Jim McDonald's blog

I watched someone texting with one hand and shopping for groceries with the other.

Rabbits and Resurrection
John 20.1-18

Remember the early Christian church and how Christians were persecuted for believing that someone else beside the Roman Emperor could be King of the Universe. Our Mothers and Fathers in the faith were stoned, burned and fed to ravenous lions. Nero’s depraved acts initiated a period of violent persecution, torture and martyrdom for Christians that lasted into the 4th century.

This coming Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. In the evening we will gather at 7PM for prayer and song scripture and reflection and of course mark our foreheads with ashes to mark the beginning of Lent.

It was a strange week. Last Monday began with the continuing saga of the conflict in Egypt. We were bombarded with images that carried the forecast of new storms. Nightly we heard the crowds cry “O Pharaoh “let my people go”, a cry coming out of an economic malaise to ears that seemed unresponsive.

Tuesday and Wednesday you could hear the Chicago area cry “Let’s be done with winter”. It doesn’t have quite the urgency as does a confrontation with Pharaoh but feelings of oppression can get muddied. Tuesday we hardly noticed what the groundhog had to say.

A Big Thank You to all who have raised their pledge for this years budget. The most difficult miracle that ever took place in scripture can be found...drum roll please...Acts chapter 2! "All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need."

Amid the gray cold skies of January fast appears and approaches the red hearts of Valentines Day.

The one day a year when people act like they're playing roles in a Hallmark movie. You know the stories where people fall in love with a look or a glance,and where you know he’s not the one because he didn’t get the bright eye treatment from her.. People who fall in love that fast probably leave relationship just as fast.

The other day in Nick’s office we were talking to a physics student and our conversation wandered over to the quest for the Higgs boson or the God particle. Scientists are intrigued by the possibility of smashing into it, especially now that we have the large (LHC) at CERN . “Where do we come from?” It’s fun to think a very long way back and ponder the nanoseconds surrounding the Big Bang. Evolutionary biologists love to go back to the beginning of life on earth and to the processes of evolution. These are gripping investigations.

I like to read W.H. Auden’s “For the Time Being”—a powerful poem written during the dark days of the blitzkrieg in London in World War II. It contains this breathtaking stanza:

Remembering the stable where for once in our lives
Everything became a You and nothing was an It.

Happy Christmas Season to All of You

I was reading Luke’s telling of the song that came to Mary in Chapter 1 Verses 28- 35. It’s known by the familiar title “The Magnificat”.

I wondered as I read these words, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” Could she possibly be talking about us?

It’s easy to feel that Mary is talking about them, that lot over there, who’ve got more money and power than we’ve got.