Drain the Swamp

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“Drain the swamp” is either a threat or a promise. It depends on which side of the swamp you reside. Turning a swamp into solid ground would require significant upheaval of terrain.

When the prophet Isaiah says the valleys shall be lifted up and the mountains made low, there’s a similar political aggressiveness to it. The explosive power to bring down a mountain is not trifling. The mountains are the rulers – kings and emperors; the valleys are the little people who pay the taxes and are fodder for their masters’ wars. Kings on mountains don’t take kindly to threats….

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Good Friday Passion Vespers

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We can think about the death of Jesus in two ways. The first is cosmic. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son….” On Palm Sunday the Pharisees lamented, “Look, the world has gone after Him!” When Jesus is crucified, the whole world is judged.

So what are we still doing here? With two millennia nearly passed since the death and resurrection of Jesus, why does the world go on, with things seeming to get worse, not better? Why not end this world and get on with the new one?

The reason is that God also wants to deal with each one of us personally. The death of Jesus is cosmic, but it is also personal. You, in all your uniqueness, are part of the story.

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So That Our Joy May Be Complete

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All the stuff we buy ends up eventually discarded. There’s no joy there. Our own bodies return to the dust. The things we think will make us happy are only temporary. But to be joined to the communion of Jesus and His Church – there is life, and light, and joy. Which is why John wants us to join not his church, but Christ’s Church. Being part of that one, holy, catholic and apostolic church is to enter into communion with the One who is Life. That’s our only path to joy. That’s why John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes his Gospel and letters: “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”

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