By Tina Teng-Henson

On Sunday, March 9th, I emailed several friends the following:

Hi friends,

I know this is a bit of a strange question — but would any of you (or folk you’d recommend) be available on Holy Saturday (between Good Friday + Easter Sunday) to meet me and a few others to do a prayer and blessing time at one of the memory care senior centers I serve in the Bay Area? 

The activities director told me on Saturday (as I drove her home to Redwood City after a Celebration of Life up in Woodside) that she would like a blessing of the building. When I asked her more what she meant, she told me that there might be souls there that are somewhat lost, confused, needing help finding peace/rest… because there are soda cans that get moved around, caregivers sometimes feel pressure on their shoulder like they’re being touched, and items on their desks that might spin unexpectedly. It hasn’t been malicious (the way it might be at one of my other facilities where she said caregivers felt something swipe or grab at their ankles). But there just seem to be souls that are kind of stuck in the building, in her opinion. 

Read Full Post »

By Melanie Mar Chow

Diana Butler Bass opened my eyes to many new ways to think about Jesus in her book, Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence.  To me, the tone of her book represented the teacher she was from a time in the years following college graduation. The following quote is from chapter 2 entitled, “Teacher”:

“Indeed, the best teachers I have ever known – as well as the teacher I aspired to be – nurtured a way of being in the world, a way that treasured questions and logic, research and study, critical thinking, and a love of words. I heard it said of one such master teacher, a professor whose dinners with students were legendary at his memorial service, “He gave us instructions and he set us free” (p. 59-60).

Read Full Post »

By Ajung Sojwal

As a migrant from an Eastern worldview to the West, I have had to confront some of the stark differences of people’s approach to Jesus’ life and work as portrayed in the gospels. It is only after being immersed in this highly individualistic and consumeristic culture of America that I began to feel this existential need to claim Jesus’ life and work in the context of his indisputable Eastern worldview. This has meant that I have had to unshackle Jesus from the “Western missionary” interpretation of Jesus that got peddled to “pagans” in foreign lands where my ancestors got “saved” overnight.

This Evangelical burden to save the world has become more and more problematic for me over the years and this is also where Jesus has become much more the teacher and less the Lord. Not that I don’t believe in Jesus as Lord, but the connotation of Jesus as Lord has been highjacked by nationalistic aspirations of the Christian right in this country making Jesus more of a bouncer guarding the halls of political interest groups. 

Read Full Post »

By Angela Ryo

I know we’re about to enter Lent, but my thoughts jump ahead to Easter as I ponder the theme of Jesus as my friend. 

In an essay on the resurrection, theologian Chris Barnes reminds us of what actually matters: “The question that Easter asks of us is not, ‘Do we believe in the doctrine of the resurrection?’ Easter doesn’t ask, ‘Do you believe?’ but ‘Have you encountered the risen Christ?’” And the question I’d like to ask you today is, “Have YOU encountered the risen Christ?” 

Perhaps the answer to that question lies in how Mary encounters Jesus. Mary meets Jesus because she remains in the darkness a little while longer than Peter and John in John 20:1-18. Darkness is not where we want to be, but darkness is where Jesus often comes to us. After all, resurrection happened in the darkness when no one was watching. When Jesus was lying in the darkness of the tomb, only God knew that Jesus was really in the darkness of the womb. Mary didn’t know that, but she endured the darkness just a little longer because she had a flicker of hope that she would find her beloved friend, Jesus. 

Read Full Post »

By Julia Qiuye Zhao

You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. —John 15:14-15

When I first encountered the idea of Jesus as friend, I was not all that impressed.

Friendship seemed to be too ordinary, too common, to describe what we have with Jesus. After all, we call lots of people friends, of all degrees of intimacy. In the era of social media, we can be Facebook friends for years with people with whom we hardly, if ever, have contact. I longed to claim Jesus as my Lord, my Savior, and the One who loves me beyond measure, and friendship just didn’t seem to fit the bill. 

Read Full Post »

By Eunhyey Lok

The song Slow Down, by IAMSON, has been on my heart recently. When I consider Jesus as a friend, this is what I imagine he might say to me:

Slow down, 
where are you going?
What’s so important that can’t wait?

Tell me 
what are you seeking?
What is it that’s keeping you from
Bringing me your questions
All that you carry, 
all that you bury underneath

Read Full Post »

By Yuri Yamamoto

Wherever I serve as a chaplain, I get to be known as “the chaplain with the ukulele” for carrying a ukulele around campus. People often talk to me because they love music, enjoy singing, or are just bored or curious. Singing together can create an instant bond or a moment of respite, and a favorite song helps to bring back memories.

There once was a patient who loved to sing traditional Christian hymns. My memorized repertoire in this genre was limited, so we usually sang “Amazing Grace” and “This Little Light of Mine.” After a while, he started asking if I knew “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” 

Read Full Post »