“At the name of Jesus every knee must bend, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth; Christ became obedient for us even to death, dying on the cross. Therefore, to the glory of God: Jesus Christ is Lord.”–Philippians 2:10,8,11

“His last hours at Flossenburg prison are recounted by the prison doctor, who ‘saw Pastor Bonhoeffer still in his prison clothes kneeling in fervent prayer to the Lord his God. The devotion and evident conviction of being heard that I saw in the prayer of this intensely captivating man moved me to the depths.’”–The Bonhoeffer Phenomenon by Stephen R. Haynes

“In each situation the church struggle is at once the same and yet different. The confession remains ‘Jesus is Lord,’ but the concrete implications differ. To know the implications requires listening, as did Bonhoeffer, to the cry of the victims that has brought the status confessionis into being.”–The Bonhoeffer Phenomenon by Stephen R. Hayne

If the confession “Jesus is Lord” is stripped of its socio-political context then it risks devolving into nothing but a pious platitude. Holy Week is a time to wrestle with the fleshly implications of our Christian confession.

“As soon as riches came to be held in honor, and brought glory, imperium, and power, virtue grew dull; poverty was seen as disgraceful, innocence as malevolence. Therefore, because of wealth, our youths were seized by luxury, greed and pride; they stole and squandered; reckoning their own property of little worth, they coveted other peoples’;contemptuous of modesty and chastity, of everything divine or human, they were without thought or restraint.”–Sallust, politician and historian in Rome (63 BC)

“Rebellion is a stage in the development of revolution but it is not revolution. It is an important stage because it represents the standing up of the oppressed. Rebellions break the threads that have been holding the system together and throw into question the legitimacy and the supposed permanence of existing institutions. A rebellion disrupts the society but it does not provide what is necessary to make a revolution and establish a new social order. To make a revolution, people must not only struggle against existing institutions. They must make a philosophical/spiritual leap and become more human human beings. In order to change/transform the world, they must change/transform themselves.”–Grace Lee Boggs

“We find in the Rule of St. Benedict, that the monk does not treat material creation with contempt. On the contrary, we find the humblest material things handled with reverence, one might almost say with love. If the monk loves his monastery, it is because it is the ‘house of God and the gate of heaven’ and he sees in it something of the beauty of heaven hidden among the trees of the forest. In a word, the humble stone buildings, the cloister set in the peaceful valley, the plain wooden furniture of the monastery, the bare little table and the trestle of planks in the monk’s cell, far from being despised as “vain creatures” are respected and valued and even loved, not for their own sakes but for the sake of God to whom they belong.”–Thomas Merton, The Silent Life

I found this rocker more than ten years ago abandoned on the sidewalk in Hyattsville, MD. At some point I painted it purple and reupholstered it with a scrap piece of purple tapestry I bought at G-Street fabrics. It stayed that way for a long time and gained its moniker “the purple chair.” A few years ago, I decided I wanted to strip it down to the original wood. I used all kinds of heavy duty stripper. I sanded and sanded.

Eventually, I found Haridi — an amazing furniture refinisher. After working with it he determined the chair was a mix of maple and oak, probably dating from the 1870s, probably made in Europe. It still had the original horsehair cushion. This week he brought my chair back home. It looks gorgeous and happy. Merton’s reflections above say better than I can why it gives me such satisfaction to salvage a well-crafted creation and, through labor and partnership, restore it to its original artisan beauty.

“You cannot buy the Revolution. You cannot make the Revolution. You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere. … Revolution is our obligation; our hope of evolution. ‘The Revolution is in the individual spirit, or it is nowhere. It for all, or it is nothing. If it is seen as having an end, it will never truly begin.’ … We must go on. We must take the risks.” —Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed