Colourful Dreamer

There is a lot happening today. First, happy Mother’s Day to all mothers. May you know God’s joy and goodness this and every day. And for those for whom this is not a good day, may you know God’s peace. I wonder how our experiences of either being a mother, or of our mothers, help us reflect more deeply on the motherhood of God and how we live out God’s love each day? The theme for this Sunday is being on the edge of big change. Thursday was Ascension Day, the day we mark the Ascension of the crucified and risen Christ to the Godhead. Too easily we forget it. We often don’t know what to do with it. And yet it invites us to have our minds blown by the fully human, crucified, and risen Jesus, in all his full, created, creaturely, humanity, ascending into the full presence of the Godhead. Our humanity mingles with the divine, just as God’s divinity mingled with our humanity in the Incarnation. That leads to big changes for those disciples in how they lived God’s love. It offers hope in ...

Here we are, almost at the end of this church year and our year in Luke’s Gospel. Endings are themes in this week’s readings from Isaiah 65:17-25 and Luke 21:5-19. They ask what we give our attention to and what distracts us. The passage from Luke is part of Jesus last words before the events of Good Friday – in Luke’s gospel the end is near. These are part of Jesus’ final words of encouragement to those disciples in the story, to Luke’s community, and to us. And we are all told to not be distracted. Not to be distracted by ostentatious displays of wealth and might – even when they are dedicated to God. Not to be distracted discerning the meaning of ongoing historical events, no matter how traumatic, nor by threats of our own doom. None were signs of the end of time. Jesus in Luke was not too interested in spending time worrying about such things. These are all distractions! Where we look is where we put our energy. Where we look shapes the direction of our lives. Where we look means...