The Earth, The Sky and Everything In Between

This is something I wrote about this time last year. I hope you like it.
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The crowds had gone home for the evening, and the palm branches had long since blown away in the desert wind. The donkey - that noble steed on which Jesus’ revolutionary humility sat hours earlier - now returned to the post from which it was borrowed some hours earlier. If we didn't know what would happen just a few days later, it'd be easy (and true) to say Jesus was coming off His brightest moment with the people of Israel. “Hosanna!” they shouted, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” The masses could barely contain themselves as they shouted their praise to the prophet from Nazareth. But for now, the streets were silent, and so was Christ as He entered the temple that evening to be with His Father.

What He saw inside would stop anyone in their tracks. I would like to say that never before had one seen something so Holy shrouded by such sin, but Christ knew as He stared at the merchant tables with their gimmicks, slogans, and advertisements of happier spirituality, that the infiltration of such greed into the very dwelling place of His Father was but one more example of the reality of sin: that it will stop at nothing in its pursuit to mock the Glory of God.

No one was innocent in this picture. The merchants, among other things, were selling doves. I wonder if they charged more for white doves. They're prettier; they seem rare. I wonder if merchants advertised white doves as the key to really impressing God, that maybe then He'd listen a little closer to a person’s daily prayers? Was there a 2 for 1 circumcision ‘special’ running in the Court of Gentiles? Here was a place where promises of deeper spirituality were offered at competitive rates. The bleak reality of the situation was that of these lies, no one was innocent. Not the merchants for selling them, not the people for buying them, and certainly not the temple priests for allowing such desecration to take place.

I believe Jesus wept that night, both for the love of His Father’s House and for the love of those who had shamed it. He knew that these were the very people for whom He would give His life by week’s end, and Jesus knew the action He would take in the temple the following day would turn the road of His ministry decidedly in the direction of the cross.

When Jesus cleared the temple, He showed a side of God’s character that we rarely see in the personhood of Jesus. He held nothing back as He set to ruin all that stood in the temple that was not of God. Making good on Isaiah 42:13, Jesus was a warrior that day, acting on the jealous love God has for Himself and His creation--a love that does not compromise itself on the whims of any societal sin. And all this He did for the ultimate purpose of redeeming that which God had set apart as His dwelling place.

What I hope you find simply amazing is that Christ has repeated this process in all who accept what He would offer just days later, and continues to offer today. His relentless pursuit of our hearts led Him to die upon the cross, so that all who accept Him would inherit a warrior who, like a sculptor, works to remove all that does not belong, until all that remains resembles nothing less than the shape of our Savior.
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I hope that's something you can consider throughout the Easter week (or any other week). I know I have some tables in my life that desperately need to be overturned. I guess I'm glad Christ got his practice in so long ago. Maybe he can clear my life of its tables. Maybe I won't crucify Him in return. Maybe I already did, and maybe He loves me anyway.

And here we are on our way to Seattle. We decided to detour down some random Washington highways that aimed towards Mt. St. Helens.
This is a typical Washington highway view - tones of pine trees, big blue sky, and of course a nice shot of St. Helens. It used to be 14,000+ feet, now 9000+ feet. Especially in the last picture, imagine it ascending up to that next cloud line, and that's about where the peak used to be. I can't imagine what kind of force it takes to blow up that much of a mountain.

These kinds of trips are always fun, especially with folks like Kurt. We have no problem turning down a random road that points in the general direction of an interesting place that we never intended to go, and then following that for a few hours for the heck of it. I can't do that with too many friends.

 

....and a few more... The Chinese Gardens are pretty cool. I think these are really gonna turn out well once I finish them.

Some thoughts on Portland... You can walk everywhere important in the city within 30-45 minutes if you want, or you can just ride the lightrail, which is free. There's also no sales tax, which is a lot of fun if you don't live there (they've got a state income tax - a shocker for us Texans). I went out to Beaverton last night and ate some great Indian food. Very spicy - I'm paying for it today.

The first descriptive I have for Portland so far is 'grey'. I haven't seen a really blue sky since my airplane began its descent into Oregon. Constantly overcast and usually sprinkling, Portland's colors are typically neutral; their neutrality is only hightened by the weather. Combine that with the simple fact that Portland is an incredibly artistic place in general, and what you then get is a very beautiful and very somber place, and it almost creates this poetic tragedy - as if neutrality were preferred. Very good for walking and thinking.

I went to Kurt's church today, a young, small church in a suburb of Portland called Scappoose. I'm actually at their pastor's house as I'm writing this. They're a good church - still developing in a lot of areas, but the pastor, Mike, is a kind and insightful man.

Tomorrow Kurt and I head out to Seattle. I'm sure plenty of pictures will follow from that. Till then.


 

And here's a few more, cause I care.





 

Here are a few pictures from Oregon so far. I will update these after I get back and Photoshop these things, but so far, there's a few pics of this huge bronze statue in downtown Portland, plus some landscape shots and some pics from the Portland Chinese Gardens. Enjoy.