The View from the West Mesa

This year Easter falls on April 1 st . We invite you and your neighbors to join us in about a month and a half as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection isn't just about a guy who was dead, coming back to life. It is after all, not the first time someone was brought back to life; there are both Old Testa ment and New Testament examples of those who were dead and were raised. The resurrection of Jesus though is special, unique. Paul tells us that this resurrection was of God himself, without any other agent and because of this, Paul tells us that the resurrection of Jesus is the basis or evidence of our hope in the gospel. If Jesus has not been raised, we are the most pit iable of all men. The resurrection then is one of the critical moments, one of the critical truths of our faith.   The resurrection though only comes – only can come after the death of Jesus. This death was both horrible and beautiful. Horrible in its method; beautiful in the love it r...

The work of Jesus occurred on two levels, if you will. The first is the reconciliation of the world to God. The entire race and creation now has access to God. This is the reversal of Adam's blunder and what Paul attributes to Jesus as the Second Adam. All things are set right; God and the creation are no longer at enmity with each other. If Adam was the spokesman for humankind, Jesus is now. This is reminiscent of Boaz redeeming Ruth. Ruth didn't have to do anything before Boaz could redeem her. This redemption is actually a family responsibility thus, Boaz looking for whoever had the right of redeemer. This redemption is grace on Boaz's part; he loves Ruth and he wants to set her life right. This is the first level of Jesus's work. The second level is you, specifically. If the world has been reconciled, so have you in some sense. That sense is that you, as a human are reconciled to God through the redemption effected by Jesus. Your job is the same as Ruth's w...

The news reports that William Atchison, 21 was the person who killed two students at Aztec High School. We have asked the lover of our souls to comfort and grant peace to those he killed, their families, and their friends. We believe also that our God loves and cares for William's parents and we pray that He grants them solace, peace, and sleep as they too face the coming days, weeks, and months without their son, knowing now the emotional turmoil he was living with, and the violence he caused their community. They face the stigma of being the parents of William for longer than they may be able to bear. William's terror has no doubt been burned into the consciences of his parents. There will be no memorials for their son, no community remembrances, no community processions from chapel to cemetery. They will have to deal with this on their own as they ask themselves questions without answers, cast, at least in their own minds, as "the murderer's parents," not eli...

Veterans Day. Since 1776-ish, our neighbors, family members, and friends have volunteered and been drafted to protect the freedoms we enjoy. In the United States we think of our freedoms as rights – things we can do or not do simply because we breathe. We live in a bubble though and it’s a bubble that could burst at any moment because our government is made of human beings who have their own agendas and to whom we give enormous power. Around the world and throughout history, the freedoms we hold as rights are not common. In fact, we constitute a small minority of humans in the history of the world who have had such freedoms. Yes, others have similar ones and yet others have had them in the past, but many, many more have never had them at all.  We are lucky, to be quite honest to have been born into or to have moved to this country which has had both our Constitution, and government officials who have respected the rights in that document and who have rarely, but with some nota...

This question, asked twice by YHWH of his prophet - of Israel’s prophet apparently - comes while Elijah is hiding from Jezebel in a mountain cave somewhere in southern Judah. He has come after a number of significant events as a prophet of YHWH. Before we get to those though, let’s rehearse the political situation in Israel. If you’ve read the history of Israel in the book of Kings, you will have been struck by the repeated descriptions of both Israel’s and Judah’s kings. They are to say the least, a mixed bag of faithfulness to YHWH, with Israel’s kings being roundly bad - evil even. We are introduced to Ahab in chapter 16 and find that he is worse than any king that had come before him. He has married a non-Jew from Sidon who is a worshiper of Ba’al, the infamous Jezebel who will end up being eaten by dogs before her story is done. Jezebel influences Ahab to worship Ba’al and Asherah. He erects a temple for Ba’al and he sets up as...

Today was the last of a triduum that began with All Hallowed Eve, then into All Saints' Day, and now All Souls' Day. Often over-shadowed by costumes and candy, this period is much better used to reflect on the lives of all those who have gone before us in the faith. Some of these have been tortured and murdered because of our shared faith - those that hated them would have hated you. Even today, martyrs are made daily around the world as those who claim our God are even in the 21st century,  hunted, abused, and killed for the same faith that you hold. Remembering them and honoring their faith once a year is hardly sufficient for their faithfulness to our God. It is true though, that most believers no longer with us have not been martyred, but all of them have influenced someone. Have any of those who have died influenced you either to believe, to return to God, or perhaps to own your faith more strongly and more assuredly than before? Who were they; can you bring them to mind ...

The lection this morning was the Good Samaritan, and Mary and Martha; two very familiar stories from Luke’s Gospel. Seemingly two different stories, Luke places them together for a reason. Let’s see if we can figure out why. In the first story, a teacher of the Law decides he’s going to have some sport with this itinerant rabbi, and so he asks, “how can I inherit eternal life?” A couple things here with this question. How would one inherit eternal life anyway? Well if you’re a child of Abraham, you likely thought you could – the Children of Abraham, the People of God – because it was passed on by natural birth (didn’t Paul say something about “not by the will of man?”). For now though, let’s pay attention to that question – how can I get eternal life. Don’t lose sight of that question. Jesus doesn’t say you’re a child of Abraham, so you’re in. No, he turns the question back: what does the Law say? The teacher responds with the two greatest commandments (we’ll be told that combined,...