What first impresses me after travelling through Israel is just how perfect a stage God created to play out Salvation History.  In a land no bigger than New Jersey, God has created majestic mountains, hills, plains, valleys, deserts, sea shores, rivers, canyons, caves, gardens and wastelands – truly amazing.  A photo-journey through Israel would look like a world tour to everyone but the actual photographer.  This part of the Middle East provides all of the varied backdrops in which the chapters of the Bible are set.  Consider all of the biblical stories you know best and freeze the image you have in your mind and there it is – the Jordan River, the Mediterranean Sea, the canyons of Engedi, the sermon on the mount, deserts of Jericho, the garden of Gethsemane, and Mount Horeb where God spoke to Moses.  For the most part, and for me, the biblical narrative has established a notion that is not disappointed when standing at the event site.  God is a great set designer.  It just looks like it should, and helps to Continue reading →

Even before the time of Christ, Jews would be required to journey to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple for the three high holy days: Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of the Tabernacles.  At those times Jerusalem would be packed with pilgrims from all over the kingdom.  It is the reason why there was no room at the inn for Mary and Joseph – Bethlehem accommodations were overbooked with pilgrims during the Feast of the Tabernacles in the Jewish year of 3758.  (Thank-you, Google.)  Now, not every family member could make the journey, some had to remain at home and tend to the farm, sheep or whatever needed daily tending in order for the family, town or city to survive.  For the actual pilgrims it was a great honor to make this trip to represent their fellow Jews.  When they returned, it was their duty to bring back news and stories of what they had experienced during their pilgrimage.

That all said, I have been blessed to have recently returned from a journey to the Holy Land.  What started out as a trip, a vacation, ultimately became a pilgrimage.  And I am back to tell you that your belief in God’s grace and mercy through his son Jesus Christ is all very well founded.  Most believers will never be able to make this journey, therefore my gratitude to God for the privilege of allowing me to confirm that: it all comes together, it all makes sense, and it is all very true.  I understand that this may appear to be a somewhat arrogant statement, and that it will only go as far as the degree of credibility that I have with each one of you that read this blog.  So, this is entirely up to you.  However, my hope is that you will at the very least continue to pursue your own pilgrimage to acceptance  through revelation to the day when you become as comfortable with this reality as you are with your own name, social security number, or how much money you have in the bank.

I have a lot to tell you about my journey, and hope that you think about it, because it is worth your time…RT

The gospel this week was the parable of the prodigal son.  We all know the story – father has two sons, younger son demands his inheritance, the father obliges.  Younger son takes it and blows it all on loose women and fast living.  Broke, hungry and alone, he decides his only hope for survival is to go back to his father, tail between his legs and beg for a job as a servant so that he can eat.  Meanwhile back at the farm, the older son has been working his butt off for the father with not much to show for it (so he thinks) because ‘it’s the right thing to do’.  Then the father throws a big party upon return of the younger son – the squandering son – much to the very public chagrin of the older, law-abiding son, ‘WTF?! How does he get a party and I get squat?!’  The father tries his best to reconcile with both sons – each alienated to some degree from the father – and we are left to wonder how it all ends up.

 It’s common for us to focus on the two sons in this parable.  We can easily relate to these characters.  We probably know some people that have lived similar lives – maybe even ourselves.  But I was reminded this week that our true focus should be on the father and the extra-ordinary mercy that he demonstrates towards both of his children.  Having been publicly humiliated by both of his sons, the father was well within the cultural norms of the day to disown both of his kids, and probably throw them a good beating, but he does neither.  What he does is simply give them everything he has and forgives them of their sins.  Sound familiar?  God gives us everything we have and all that most of us can do is either squander it on our own selfish desires, or throw it back at Him, because we don’t think it’s enough, or because we don’t feel what we got was fair.  The divine brilliance of Jesus to understand us so well – even 2000 years after he tells this story.  It has been said that this parable is the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a nutshell.  And after considering it for some time now I have now come to that same conclusion. 

Lent is a time when we are to take off our old clothes – the clothes of these two sons, and put on the clothes of the father, because as I learned this week, it is all about the Father.

 “…But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had great compassion…”   Luke 15:20