“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.” With these eleven words, Jesus turns the world order upside-down—in first-century Palestine and here, today. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.” Jesus tells us that everyone will know we are his disciples if we have love for one another….

Before I went to seminary, I spent a year working with my mom on her organic farm on the Big Island of Hawaii. We cared for goats, cows, sheep, chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, and pigs – as well as tending to vegetable crops and fruit trees. We didn’t have very much of any single thing…

Today, it’s all about lambs and sheep. Don’t we like driving by a farm or ranch and seeing the cute, docile creatures in a field? Sometimes, wouldn’t we like to stop and feed them like Jesus told Peter to do? Don’t we just love cozying up to little lambs in the petting zoo? And don’t…

Jesus came and stood among his disciples. Anywhere else in the Gospel story and this would not be a strange statement. It must have occurred countless times before this particular moment, yet this time was different. This time, the presence of Jesus in the midst of his disciples was not only unexpected, but it was…