For the disciples,
the day of Pentecost started just like any other day.

They had gathered together in one place as a community,
and then SUDDENLY,
                        suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind,
       and it filled the entire house….

I always find today’s reading from Acts a good story…
 part of it seems a bit confounding
        and other parts are absolutely miraculous…!

“Peace I leave with you;
my peace I give to you.”

 Peace.

 When you hear that word -
especially imagining that Jesus is saying to you: “Peace”…
      Can you feel your body release?
                    Tensions soften?
                 Muscles relax?
                            Your mind let go of its chatter….?

“Love one another.”

Peter was there that night,
            along with Judas and the others
    when Jesus said, “one of you will betray me.”

 One of us?
            Impossible….!

Being a city girl, I have had relatively little experience with sheep and shepherding.

Not that my life has been totally devoid of sheep…

Today is Palm Sunday…
            the first day of Holy Week.

 Today we begin our journey to the cross with Jesus….

“Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany…”

Bethany is a suburb, if you will, of Jerusalem – only 2 miles away.

This is a somber day for Jesus…
      the next day he will enter the holy city
to begin his journey to the cross….

As I was growing up,

every Thanksgiving and Christmas

                        my extended family on my mother’s side

       would gather at my great uncle and aunt’s house for a feast….

Whenever I hear of the person “Moses,” one of several images immediately comes to mind:

 The first is the image of baby Moses floating in a basket amongst the bullrushes….

Today’s readings are full of life . . . that is to say - they are real. 

They are full of faith
and full of doubt.

 They are full of the struggle we know as life…
and our accompanying vulnerability….

“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit… was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.”  (Luke 4:1)

This period of 40 days for Jesus fell between the time of his baptism and the beginning of his public ministry….

On this Ash Wednesday as we begin our Lenten journeys, we hear, as we do every year, about prayer and fasting, self-examination and repentance, and meditating on God’s holy Word.

All of these things are well and good, but the key question is:
            to what end?…

Have you ever found yourself in the midst of a great cloud?
            Or if not,
in the middle of a dense, dense fog…
     perhaps up on top of one of these beautiful mountains?

What was it like?….

“Love your enemies,

            do good to those who hate you,

                        bless those who curse you,

       pray for those who abuse you….

After reading today’s lections these 3 questions popped into my head:

 In what do we trust?

            Who do we trust?

       Where do we find life?…

“When they had brought their boats to shore,
they left everything and followed him.”

 Sounds like all of the stories of calling in Scripture, right….?

I am struggling. 

I think most of us, if not all of us, are struggling.

 Some of us are struggling with our bodies:
           with unrelenting pain,
                        or new diagnoses, 
or diseases that are chronic…
that we learn how to manage as best we can,
            and we are grateful for times of relief….

In today’s gospel story we hear that:
“Jesus,
filled with the power of the Spirit,   
                                 returned to Galilee.”

 Where had he been?

Are you a glass half-full
or a glass half-empty kind of person…?

Today we gather to celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord…
         and our own baptisms alongside that of Jesus.

As today’s Gospel begins,
we hear that “the people were filled with expectation….”