At an age (many years ago) that some Millennials are now—and that Jesus was then—I strode eagerly into the wilderness.
And when the tempter told me to prove I was a child of God, by changing my queer to straight, I pulled my Bible from my hip pocket and shot Scripture right back at them. (Not to mention that they’d kinda got it bread-to-stones and not the other way around.) Continue reading
“He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.”‘” — from Luke 13:31-37
Oh, the impetuous abandon of youth. Early thirties is hardly enough living to have gained the fullest measure of rational realism. One sermon in the home town (that didn’t go all that well) and he takes the show on the road. I can’t deny the magnetic quality of his unstoppable zeal. How can a petty king get in the way of this compelling business of casting out demons and performing cures.
But what can a thirty year old know? I know that, given life expectancies at the time, Jesus was well into the latter part of life for a man of Galilee or Judea. But is that not the problem? Think of a society of people so young. Run by people so young! Continue reading
“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness” – Luke 4:1
When I was feverishly in love with God, full of vision, I ,too, sought the desert. I fasted, observed the hours, and even toyed (in my head) with taking vows. I probably would have if Mennonites had Benedictine communities. But our conceit was that all disciples are fervently faithful–we are, after all, a priesthood of all believers.
Infatuated, even the silliest visitations of Presence stimulated a rise in spirit. Every word in a verse fed my lust for the One I ached to ravish me. I might be hungry, but who had time to turn stones to bread, while He filled me with mysterious manna? The wealth and power of nations paled in the brilliance of my Lover’s gaze. Continue reading