life on the fringe

When Jesus begins to preach in the synagogue at Nazareth, people are amazed. They begin to praise him. That is, until he challenges them.

He reminds them of two moments in Israelite history, when the prophets caused miracles for Gentiles. He reminds them that Elijah stretched the provisions of a starving widow and Elisha cured the leprosy of a Syrian military commander.

When they hear it, they’re enraged; they drive him from the town and attempt to throw him off a cliff. (That’s pretty mad, if you ask me.)

We’re just as threatened by this Jesus. He tells us that God’s grace isn’t only for those in the pews. He pushes us to consider God’s love for those we don’t want to consider, for those who have been left out, ostracized, abandoned.

In just a few chapters, he will instruct his disciples to go out onto the highway and find those who are lost, lonely, and hungry and bring them into a wedding feast. Can you imagine your wedding flooded with such unsavory guests (and how they must smell!)?

Jesus reminds us that God’s grace is lavished on those who live on the fringes, and he sends us out to befriend them in his name. Can you imagine Jesus’ churches filled again? It will happen when we begin to care more about those who are not here yet than we do for ourselves. We will all have to be transformed. Oh, what a life we will share! Want more? Click here to readLuke 4:20-30.

it's for the birds

We have a hummingbird feeder at home. I bring it in after the birds have migrated to wherever it is they go just before winter. I give it a good cleaning and put it away for the season, knowing there aren't any hummingbirds around to feed from it anyway, and that a clean protected feeder will last longer than one left to the elements.

But once the spring comes, I put the feeder out again, and the birds feed all through the spring, summer, and fall. Unless of course, I don't refill it once it's empty.

That's what happened this year. The birds ate everything and because I didn't refill the feeder, it sat empty from a whole month. And then another. There were no hummingbirds anywhere.

Two weeks ago, I took the feeder down, gave it a good cleaning, mixed a fresh batch of sugar water, and put the refilled feeder back in its place. Within two days, the hummingbirds, which had been gone for two full months, were back feeding and dive-bombing one another just as if the feeder had never gone empty.

I find their return amazing, especially because it happened so quickly. It's also amazing to me that they find the feeder at all. After all, it's just a small, colorless, nondescript bottle in a small spot in our small yard. Yet, from every other possible place to feed, these birds find our bottle, monitor it, flock to it, return to it, fight over it.

I guess once you know where the food is, you don't forget. I pray we all be like the hummingbirds, but for us, knowing where to find friendship, grace, peace, hope.  Want more? Click here to read Psalm 145:14-21.