\n
Jesus is standing in front of the temple in Jerusalem
\nthe massive gleaming brick and stone and gold house of God
\nand he says destroy this temple
\nand I\u0092ll rebuild it in three days<\/p>\n
the people listening to him said how are you going to do that?
\nit took 46 years to build this temple!
\nbut he wasn\u0092t talking about that temple
\nhe\u0092s talking about himself
\nhe essentially says, listen
\nI\u0092m going to be killed
\nthat\u0092s where this is headed
\nbecause you don\u0092t confront corrupt systems of power
\nwithout paying for it
\nsometimes with your own blood
\nand so he\u0092s headed to his execution
\nif you had witnessed this divine life extinguished on a cross
\nhow would you not be overwhelmed with despair?<\/p>\n
is the world ultimately a cold, hard, dead place?<\/p>\n
does death have the last word?
\nis it truly, honestly, actually dark
\nand so whatever light we do see
\nwhatever good we do stumble upon
\nare those just blips on the radar?
\nmomentary interruptions in an otherwise meaningless existence?
\nbecause if that\u0092s the case then despair is the
\nonly reasonable response<\/p>\n
it\u0092s easy to be cynical<\/p>\n
but Jesus says destroy this temple and I\u0092ll rebuild it
\nhe insists that his execution would not be the end
\nhe\u0092s talking about something new and unexpected
\nhappening after his death
\nhe\u0092s talking about resurrection<\/p>\n
resurrection announces that God has not given up on the world
\nbecause this world matters
\nthis world that we call home
\ndirt and blood and sweat and skin and light and water
\nthis world that God is redeeming and restoring and renewing<\/p>\n
greed and violence and abuse they are not right
\nand they cannot last
\nthey belong to death and death does not belong<\/p>\n
resurrection says that what we do with our lives matters
\nin this body
\nthe one that we inhabit right now
\nevery act of compassion matters
\nevery work of art that celebrates the good and the true matters
\nevery fair and honest act of business and trade
\nevery kind word
\nthey all belong and they will all go on in God\u0092s good world
\nnothing will be forgotten
\nnothing will be wasted
\nit all has it\u0092s place<\/p>\n
everybody believes something
\neverybody believes somebody
\nJesus invites us to trust resurrection
\nthat every glimmer of good
\nevery hint of hope
\nevery impulse that elevates the soul
\nis a sign, a taste, a glimpse
\nof how things actually are
\nand how things will ultimately be
\nresurrection affirms this life and the next
\nas a seamless reality
\nembraced
\ngraced
\nand saved by God<\/p>\n
there is an unexpected mysterious presence
\nwho meets each of us in our lowest moments
\nwhen we have no strength when we have nothing left
\nand we can\u0092t go on we hear the voice that speaks those
\nwords<\/p>\n
destroy this temple and I\u0092ll rebuild it<\/p>\n
do you believe this?
\nthat\u0092s the question Jesus asked then
\nand that\u0092s the question he asks now<\/p>\n
Jesus\u0092 friends arrive at his tomb and they\u0092re told
\nhe isn\u0092t here
\nyou didn\u0092t see that coming, did you?
\nhe\u0092s isn\u0092t here
\nthere is nothing to fear
\nand nothing can ever be the same again
\nwe are living in a world in the midst of rescue
\nwith endless unexpected possibilities<\/p>\n
they will take my life and I will die Jesus says
\nbut that will not be the end
\nand when you find yourself assuming that it\u0092s over
\nwhen it\u0092s lost, gone, broken and it could never be
\nput back together again,
\nwhen it\u0092s been destroyed and you swear that it could never
\nbe rebuilt<\/p>\n
hold on a minute
\nbecause in that moment
\nthings will in fact have just begun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jesus is standing in front of the temple in Jerusalem the massive gleaming brick and stone and gold house of God and he says destroy this temple and I\u0092ll rebuild it in three days the people listening to him said how are you going to do that? it took 46 years to build this temple! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,17,10,9,37,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}