When structures shake, light pours through the fresh cracks
and we are offered an opportunity to see past old surfaces into new space.

Our culture spends an incredible amount of energy trying to submerge an essential truth. This is that truth: No matter what we do, or what we have, or what we know -
we will die.

So the remaining vital question is: "do we want our life to have meant anything?"
If we do, then it follows that how we live our lives matters deeply.
We must spend our lives in ways that mean something
beyond the confines of our own desires.

God's vision for us is much larger than we can desire or even imagine.
Our work is to listen and to be drawn into the heart of God.

But we are not on this road alone.
Nor do we live only unto ourselves.
Lifted high above us is the threshold to God's kingdom.
Reaching down to guide us is the hand of Christ.

Jesus went up to Jerusalem. It was festival time, a time to worship.
For some it was a chance to seek out Jesus. For Jesus it was a day closer to the cross.

Jesus could see it coming, and yet he kept pressing forward.
This was not the action of an invincible man moving into an unavoidable future.
It was a hard but resolute decision. "Now my soul is troubled," Jesus said.

Who wouldn't be. The cross is a high threshold.
The cost was clear. The benefits were not yet fully evident.
But Jesus was faithful even in his anxiety; "… what should I say -
'Father save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason I have come to this hour.
Father, glorify thy name."

And a voice rumbled out of heaven.
"I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again."

Some thought it was an angel. Others brushed it off as thunder.

What do we hear rumbling down from heaven?
What can we learn from the last hours of his Jesus' life?

Do we see foolishness in the coming cross? Is it a stumbling block we trip over as we struggle to explain the mechanics of resurrection while losing sight of its import?
Do we stand like Philip's Greeks, curious to see Jesus but not necessarily
willing to be changed?

The life that God offers may look very little like the life we are currently living.
But then the Kingdom of Heaven probably doesn't look very much like the nations and powers of this world.

The willingness to be radically transformed by faith was what Jesus portrayed in his journey to the cross. Lest we miss the point of his actions, he put it into words:
"Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

Jesus is not saying we should hate ourselves.
He is teaching that is better to come to grips with God's vision for us
than to grasp at the wispy illusions of the world.

Our culture encourages us to imagine we shall be youthful forever, pain can be avoided, and that we can stand alone in control of our own lives. But none of this is true.
Ask anyone who has been blind-sided by a serious illness,
lost a job they had expected to hold for years, or has buried someone they love.

We cannot control the world in which we live, no matter how much we struggle.
But conversely we can always be of service no matter how meager
our strength, or our resources.

We cannot avoid loss or death. We can only avert our eyes. We can choose to shy as far away from other peoples' difficulties as our wealth and energy will allow us. But this is like living in the dank recesses of a cave because there are dangers out in the daylight.

The light, and warmth, of the sun is only available in the vulnerable open spaces that lie outside our stony shelters. The things we need to nourish our souls do not grow in the dark. It is indeed dangerous out there in the world, and costly. We may get bruised or asked for things we would rather not give up. But we need light and warmth, and the company of others to be fully human. Christ did not die for power, or control, he lived and died to set us free from the fear of death and sin. What else can stand against us?

We are members of one body, in living and dynamic relationship with other human beings. We are connected by the flow of God 's spirit among us.
Feel the rhythm of your own heartbeat in your chest.
It is that beating, and the blood flowing to all parts of the body, that gives us life.
It is God's spirit moving the members of the body into service that gives life meaning and a momentum that can carry us beyond the little lives we now know.

We are at war, and our hearts and minds are torn. Now our souls are troubled.
Our sons and daughters are in harm's way.
Some people have strong reservations, but most desire to support our troops.
We are pouring billions of dollars into an effort that is supposed to liberate a people.
And most of the people in this country appear to be in favor of such an action because they perceive that the people of that place cannot do it for themselves.

At the same time our state is faced with a deficit that involves far more than dollars. We attempted to gamble to meet our needs and lost. Now in an attempt to avoid an increase in taxes we are considering taking health insurance away from children, day care from mothers, and money that was promised for the reform of public education. The sons and daughters of our neighbors, members of Christ's body, are in harm's way.

Where is their liberation? Where are the billions of dollars that are needed? These mothers and children cannot do it for themselves.

"Whoever serves me, must follow me," Jesus said, "and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor."

Jesus gave himself for others - for the sick, the outcast and the marginalized.
He came to set the prisoners free, and to give sight to the blind.
Lord open our lips, but open our eyes and hearts as well.

We can cling tightly to the lives we have been living,
turning our eyes from the cost that others currently bear.

Or we can risk bearing much fruit. We can choose to act for the good of others.

Father, we live in troubling times. We are faced with difficult decisions.
Glorify thy name.