Loving the Greatest

Now, what makes this child the greatest? Is it the childlike faith, the willingness to believe? Is it the innocence, the purity of not being defiled by the sins of our age that makes him the greatest? Or perhaps, in the Kingdom of Heaven what makes this child the greatest is that the child has nothing to offer. The child is not a giver but a taker. The child does not contribute to the essentials but needs to be taken care of by others. In fact, this seems to be exactly what our Lord is getting at. It is the child’s need that makes him the greatest. If you take this into our church today it means the greatest here in our midst are not the ones who have the most to give or the most wisdom or the most experience. No, the greatest are those who are barely hanging on, those whose faith is shaky at best, those who do not have it all together, who are a hot-mess the whole time they are in church and do not think they belong in the first place. These are the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Everyone Is an Oppressor and Oppressed

So, when we think we are being overcome by evil and no one has ever lived in a time like this, we need to check ourselves.  When we think Jesus’ words are meant for more normal times (like, you know, WW2, the Reformation, Dark Ages, Spanish Inquisition, Japanese invasion of China, Slavery), they are not.  Jesus tells His people to love their enemies as one who knows full well what it is like to live in crazy times and with crazy people!

The News

“Societies become modern . . . when news replaces religion as our central source of guidance and our touchstone of authority. In the developed economies, the news now occupies a position of power at least equal to that formerly enjoyed by the faiths. . . We approach it with some of the same deferential expectations we would have harbored for the faiths. Here, too, we hope to receive revelations, learn who is good and bad, fathom suffering and understand the unfolding logic of existence. An

Source: The News