April 14, 2011

Turmoil

In recent weeks it has become nearly impossible to write these posts at home.  FBC has been waking up early since the time change and once she is up, there is no sitting down to read scripture, let alone to consider it thoughtfully and prayerfully, and even if I could do all that, the odds of getting anything coherent typed out.  My beloved mornings routine has been in turmoil for the last month or so. But this morning due to the budding pecan tree in the front yard and several stuffy nose related wake-ups last night, it is 7:06am and she is still asleep.

Matthew is the only Gospel writer who sets Jesus' Triumphal Entrance in a Jerusalem in turmoil. Not just the Pharisees who dislike what Jesus's disciples are saying, but the whole holy city is in an uproar. Speaking of uproar, FBC just woke up saying "achoo, achoo." Anyway, this morning I'm wondering about this turmoil and how it spread. As Eugene Peterson puts it, "Unnerved, people were asking, 'what's going on here? Who is this?'"


...

It is now 2:08pm, and the intervening hours have been full of turmoil. One of the parish freezers was mysteriously unplugged following last night's fish fry.  This morning, it was found almost entirely defrosted and having fully soaked the carpet. I was able to share that turmoil with several others who aided in sopping up the mess, brining in wet/dry vacs and carpet cleaners, and emptying the room.

Funny how turmoil spreads, isn't it.  I wonder how the turmoil of Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem affected the people? Matthew says "the whole city" was up in arms. The whole city!?! Wow, that's a lot of turmoil. Maybe the cry of the crowd was the cry of the whole city, "save us, Lord God!"

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