A very brief reflection for the fifth Sunday of Lent 2019.

Our welcomed journey into Spring continues, with its colorful assurances of new life….and we are drawing ever closer to the annual celebration of the Spring of Christian life: Easter.

This past week, I have been reading The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See by Richard Rohr.

I resonate with Richard’s optimism, at a time when so much pessimism is the daily focus in the media.

Many people, Richard notes in his book, are now finding a special kind of solidarity in think tanks, support groups, prayer groups, study groups, projects building houses for the poor, healing circles, and mission organizations. “So perhaps without fully recognizing it, we are often heading in the right direction these days,” he observes. “We are creating many para-church organizations, and some new studies claim that if we look at the statistics, we will see that Christians are not leaving Christianity as much as they are realigning with groups that live Christian values in the world, instead of just gathering to again hear the readings, recite the creed, and sing songs on Sunday.”

Yes. Genuine Christianity is alive in many people, even when some church realities, like the old abbey church pictured above, are crumbling. But if you look closely, there are signs of new life there as well…..in and around the ruins.

Indeed, actual Christian behavior just might be growing more than we think. Spring. New life. Resurrection.

A broad perspective can change everything we see. Richard continues: “Resurrection is about the whole of creation, it is about history, it is about every human who has ever been conceived, sinned, suffered, and died, every animal that has lived and died a tortured death, every element that has changed from solid, to liquid, to ether, over great expanses of time. It is about you and it is about me. It is about everything. ‘The Christ journey’ is indeed another name for everything.”

The Christian Gospel will never be worthy of being called “Good News” unless it is indeed a win-win reality for everyone: a truly worldview, which means “good news for all people” (Luke 2: 10) — without exceptions.

Safe travels on the road to Easter…….May we all have clear vision and the life-giving companionship of good and supportive friends. Jesus had that as well.