by Eron Henry | Mar 23, 2025 | Lent 2025
Within the Jewish prophetic tradition, figures like Amos and Isaiah spoke with uncompromising moral clarity, confronting kings and challenging social systems that failed to embody divine justice. To understand Jesus of Nazareth fully, we must recognize Him as standing firmly within this prophetic heritage.
Like Amos, Jesus confronted economic exploitation and religious hypocrisy. Amos thundered, “They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals” (Amos 2:6), condemning an economic system that treated vulnerable people as commodities. Jesus similarly overturned the tables in the Temple, denouncing the exploitation that had infiltrated sacred spaces. Both spoke from the margins—Amos as a shepherd from Tekoa, Jesus as a woodworker from Nazareth—yet addressed the centers of power with divine authority.
Like Isaiah, Jesus proclaimed a vision of God’s reign that would transform society. Isaiah’s vision of swords beaten into plowshares finds resonance in Jesus’ teachings about the Kingdom of God, a realm where the first become last, enemies are loved, and the poor receive good news. Both prophets embodied their message through symbolic actions that made their words visible and undeniable.
The prophetic tradition emphasized that authentic worship is inseparable from social justice. “I hate, I despise your religious festivals,” declared Amos, “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:21,24). Jesus echoed this sentiment when He quoted Hosea: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13).
Jesus’ self-understanding appears deeply shaped by the prophetic calling. His inaugural sermon in Nazareth deliberately invoked Isaiah’s vision of liberation and jubilee. His parables challenged conventional assumptions about power, wealth, and status, continuing the prophetic tradition of subverting dominant narratives with alternative visions of reality.
Recognizing Jesus as Hebrew prophet doesn’t diminish other claims about His identity but enriches them. It grounds His ministry in the soil of Israel’s ongoing covenant relationship with God and reveals the continuity between His message and the ethical monotheism championed by His prophetic predecessors. In Jesus, the prophetic voice of Israel reaches its fullest expression— calling for justice, mercy, and faithful relationship with God and neighbor.
Prayer
Holy One of Israel,
You who spoke through the voices of Amos and Isaiah, who thundered justice through the prophets of old, we come before You with hearts open to Your prophetic word.
We give thanks for Jesus of Nazareth, faithful Hebrew prophet, who stood in the long line of those who spoke truth to power. Like Amos, He challenged the marketplaces that exploit the vulnerable. Like Isaiah, He proclaimed Your vision of peace and restoration.
Grant us ears to hear the prophetic call that echoes through the centuries, that demands justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
When we are comfortable with systems that oppress, disturb us with Your prophetic voice. When we separate worship from justice, remind us that You desire mercy, not sacrifice.
Help us to see as Jesus saw. To recognize the widow’s mite, to value the marginalized, to overturn the tables of exploitation in our own time. May we, like Him, proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for captives, and liberation for the oppressed.
Make us students of Your prophets, guardians of Your covenant, and practitioners of the justice and mercy that Jesus embodied. May we learn from the soil of Israel’s faith where Your prophetic word took root and flowered.
In the name of Jesus, Hebrew prophet and fulfillment of prophecy, we pray.
Amen.
by Eron Henry | Mar 22, 2025 | Lent 2025
The church, when true to its calling, exists as a countercultural community that defies the dominant narratives of power, consumerism, and individualism. Yet this defiance springs not from hatred or fear but from a profound love for God, for neighbor, and for creation.
Jesus exemplified this loving defiance throughout His ministry. He defied religious legalism while affirming the spirit of the law. He challenged the powerful while embracing the marginalized. His ultimate act of loving defiance came through the cross, submitting to death while simultaneously subverting its finality.
When churches embody loving defiance, they follow this pattern. They reject the logic of empire while offering an alternative rooted in radical hospitality. They stand firm against injustice while remaining open to reconciliation. They speak truth to power while maintaining humility about their own limitations.
This posture requires both courage and tenderness. It means creating spaces where genuine community can flourish amid a fractured society. It means practicing forgiveness while refusing to normalize harm. It means celebrating beauty and goodness while naming brokenness honestly.
The church as communities of loving defiance doesn’t merely criticize what is wrong but demonstrates what is possible. In doing so, it bears witness to a Kingdom both present and yet to come, a reality where love defies every force that diminishes human flourishing.
Prayer
Loving God,
Make us communities of loving defiance in a world that too often settles for indifference and conformity.
Grant us the courage to stand against the powers that diminish and divide, not with bitterness or self-righteousness, but with the revolutionary tenderness that Christ showed us.
When we are tempted to mirror the very systems we oppose, remind us that our defiance must always be rooted in love. When we grow weary of standing apart, strengthen our resolve through the fellowship of Your Spirit.
Help us reject the false comforts of empire while embodying the radical hospitality of Your Kingdom. May we speak truth boldly while listening humbly, challenge injustice firmly while offering grace freely.
In our communities, let reconciliation and justice embrace. Let our lives together demonstrate what is possible when love defies fear, when grace defies retribution, when hope defies despair.
Make us faithful witnesses to Your upside-down Kingdom, where the last are first, the lost are found, and love has the final word.
In the name of Jesus, who loved to the end and defied death itself, we pray.
Amen.
by Eron Henry | Mar 21, 2025 | Lent 2025
A striking convergence emerges across seemingly disparate early Christian apostolic traditions. The epistles of Titus, 1 Peter, and James—representing the Pauline, Petrine, and Judaizing streams respectively—reveal a shared preoccupation with Christian conduct within their surrounding social contexts. This commonality across such varied theological perspectives suggests something fundamental about early Christian self-understanding.
Titus, firmly situated within the Pauline corpus, emphasizes appropriate behavior as essential to Christian witness. The letter repeatedly instructs believers to be “above reproach” and to demonstrate lives “adorned with good works” that would make the teaching about God attractive to outsiders (Titus 2:10). This concern extends across social relationships—from household dynamics to civic obligations—with the explicit aim that opponents “may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us” (Titus 2:8). For the Pauline tradition, ethical conduct becomes the visible manifestation of the grace-based salvation it so ardently proclaims.
Similarly, 1 Peter—representing the Petrine tradition—focuses intensely on behavior that would silence critics and potentially win them to faith. The letter’s recurring counsel to “do good” amid suffering functions not merely as moral instruction but as strategic witness in a hostile environment: “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God” (1 Peter 2:12). The emphasis on submission to various authorities, while spiritually complex, aims pragmatically at demonstrating that Christians pose no threat to social stability despite their ultimate allegiance to Christ.
James, often associated with the Jerusalem church and its more Judaizing approach, likewise centers on behavior as the authentic expression of faith. Its famous declaration that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26) emerges from a theological framework distinct from Paul’s, yet reveals the same fundamental concern that belief must manifest in observable conduct. James’ practical focus on controlling speech, showing impartiality, and caring for the marginalized addresses how faith must be embodied in community life and social relationships.
What explains this remarkable convergence across such diverse traditions? Several factors illuminate this shared ethical preoccupation.
First, early Christianity emerged as a minority movement under suspicion from both Jewish and Roman authorities. These letters reflect a common strategic concern with how Christian communities could survive and even flourish amid hostility. Exemplary conduct offered a pragmatic defense against misrepresentation and persecution.
Second, this ethical emphasis reveals Christianity’s inherent social dimension. Despite theological differences, all three traditions recognized that Christian faith was not merely private belief but visible community identity. The credibility of the gospel message depended partly on the visible transformation of believers’ lives and relationships.
Third, this shared concern reflects the core teaching of Jesus Himself, whose message consistently linked internal faith with external behavior. Despite their different emphases, all apostolic traditions preserved this fundamental connection between believing and doing, between confession and conduct.
The convergence of these diverse traditions around ethical witness challenges contemporary Christianity’s tendency toward either privatized spirituality divorced from social conduct or social activism detached from theological foundation. The apostolic consensus suggests that authentic Christian faith necessarily manifests in distinctive conduct within social contexts, and that such conduct serves not merely moral ends but missional purposes.
In our fragmented religious landscape, this ancient convergence offers a compelling vision of unity amid diversity. While early Christian traditions maintained distinctive theological emphases, they shared a common conviction that the truth of the gospel must be visible in the transformed lives of those who profess it.
Prayer
God of unity amid diversity, guide us to embody our faith in visible ways that speak clearly to the watching world.
We thank You for the witness of the apostles who, despite their different emphases, shared a common conviction that belief must transform behavior, that faith without works remains incomplete.
In our own divided Christian landscape, help us find unity in this essential truth: that the gospel we profess must be visible in the lives we lead and the relationships we build.
When we are tempted toward privatized faith that makes no demands on our social conduct, remind us of Titus’ concern that our good works might adorn the teaching about You.
When we face hostility or misunderstanding, grant us the wisdom reflected in Peter’s counsel to maintain honorable conduct among our critics that they might see our good deeds and glorify You.
When we separate belief from action, bring to mind James’ conviction that authentic faith necessarily manifests in care for the marginalized and control of our speech.
Shape our communities to be living witnesses, where the credibility of our message is supported by the visible transformation of our lives, where outsiders encounter not just our words but our works.
In a world that scrutinizes our consistency, may our conduct across every relationship and role reflect the reality of Your grace at work within us, not to earn salvation but to demonstrate its power.
Unite us, diverse as we are, in this common purpose shared across the centuries: that we might live in such a way that others are drawn to the Christ we follow.
Through Jesus, who perfectly united word and deed.
Amen.
by Eron Henry | Mar 20, 2025 | Lent 2025
In an age where calamity dominates our news cycles and suffering seems to spread without restraint, the human spirit naturally bends under the weight of accumulating despair. Yet Christian faith offers a counternarrative that acknowledges the reality of present suffering while placing it within a larger cosmic framework that reorients our perspective on where true and lasting power resides.
Scripture consistently portrays worldly power and the suffering it inflicts as ultimately ephemeral. The psalmist observes that the wicked “flourish like the grass” only to be “destroyed forever” (Psalm 92:7). Isaiah declares that “all flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field… The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:6-8). This imagery of transient botanical splendor—beautiful yet inherently temporary—provides a lens for interpreting the seemingly dominant forces of our present moment.
What appears overwhelming in its immediate context—whether political tyranny, economic exploitation, or environmental devastation—exists within a larger divine timeline. Like the flower that briefly dominates the garden before wilting under the sun’s heat, the most fearsome manifestations of human corruption and natural disaster remain constrained by their impermanence. They may occupy center stage in our immediate experience, but they do not constitute the final act in God’s unfolding drama of redemption.
This does not minimize present suffering or counsel passive acceptance of injustice. Rather, it offers strategic hope that informs faithful action. The early Christians endured persecution not through denial of its pain but through confidence in its ultimate impotence against God’s purposes. As Paul writes, “this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Their resistance drew strength precisely from recognizing the transience of their oppressors’ power compared to the permanence of divine reality.
The crucifixion and resurrection of Christ stand as the definitive statement on this tension between apparent defeat and ultimate victory. What seemed to be the triumph of political and religious authority over Jesus—his brutal execution—proved instead to be the very means through which God’s redemptive purpose advanced. The cross, momentarily dominant in its horror, gave way to resurrection, revealing where true power ultimately resides.
For believers navigating cascading crises, this offers not escapism but sustainable resilience. It invites us to neither exaggerate the finality of present suffering nor trivialize its real pain, but rather to locate it accurately within God’s larger timeline of redemption. It reminds us that human history, with all its atrocities and disasters, remains encompassed within divine history, which moves inexorably toward shalom.
As we assimilate each day’s litany of bad news, we are called to a disciplined remembrance of where enduring power truly resides, not in the systems and forces that currently dominate our landscape but in the God whose purposes they cannot ultimately thwart. Like flowers that temporarily command attention before fading away, the powers of this present darkness will pass, while what remains is the unshakable reality of divine love working all things toward ultimate redemption.
Prayer
Eternal God, whose purposes outlast every temporary power, reorient our vision when bad news overwhelms us.
As headlines cascade with calamity, as suffering seems to spread without restraint, as we bend under the weight of accumulating despair, remind us where true and lasting power resides.
Grant us eyes to see what appears dominant in our garden, the blooming flowers of corruption, violence, and fear, as what they truly are: temporary growths that will wither under the heat of Your enduring truth.
We acknowledge, Lord, the real pain of present suffering. We do not minimize the anguish of those who weep, the legitimate fears of those who tremble, the righteous anger of those who witness injustice. Yet place these realities within Your larger timeline, where what seems overwhelming now remains constrained by its impermanence.
When we are tempted toward despair, draw our minds to the cross and empty tomb, the definitive statement that apparent defeat gives way to ultimate victory in Your divine economy.
Give us the strategic hope that informed the early Christians, who endured persecution not through denial of its pain but through confidence in its ultimate impotence against Your unstoppable purposes.
As we absorb each day’s litany of troubling news, strengthen us with disciplined remembrance that human history, with all its atrocities, remains encompassed within Your divine history, moving inexorably toward shalom.
May this firm conviction birth in us not passive acceptance but sustainable resilience and faithful action, as we participate in Your work of redemption That outlasts every transient darkness.
Through Christ, who transformed the world’s worst moment into humanity’s greatest hope.
Amen.
by Eron Henry | Mar 19, 2025 | Lent 2025
Christianity is not a faith of settlement and stasis but a dynamic movement propelled by divine initiative and human response. The central narratives that shape Christian identity—exodus, exile, pilgrimage, and mission—all embody a sacred restlessness that stands in stark contrast to religious traditions centered on territorial claims or institutional permanence.
The exodus narrative serves as Christianity’s primal theological pattern. Israel’s liberation from Egyptian bondage established not merely a historical memory but a fundamental mode of divine action. God leads people from captivity toward promise through wilderness journeys. Early Christians interpreted their own experience through this exodus lens, understanding Christ as the new Moses leading a new exodus from the bondage of sin toward the promised inheritance of resurrection life. This exodus paradigm imbues Christianity with a restless quality that resists settling into comfortable accommodation with oppressive systems.
Exile further shapes Christian identity through the formative experience of Israel’s displacement from land and temple. The prophetic tradition developed its deepest theological insights precisely when separated from traditional security. Jesus himself emerged from a people living under imperial occupation, and his followers would soon experience displacement from their synagogue communities. From these experiences arose a perspective that refuses to equate God’s presence with territorial possession or institutional power. As Augustine would later reflect in City of God, Christians remain “resident aliens” whose ultimate citizenship lies elsewhere.
Pilgrimage naturally extends from these foundations as Christians understand themselves as people perpetually in transit. This is not mere physical movement but spiritual orientation, what the letter to the Hebrews describes as seeking “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16). The medieval practice of pilgrimage expressed this theological reality through physical journey, but the deeper significance lies in Christianity’s self-understanding as movement toward a destination not yet reached. As the early Christian Epistle to Diognetus described believers: “They live in their own countries, but only as aliens… Every foreign country is their homeland, and every homeland is foreign.”
Mission completes this restless pattern as Christians are called not to settle into religious enclaves but to cross boundaries with transformative purpose. Jesus’ final commission—”Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19)—establishes movement as essential to Christian identity. Unlike religious traditions focused on maintaining sacred boundaries, Christianity’s missionary impulse propels believers outward, across cultural, linguistic, and social frontiers. This missional restlessness prevents Christianity from becoming merely a cultural inheritance or ethnic identity.
Together, these interwoven themes create a faith inherently resistant to comfortable establishment or static institution. Christianity flourishes not when settled into positions of cultural dominance but when embracing its identity as a movement of divine restlessness. This explains why the faith often finds renewed vitality during periods of marginalization or persecution, when its essential character as exodus-shaped, exile-conscious, pilgrimage-oriented, and mission-driven comes to the foreground.
Christians living in contexts of religious establishment or cultural privilege face the particular challenge of recovering this restless essence. When Christianity becomes identified with national identity, territorial claims, or political power, it betrays its fundamental character as a faith perpetually on the move, leaving behind false securities, journeying through uncertain terrain, and crossing boundaries to participate in God’s redemptive movement in the world.
Christianity is inherently restless. It offers not anxiety but hope for a faith defined by exodus, exile, pilgrimage, and mission.
Prayer
God of the journey, who calls us ever forward, stir within us the sacred restlessness that defines our faith.
When we are tempted to settle into comfortable religion, remind us of our exodus identity, a people liberated from bondage, led through wilderness toward promise, always responding to Your liberating movement in history.
When we cling to security and stability, awaken us to our exile consciousness. that we are resident aliens in this present age, never fully at home in systems of power and privilege, finding Your presence not in territorial claims but in faithful witness on the margins.
Lord Christ, who had no place to lay Your head, shape our hearts for pilgrimage, not merely physical journeys to sacred sites, But the deeper spiritual orientation of those who seek a better country, a heavenly homeland, who know every foreign land can be home and every homeland remains foreign.
Holy Spirit, who crosses every boundary, propel us into mission, not to conquer or dominate, but to cross frontiers with transformative purpose, to participate in Your redemptive movement that refuses to stop at comfortable borders.
We confess our tendency to domesticate Your gospel, to transform Your dynamic movement into static institution, to exchange Your call to journey for the security of settlement.
Liberate Your Church, O God, to rediscover Its fundamental character as a people on the move, shaped by exodus, formed in exile, oriented toward pilgrimage, propelled into mission.
In a world of rapid change and uncertainty, may we find not anxiety but hope in our restless identity, recognizing that a faith always in motion stands ready to follow wherever You lead.
Through Christ, our exodus leader and pioneer of faith.
Amen.
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