sand

Friday July 5^th,  Luke 9:  51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them, 56 and they went to another village. When Jesus got to Jerusalem, he was eventually rejected there by the powers that be also.  The Gospel is a threat to all who want to draw lines in the sand, and that is some of us all the time and all of us some of the time.  As the children of God, we are still sent into foreign territories to get things ready for the coming of Christ.  These foreign lands do not always require a passport however, sometimes these foreign lands are the neighborhood grocery, the athletic club, half way around the world, and sometimes even our own families and congregations.  Every time our anger seems to beckon us to call down God’s wrath on someone or some group, it is good to remember that none of us escape judgment in total.  Often the call for God’s wrath says more about who we are than it does about the other for whom we wish to call down the wrath.  In God’s world what you call down is far more difficult to live with than wrath, it is love..  but in the end, it is the only thing worth living for and we are not left standing there alone.