Brown's Daily Word 3/31/15

Praise the Lord for this new day. Praise the Lord for family and friends. Praise the Lord for His church around the corner and around the globe. Praise the Lord for the children in our circles and amongst us. The other day our oldest daughter Janice sent me a text message,"Daddy Simeon became a vegetarian tonight.. When he heard about the chickens dying he felt sad." Simeon is 7 years old. Another text message Janice sent yesterday, "Simeon is eating only vegetarian dishes..."Do not you dare to have any bacon in the house when we come to New York". Children make us laugh. They make us spontaneous in our loving and serving and giving. No wonder Jesus had a tender spot in His heart for children. He said Unless you become like children...."
  Praise the Lord for this week, which is known as Holy Week or Passion Week. As this Holy week goes on, we remember the last days of our Lord, and anticipate both his death on the cross and his glorious resurrection. If we stop and think about it, it is a strange thing to celebrate the suffering and death of God. One of my favorite Bishops and preachers, Bishop William Willimon, has written, “One of the dangers of being in church as often as I am is that it all starts to make sense.” In other words, we who go to church, who pray, who search the Scriptures and partake of the Lord’s Supper, are in danger. The danger is assuming that all the puzzle pieces fit, that all this gospel really and truly makes perfect sense. If we lose the sense of mystery, the sense of strangeness about this faith that has laid claim on our lives, we should also worry that we may have lost the true message and ministry of God in Christ Jesus.
Mystery is at the heart of our faith. My children have read the book The Shack. The Shack is a book that deals heavily with the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although it is fiction, it deals seriously with the relationship among the three persons, how they relate to one another. It is mysterious and odd that God would choose to initiate the salvation of the world on a cross. Paul told the church at Corinth that Jesus’ crucifixion was a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to the Gentiles. While Christians know the cross as “the power of God,” the world scoffs and laughs.
The cross means suffering, humiliation, pain, and death. It is not natural for us to run to it; only the Spirit of the living God to help us to embrace that cross in faith, hope, and love. It is the cross of a Savior who asks us to do nothing but die to ourselves. To the world such a cross is ridiculous, utter foolishness, but to us, as Saint Paul says, it is the power of God.
Tony Campolo has told a story about a man who walked up and down the streets of downtown Philadelphia wearing a sandwich-board style sign over his shoulders. On the front of the sign was written, “I am a fool for Christ.” As you might imagine, many who approached him would snicker and laugh at the man as they drew near, but all became silent as they continued to walk past him and read the other side of the board, which read, “whose fool are you?”
As Easter approaches, the world is busy in its trivial pursuit, but in various places, Jesus’ disciples gather in his holy Church to remember that the new life promised at Easter is not possible without this foolish, rugged old thing called a cross. We can be wise in the world’s eyes, or fools for the sake of Christ and His cross.
In Christ, Brown
https://youtu.be/mDkuxEIcpdI