Down to the River to Pray

What we get before Palm Sunday in John’s gospel is the story of people who are ALL IN, saying enough is enough if a culture of violence wants to keep people in their graves. Enough is enough if generosity and abundance are scorned. Enough is enough if talking about new life is threatening to people in power . They lead

In this passage from John's gospel, we're reminded that while the occupying Roman government murdered Jesus, they did so with the encouragement of Jesus' own people. What does this story have to say for how we live together, how we acknowledge our mistakes, and how we are called to be faithful today?

After Pilate examines Jesus, he finds no fault in him. And yet, he offers the crowd a choice any way: release Jesus or Barabbas? The crowd chooses Barabbas, a convicted criminal over Jesus. How do we continue to choose Barabbas over Jesus still today?

In today's reading, Peter denies Jesus three times. Peter isn’t any worse than any other sheep in God’s flock. Here, at least, he’s also not better. We are people, like Peter, who deny. We deny our connectedness. We divide into “us and them”. We seek easy answers to complicated questions.

On the night we expect bread and cup, John’s gospel gives us a towel and a basin. Jesus kneels, turning ritual into relationship and power into vulnerable love. Communion is not words at a table, but embodied connection that changes and binds us together—when we dare to be present.

The rhythm of living, dying, and rising is the story of our faith, and the rhythm of our lives. We worship a man who rose from the dead. After he had lived. And after he died. As we enter the season of Lent, we'll focus on the story of Lazarus, and see how living, dying, and rising affected him and his community.

In John's Gospel, the signs Jesus performs are supposed to point people to see who Jesus is, to connect them to God. But in the sign of the blind man receiving his sight, it doesn't seem to work. When Jesus' signs don't match what we know to be true in the world, do we dismiss them, explain them away?

Many of us feel things are falling apart-either in our personal, professional, or public life. How can suffering invite us toward deeper freedom, integrity, and trust in God? How can our helplessness transform us into the people God has created us to be?