“Pick up your cross and follow me,” is the radical invitation of Lent. When Jesus followed his own advice, the empire’s authorized terrorists cloaked him in purple. This year, more than any other in recent memory, it seems only right to abandon imperial purple and replace it with a martyr’s orange.
Orange is the New Purple by Brian Walsh
Last week twenty one men were marched out to the shores of Libya. They were called “people of the cross.”
They wore orange jump suits. They were beheaded.
Purple or orange?
The soldiers put a purple robe on Jesus, mocking his pretension to kingship.
And then they took him to his execution.
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The First Word by Andrew Stephens-Rennie
On the banks of the Jordan, I had this sense that a new plot line was emerging.
Jesus of Nazareth would be the first word in the story of what might be.
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Ash Wednesday: Beginning the Lenten Pilgrimage
with Steve Bell by Brian Walsh
Today we begin a Lenten journey. We know that it is a wilderness journey. We know that it is going to a cross.
Steve Bell just might be a good companion on this pilgrimage
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From Empire to Cross by Brian Walsh
It all turns around at Caesarea Philippi. The pilgrimage if from the backyard of the empire to an imperial cross.
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Stubborn by Nate Wall
When Jesus remixes Isaiah’s song of the vineyard Bartimeaus sees stubborness meet stubbornness.
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Look Death in the Eye by Andrew Stephens-Rennie
“My soul is troubled,” Jesus repeats. And so it should be. There’s global unrest. Arable land is decreasing as farms are being swallowed up by cities and forests are clear-cut to feed the Emperor’s insatiable appetites. People are being killed. Insurrection is on the rise. And in response, a new security agenda is being proposed.
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On Staying and not Running: A Pastoral letter for Holy Week, 2015 by Brian Walsh
Dare we not run, but stay?
Dare we stay and watch, stay and bear witness?
Dare we face this week with open hands and open hearts?
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