a tearful warning

Good morning friends,
Our ecumenical tenebrae service at St. Ambrose last night was a lovely service and a great opportunity to worship with our neighbors. Thursday we're looking forward to a potluck supper and worship service beginning at 6 pm for Maundy Thursday. Everyone is welcome, even if you aren't able to bring anything. This is a week full of worship opportunities at Laurelton. Check out the website for more information, and I hope to see you during the week.

This morning's reading shows us Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and its hard heart. Scholars believe that Luke's Gospel (along with Matthew and Mark) were written in the aftermath of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem after defeating a Jewish revolution. They point to Luke's vivid retelling of Jesus' prediction here as one example of why they think that. Jesus looks ahead to the destruction of Jerusalem and sees it as a consequence of refusing to hear God's call to repent. We also see the building violence of the religious leaders along with their fear of angering a crowd enraptured with Jesus. We'll see that violence grow during the week as we head towards Good Friday and the cross.

We can hear that call today as a warning to seek the truth and love that leads to deep peace and to turn from the ways we tune out God's call to justice. We don't usually think of it as violence, but our patterns of power and consumption play a role in the worldwide inequalities that keep many trapped in hunger and poverty. God calls us to seek the "things that make for peace" today as well as we walk with Jesus this week.
blessings,
Sam

Luke 19:41-48

41As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”

45Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; 46and he said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.” 47Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; 48but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.