We Would Have Fled-- Matthew 26: 31-55

Dear Family,

While i sat in Nicarry Chapel, on the campus of Bethany Theological Seminary, worshipping with my fellow graduates, thinking about living out the call to be border crossers, i thought about all the changes that are coming to the West Milton Church of the Brethren, to the McPherson Church of the Brethren, to my family, but the most significant changes will come to me.  I am about to find out how much i truly embrace and accept change.  Because to be a border crosser, as we learned this morning, means we sit between the tension of knowing/walking with Jesus during his three year ministry and the resurrection.  We stand between the known Jesus and the unknown stranger that meets us on our journey to Emmaus.  And we live in that space where we 'know' Jesus and His ghostly appearance, which creates more fear in us than peace, until Jesus breaks bread and reveals Himself once again.

This is the world we inhabit: what is realized and what is yet to come.  And to be border crossers means we do not, as we learned this morning, we do not rest in the known but we embrace the unknown with dignity, grace, and above all--Faith. 

I dont know if this has anything to do with the text for this Sunday, but as i reflect on today's graduation ceremony, i find my heart and my soul challenging me to be a better border crosser.  What is a border crosser?  Besides what i have alluded to in the previous paragraph, i think a border crosser is someone, of faith, who names what they truly are.  For us, that means we must accept the reality that, just like all the others, when and if we were in the garden, with Jesus, we would have run away faster than i do when i see a spider. 

We would have abandoned Jesus, and as a border crosser, as a people who long to love and honor Jesus, holistically, we must acknowledge that we would have run for the hills too.  To deny our denials is disingenious and dangerous.  Crossing borders and tearing down walls begins by naming our failures.  Why?

Because it reminds us to embrace the brokenness of the 'other' in our midst.  It helps us see that for the grace of God, we too would find ourselves in the gutter struggling to eat, drink, and know any sense of peace.  And because it refocuses our eyes on the being of our obsession: Jesus the Christ.  When we come to embrace Jesus, with all that we are, we do more than become the great border crossers that help lead a world from darkness into light, but we erase years of failures and open doors to possibilities.

Border crossers, as all disciples of Jesus should be, see and live in what is possible.  Period.

We would have denied Jesus, no doubt, but as a people of faith looking to emerge and exist apart from our past mistakes, as border crossers, we take every opportunity to rewrite our narratives in a way that brings all glory and honor to Jesus.  And what greater reason could there be to exist than to live in a manner that showers Jesus with love, honor, reverence, and obedience?  Amen.

Shalom,

jerry