Locs, Heels, and the Bible

It is Holy Thursday and again, we will dust off our ripping of Judas to make ourselves look righteous. One of my seminary professors once said that betrayal can occur when you give someone more than they can handle or more than they deserve. Not that any of us needed him to tell us, but he went on to say that betrayal is painful. It is a common occurrence in the world in which we live but it is harder to fathom and move through when it occurs in Christian leadership and ministry.    Betrayal is to have someone you trust turn on you, or to turn on someone who trusts you. Betrayal is when you share your truth with someone, and that someone weaponizes that truth against you, or when confidentiality is broken. It is when you see a smile but feel the knife. Betrayal is spreading information about people that you know will wind up another blot against them. It is not necessarily the act of telling a lie; sometimes, betrayal is telling the truth – for the wrong reasons.   Be...

  It's almost Palm Sunday Palm Sunday in the land I call my home, traditionally ushers in Holy Week with a flourish of choirs and congregants marching, palms in hand, echoing “All Glory Laud and Honor.” The atmosphere would be charged with a mixture of excitement and expectation. We do know that the original 'Palm Sunday' was more than a ceremonial procession; it was a high-stakes drama set against the backdrop of political tension and spiritual anticipation. Jesus sends his disciples on an unusual errand to wheel and deal to secure a donkey, perhaps assigning this task to James and John, reminding them and us that true honor comes from humility, not from seeking high places in earthly kingdoms (as their mother did not so long ago).  In a bold, tactical move, my favorite rebel orchestrates a parade that mocks the war horses of Rome's elite and confronts the empire's might head-on.  As Jesus rides into Jerusalem, the air is thick with expectancy and confusion, b...

In the vivid narrative of John 2:13-22, we encounter a Jesus far removed from the serene figure often depicted in art and lore. Here, amidst the hustle of the High Holy Days, Jesus strides into Jerusalem with a different kind of accessory. Sweet Jesus is bringing a heart that is angry at the power-brokers and he turns this anger into a whip, that challenges the wickedness of the temple, which ironically is the epicenter of worship and commerce of his day. Let's just say, Jesus was out to protest Wall Street.  This Jesus disrupts the physical space of the temple AND the complacency with which society accepted economic exploitation as a norm. Classically, Jesus is pissed at the disadvantage of the disenfranchised. The temple, meant to be a place of healing and hope, had become a den of inequality, where the poor were burdened by exorbitant rates and the cost of religious observance. The money changers, thriving on the necessities of the faithful, had turned devotion into profit, ex...