From Adam

Jesus is in the resurrection business. When all hope is lost, Jesus makes a way. There is nothing more final than death. We’ve all experienced the pain of this reality. And yet, the tomb stands empty! Death has lost its sting. We make this affirmation, knowing the war has been won, but with skirmishes still happening. Word of victory is still to reach the outermost fields of conflict.

Jesus, in the middle of our passage, is standing in front of a fig tree that he earlier cursed. It has shriveled away to its roots. It might as well be cut for firewood. “Have faith in God,” Jesus says. The best is still to come. The story of the tree is not yet finished. The story of Israel’s rebellion still isn’t finished. The story of our own battered lives is not yet in its final act!

We can have more than an appearance of something being beyond hope, even our own lives or the lives of those we love. Like the phoenix rising out of the ashes, so too our Lord Jesus will be at the front of a parade of that which did not merely appear dead, but was actually dead, march-ing forth from death to life.

God’s up to something . . . be a part of it.

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From Adam
What if Sabbath was the first snow day? Think about it. No one works (not even God), and all of creation and humanity simply rests. All the deadlines, due dates, projects, and tasks are moved to the next day. Sounds kind of like a snow day. No pressure, just an opportunity to enjoy the agenda-less rest and play of a sabbath snow day. Unfortunately, COVID has taught schools and workplaces how to work remotely. Add the loss of the snow days to the list of things that the pandemic has taken from us. But the good news is that the grace of Sabbath rest is still offered to us by God. How could you receive the gift of God’s presence with you today? What would it look like for you to enjoy rest that God gives? That means you didn’t earn it. You don’t deserve it. You are simply given it by God. Enjoy God’s presence in the snow today. Go on a walk in the woods, take God sledding with you, curl up on the couch with your Bible or devotional . . . however you and God want to do it. Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy. Lean into the gracious sabbath snow day presence of God today.

God’s up to something . . . be a part of it.

From Adam

What is Jesus doing? He calls the educated and the uneducated. He calls people who work for the Roman government and people who want to overthrow Roman rule straight up. He calls men, and he calls women. He calls all of these different groups. He calls all these people who disagree and in some instances are flat out enemies. If you’re pulling a team together, shouldn’t it be a group of like-minded people? What is Jesus doing? He doing’s what Jesus always does. He’s pulling down the dividing wall between us and God, pulling down the dividing wall between us and each other, and pulling down the dividing wall in our hearts behind which we hide the parts of ourselves that we think no one could ever love. The fancy word for that is reconciliation. In the second letter to the Corinthians, we are reminded of the reconciling ministry of Jesus Christ. We are also charged to join in and to continue it. We are charged as ambassadors of Christ’s reconciling work. Who are the people or groups of people in your life that you completely disagree with? Could it be that Christ is calling both of you to come and follow? God’s up to something . . . be a part of it.