Lent (8)
  1. Christ’s righteousness, now our own, calls us into a similarly radical work of reconciliation in the world.
  2. The promise is rooted in the fact that the only way we can endure any ounce of suffering in this life is because Jesus Christ.
  3. We are standing within the body of Christ. This gives us the strength to stand, and it strengthens us in heart and mind, body and soul.
  4. This is a word of comfort, because it assures us that even when our words fail, our heart can rest secure, and even when our heart doubts, we can still speak the simplest three-word creed: Jesus is Lord.
  5. In this time of brutal war and divisive conflict, here we have an especially profound word of gospel.
  6. The promise is rooted in the fact that the only way we can endure any ounce of suffering in this life is because Jesus Christ is tending the soil of our lives.
  7. In a world where absolutely everything seems to be in flux, indeed, we are all looking for a place to stand.
  8. Nearly two thousand years after Paul scribbled out these lines, the only reason “we” are here, reading Paul’s magnum opus together, is that we are inheritors of the promise Paul sees in the paradox.