What does it mean to come alive in God? What does it mean to come alive? (I mean, writing this, sitting here, I am alive. De facto. My heart is beating, thanks be to God.)

Good Shepherd Sunday! Or, one of the times in the year when the lectionary gives us one of the Gospel texts where Jesus refers to himself - and, by implication, the Body of Christ in the world - as the Good Shepherd. There are others. This is the one in John's Gospel, and for us it's in an Easter context this time.

More post-Resurrection appearances today, shifting to Luke's Gospel.

Unlike Mark's Gospel - which we read on Easter - which has no body, and only a frightened cadre of followers told to go home to Galilee, and unlike John's Gospel - which we read last Sunday - where the Resurrected Body has strange powers, it seems, Luke's Resurrected Christ is both evanescent (disappearing from their view in that room on the way to Emmaus once they realize whose presence it is) and, actually, strangely earthly and human, as in today's reading.

I sometimes think of this as the 'Now What?' Sunday. Also called 'Low Sunday' (after the big feast last week), the texts give it the informal name 'Thomas Sunday' in our tradition -- generally the day for skeptics to have their day (like Thomas!), and for us all to welcome the fact that 'doubt' and 'faith' are two facets of the same reality of God.

Some images for you, on this day when we sit with the suffering of the world, and follow Jesus in the Way of the Cross.

The ancient Church heavily used the image of the Tree of Life -- from the Garden of Eden in Genesis, and from John's Revelation, both -- and grafted its imagery onto that of the Cross. The Cross becomes a Tree of Life, whose leaves (in John's imagery) are, "...for the healing of the nations."

The day holds together many traditions, all marking the summation of Jesus' life, teachings, and ministry among us -- the 'Institution of the Eucharist' at supper with his disciples, pledging to be with us always; summing up his teaching in a new commandment to love and serve one another, and embodying that -- as he embodies all things he teaches -- in taking on the role of a household slave and washing the feet of his disciples; a non-violent resistance when the forces of evil and empire come to arrest him, something we traditionally enact in the stripping of the altar, leaving it bare for Good Friday's more austere reflections on suffering.

Palm Sunday is a multi-voiced entry into the Way of Holy Week, pointing toward the Paschal Mystery. We are headed toward the Resurrection, but there is so much to contemplate along the way. As always.

In John's Gospel, Jesus gives a long farewell address to his disciples -- several chapters of sayings, exhortations, self-description, and spiritual advice -- as if they were gathered around various couches, dining together like in Plato. (It's a discourse and setting that would be familiar to readers of Greek language literature contemporary to the Gospels.)

This week we have -- in John's telling -- what is sometimes called 'the cleansing of the Temple' in Jerusalem, center of ritual life in Judea in the emerging Judaism of the first century CE. Jesus overturns the tables, drives out the animals for sale for sacrificial offering, and - in John's telling, uses a homemade whip to do so. Quite the image. John's telling has Jesus reply to his questioners (polite term - I'm sure they were all irate!) that this temple will be destroyed and built back up in three days. John makes sure that we understand, dear reader, that Jesus is talking about himself, but the others do not understand his image. (Who gets it and who does not, are constant themes in John.) He is talking about shameful death/seeming end (crucifixion) and resurrection, though they can not understand that.

Take up your cross.

Jesus encourages - challenges? - disciples to do this in today's reading from Mark's Gospel. What does this mean? Many things, over time, and in different situations. 'We all have a cross to bear,' used to be a common phrase in our culture(s) to indicate a common suffering, common to the human condition. Jesus links it to broader ideas: deny yourself! Set your mind on heavenly things! Lose yourself for my sake and the sake of the good news we proclaim, and you will actually find your life-worth-living.

Lent is a fun time! Well, depends on your definition of fun.

We skip right back toward the beginning of the Gospel according to Mark.

We continue in our continuous reading of the Gospel according to Mark -- such a lot is happening, and we're still in the first chapter! The disciples have been called, and have been walking around their home country joining in the proclaiming that God's reality (the kingdom of God) is now, and that this recognition calls us all to new ways of living, to repentance and transformation.

We continue in Mark's Gospel, right where we had left off. Jesus has savvily called some fishermen to be fishers of people, and -- this week -- the first person they catch is someone in serious trouble. Someone possessed by demons. Someone I would probably shy away from if I met him in the subway.

How are we to understand this call to proclaim with Jesus that the kingdom of God is at hand? Is it the same words and deeds for everyone, all the time? 'Four spiritual laws,' and please sign here?

Jesus heals even this person. Come out of him and leave him alone. Be gone.