you will stamp your image on our lives. You will guide us by your wisdom, by your light so we might bring hope to the hopeless, light to the darkness. Today we give our hearts, our souls our minds(heads) to you. Amen.

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I was leaving a store yesterday looked up and this is what I saw. Okay now I know what it was…contrails or vapor trails. Water vapor from the exhaust of an aircraft(s). No big deal right? But there it was a cross.

I don’t know about you but it seems like every time I turn around there is something that reminds me of the cross. Of our Savior’s sacrifice for us. Is nature, is our world is our Lord and Savior trying to prepare us?

Rev. Martin Niemoller, a Lutheran pastor during World War II wrote this, “First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Dear God, continue to remind me of your saving grace. Open my eyes to the world about me, open my ears to the cries of others. Help me be your hands and feet in this world so that I may follow in your steps. Push me dear God to wake up to what is taking place in this world. Stand beside me as I speak up for what is right when so many turn away. Give me, give us the strength and the joy to stay on the path! Amen! Again I say Amen!

On Saturday I had the privilege of promoting one of our Tae Kwon Do students to yellow belt and ten to orange belt. Those who have finally reached orange I said, “You are now actually starting your martial art training. All the other hours, exercise and sweat has just been preparation for today.”

Question: How are you doing with your training? How are you doing with your spiritual exercises? Such as Bible reading, meditation, prayer and service. Are you just getting started? Have you stumbled? Or are you a dedicated student for our Savior?

Dorothy Day wrote, “What we do is very little. But it is like the little boy with a few loaves and fishes. Christ took that little and increased it. He will do the rest. What we do is so little that we may seem to be constantly failing. But so did he fail. He met with apparent failure on the Cross. But unless the seeds fall into the earth and die, there is no harvest.”

Dear God help us with our training. Give us patience and a humble spirit, strengthen our feeble efforts at being your servants. Bless our training and all the little things we do in your name so that our small acts of faith may find witness among many and thereby send them on their way to you.

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I’ve been running into the shadow of the cross a lot lately. I was walking through our sanctuary when I glanced up and on the wall light had hit the top of our Christian flag and this was what I saw. The cross the emblem of our Savior’s execution. The cross the sign of our salvation. The cross the symbol of abundant life!

The Mozarabic Sacramentary states this, “The Day of Resurrection has dawned upon us, the day of true light and life, wherein Christ, the life of believers, arose from the dead. Let us give abundant thanks and praise to God, that while we solemnly celebrate the day of our Lord’s resurrection, He may be pleased to bestow on us quiet peace and special gladness; so that being protected from morning to night by His favoring mercy, we may rejoice in the gift of our Redeemer. Amen.”

Dear pilgrim are you rejoicing in the cross today? Are you living a life of quiet peace and gladness because you have been saved? Are you lifting your life up to our risen Lord from morning to night? Let me be blunt…probably not. So just take a moment right now to give thanks for the cross. Pause…and say thank you that we live under the shadow of that symbol that reminds us of peace, hope and life with our Savior tomorrow.

Dear God, help us to become so familiar, or at least keep running into the shadow of your cross so often that it consumes our thoughts and waking moments. That we are driven into worship. Then even our smallest actions even our everyday experiences will reflect your light. Amen.

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I was at my daughter’s house looking out at the rain falling. For those of you who don’t know Fresno is in the midst of a long and devastating drought. So…to see and experience rain is exciting. But something caught my eye and was at first disturbing because I couldn’t figure out what it was.

In their backyard is a statue of Mary, in fact I believe it was left there by a previous owner and Rachel and Scott decided not to move her. But you see what was confusing for a moment was the fact it was raining yet there was a beam of sun light on the statue’s brow. Apparently for just a moment the sun broke through the clouds, streamed among the branches, leaves and struck this representation of Mary.

As I stood there contemplating The Gospel According to Abbie Jane Wells came to mind where she states, “Of course, it is possible for God to have a Son of a woman ‘in a different place at a different time’ but that son wouldn’t be Jesus, for Jesus was Mary’s son as well as God’s-which lottsa people tend to forget at times. For all I know-for all anybody knows-God may have “proposed” through the ages but, as far as we know, Mary was the first one to say an unqualified ‘yes’”.

In the midst of her agony, of seeing her son on the cross, with all the sorrow and grief this mother, this woman, this believer who said “yes” knew, she had a divine ray of light in her mother’s heart and hope from her God that her boy and her Savior would return. She knew in her heart and mind there would be an Easter! Amen!

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Yesterday I received a gift from an individual that reads my blog from Romania. He had crafted a Chotki for me. A traditional wool band made of 33 hand tied knots-to represent the years of Jesus’ life on earth. The concept is to look at each knot and recite the Jesus’ Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me-a sinner.” In that way we can obey the command “to pray without ceasing.”

First, what a joy to have the opportunity to know one more brother in Christ. Even though countless miles separate us we can pray for each other and work as a team for the peace of Christ to impact our world. “Christ have mercy on…us.”

The fourteenth-century book on meditation called, The Cloud of Unknowing says this, “For I tell you this: one loving, blind desire for God alone is more valuable in iteself, more pleasing to God and to the saints, more beneficial to your own growth, and more helpful to your friends, both living and dead, than anything else you could do.”

My Father, bind us to you and to one another in obedience to your word. Let us stand up and pray for each other, to bring peace to a broken world bind us to you our Father and to each other through the Holy Spirit now and forever. Amen.

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Every year I place the various Lenten bulletin covers on my door. Helps me review and think about where we have been as a fellowship as we approach Easter. I have to admit there is this sense of accomplishment of joy when I finally place the last bulletin on the door and the cross is complete.

Jack Bernard wrote, “The key element in beginning to learn to embody the love of God is not heroic faith and determination. It has to do with whether or not we can take hold of the love of God as a power that includes us within it. The difference is between seeing life from the inside of God versus seeing it from within my own sensibilities and capacities. From inside the love of God, suffering becomes not only bearable, but a privilege of participating with Christ in his love for the world. This cannot be rationally explained or justified, but it is the fruit of a life trustingly lived in and for God who is all love.”

Dear God help me to rejoice that the cross is complete, my debt has been paid the sacrifice made. Knowing that reality helps me Father to stand with hope, perseverance the knowledge that my tomorrows are taken care of and because of that fact I can confront injustice. I have the freedom to pray for patience and grace so I may walk with those who suffer, that I may have the strength to lift up another. Thank You dear God for the cross… that it is complete! Amen!

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Tonight several men and women are helping me with our Maundy Thursday service. We will have stations where we will be asked questions regarding our spiritual walk. We will pause and consider His sacrifice for us. At one point you come to the crown of thorns. We are challenged to touch a thorn, to be amazed at what our Savior suffered for you and I.

But there will be one station not seen or used tonight. The moment where Jesus paused, got down on His knees and washed the feet of His disciples. Over the years I’ve watched how parishioners hesitate and even refuse to come because they don’t want someone touching or maybe even seeing their feet.

Now they are willing to pray, struggle with the enormity of the cross, the passion, the Walk of Sorrow but when it comes to taking off their shoes. Nope not going to happen. Jean Vanier wrote, “To wash the feet of a brother or sister in Christ, to allow someone to wash our feet, is a sign that together we want to follow Jesus, to take the downward path, to find Jesus’ presence in the poor and weak. Is it not a sign that we too want to live a heart-to-heart relationship with others, to meet them as a person and a friend, and to live in communion with them? Is it not a sign that we yearn to be men and women of forgiveness, to be healed and cleansed and to heal and cleanse others and thus to live more fully in communion with Jesus?”

Tonight just pause in your meditations, in your prayers and remember. Remember our Savior knelt to wash from our feet the filth of sin. To humbly demonstrate how to serve one another so that the world might have hope! Amen.

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I was headed for my car when I paused to see the shadow of the cross on our lawn. Every day I pass by that same spot. Every day I don’t notice the shadow every day I’m just in too much of a hurry to pause and think, and pray, and wonder about the shadow of the cross. So? Well Jesus died on that implement of execution I should remember each day, in fact, I should stand in that shadow giving thanks for His love for me.

Listen to these words from the “Liturgy of the Hours,” “Something strange is happening…God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first parents, as for lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him, Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: ‘My Lord be with you all.’ Christ answered him: ‘And with your spirit.’ He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: ‘Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’”

“Just when I thought I was lost: my dungeon shook and the chains fell off.”

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This Holy Week we will feed over 1400 children and families from our Matthew 25 project. Seven different outreaches to the poor, the homeless, children and inner-city youth will receive peanut butter, jelly, bread, soup and top ramen. Why? Well during the times when the children are out of school they don’t have the benefit of the school sponsored breakfast and lunch programs. In other words, many if not all struggle to eat. So, we provide food items that are easy to prepare and still nutritious.

I have to say of all the programs God has had me involved in over the years this one has had the most impact. If you are ever interested in helping just give the church a call and you too can bring a cup of cold water (top ramen) a piece of bread, to the “one of the least of these.” Someone’s life will be different because of you.

Andrew of Crete wrote, “Let us say to Christ: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel. Let us wave before him like palm branches the words inscribed above him on the cross. Let us show him honor, not with olive branches, but with the splendor of merciful deeds to one another. Let us spread the thoughts and desires of our hearts under his feet like garments, so that he may draw the whole of our being into himself and place the whole of his in us.”

Dear King and Savior may your reign become a reality through the works of our hands and our feet so that Your love may become alive in our hearts. Amen.

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