“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ - Luke 16:30

Happy Good Friday!  The day the Church remembers Jesus Christ being crucified on a cross at the hands of the Roman government and the religious leaders. For those of us that believe that Jesus is the Son of God, He chose to suffer and die rather than to kill.  Violence only leads to retaliatory violence which leads to more retaliatory violence….. For those that are Christians; we are required to take up our cross and follow Jesus.  Matthew 16:24-27 -  Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.”

This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the day the Church celebrates Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem.  The city is getting ready for the Passover holiday. There were a lot of people coming to celebrate Passover. Jesus comes in humbly riding on a donkey and many of His followers put palm branches on the road and shouted “Hosanna]”; “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”; “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”; “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”  It was beautiful!

Several years ago the Bible story of John sending his disciples to ask if Jesus was the one…. caught my eye in a new way.  In Luke 7:22b, 

But what does it mean to be great?

I have been a pacifist for many years.  I define a pacifist as someone that rejects the use of violence. I have been challenged internally with the USA's current action with Ukraine and Russia. The USA is the most powerful country in the world, we were the leading country defending democracy against authoritarianism, we were a leading country fighting for  human rights.  We made many mistakes and we have acted in our own self interest but it is hard for me to imagine another country acting more benevolent. (more on that)

I had a dream of America