Brownson Properties

06/20/2026

*Taken when the 45th president of the United States takes office January 20, 2017 (ABC News)

Reading through the Bible…Esther 1-2/Acts 5

Memucan spoke up in the council of the king and princes: “It’s not only the king that Queen Vashti has insulted, it’s all of us, leaders and people alike in every last one of King Xerxes’ provinces. The word’s going to get out: ‘Did you hear the latest about Queen Vashti? King Xerxes ordered her to be brought before him and she wouldn’t do it!’ When the women hear it, they’ll start treating their husbands with contempt. The day the wives of the Persian and Mede officials get wind of the queen’s brazenness, they’ll be out of control. Is that what we want, a country of angry women who don’t know their place? (Esther 1:16-18)

What do men want from women?

Memucan, one of King Xerxes advisors, assumes that men want women whom they can control…women who know their place. It doesn’t appear, from our passage, that he really knows his King.

When King Xerxes’ anger had cooled…he was having second thoughts about what Vashti had done and what he had ordered against her. (Esther 2:1)

When King Xerxes cools off, he starts to think about his queen. More than what Vashti fails to do once, he remembers all the things she does do.

Xerxes gets beyond worrying about what others might think about their relationship. Perhaps, he remembers, times spent with her alone. Perhaps, he starts to miss her, more than wanting to malign her.

Maybe the King realizes that he wants more than a mannequin. Maybe the King wants to shoot higher than a household servant.

We don’t know all of what Xerses wants from Vashti. We get a better idea, however, of what he gets from Esther.

In Esther, Xerxes gets another woman he can’t control. Vahsti doesn’t come when the King calls. Esther comes, when the King doesn’t call. Both disobey.

By the time Esther disobeys, Xerxes learns his lesson. He could banish her, even kill her, for coming when he hasn’t called. Instead, he lets Esther speak her mind.

Because the King listens to Esther, she literally saves his life, (revealing a plan to assasinate him). Because he listens, she also saves the lives of her people.

Writing…

I begin with a picture of two Presidents and their first ladies. They are not kings. Their wives are not queens. Still, let me draw some parallels.

We can’t know for sure what either President in the pictures wants from a First Lady. We can, through their public speeches, get some idea of the kind of women both presidents get.

The last time Ivanka speaks publicly is in early April. She mentions her husband “Donald” once. Most of the time she devotes to Jeffrey Epstein. She wants to make it clear that he is no friend of hers.

https://youtu.be/Aup-JfQZuqI?si=81NlOt8ZyiWQptRW

The last time Michelle speaks publicly happens just yesterday at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center. She devotes the first half of her speech to honoring her husband, singing the praises of former President of the United States Barack Obama.

https://youtu.be/v8mGupg83tQ?si=bV8uoO46LS3PTFFW

Watch both speeches. Then, ask yourself two questions?

What do each of these Presidents want from their first ladies?

What do each of them get?

Building…

Let me be honest, though. If ask me, before I get married at the age of 22, what I want from my first and only lady, I wouldn’t be able to tell you!

I grow up in a family of four boys. I don’t date. I barely even talk to girls. How can I know what I want from women, when I don’t know them?

I don’t know what I want when I get married. I can tell you, however, who I get.

In my late wife Jeannette, I find a woman of great beauty and that beauty runs deeper than moisturized skin deep.

Jeannette doesn’t change for me. She does, however, change with me. We make each other better.

She doesn’t have to speak up for her people. She does, ocassionally, find it necessary to speak up for our children. Tomorrow, on Father’s Day, I won’t know for sure if she makes me a good father. I will know, however, that she makes me a more responsive one.

I don’t know all of what Xerxes wants from a queen or two presidents might want from their First Ladies. I don’t even know for sure all of what I want from Jeannette when we get married.

I do know who I get. I do know who she gets too. We find in each other a partner who cares.

Today, I will be one of many celebrating the wedding of Brittany Y. Willingham & Shomari J. Tate at 3:00 at Dimnent Chapel. I can’t invite you. I can, however, invite you to ask.

What might Shomari want from Brittany?

We can’t know for sure. Still, I suspect it’s the same thing Brittany wants from Shomari. I think it’s what we all want from each other, isn’t it?

LOVE

I am hoping that they, on their wedding day, and the rest of us, in every day…

get it.

06/19/2026

I just finish “Libby listening” to my signed copy of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book “The Serviceberry” (I buy books to support authors. I listen to books to support “gift economy” libraries…and because it’s easier to exercise when you are listening then when you are reading)

I read. I write. Then I BBC (Build Beloved Communities).

You know the drill.

Reading through the Bible…Nehemiah 11-12/Acts 4:23-37

The whole congregation of believers was united as one—one heart, one mind! They didn’t even claim ownership of their own possessions. No one said, “That’s mine; you can’t have it.” They shared everything. The apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Master Jesus, and grace was on all of them. And so it turned out that not a person among them was needy. (Acts 4:32-34)

Kimmerer describes what abundance and reciprocity look like in the natural world. Luke describes what they look like in the world Jesus’ followers inhabit.

Abundance…it turned out that not a person among them was needy

Reciprocity…They shared everything

Jesus, like Kimmerer, points His followers to the natural world for lessons in Abundance.

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?…”And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. (Matthew 6:26-29)

Jesus also encourages reciprocity in His call for His disciples to love one another.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Love one another is one of approximately 59 “one another” or “reciprocal commands” in the New Testament. One author breaks these commands into three main categories: [1]

1. Positive Commands (How to treat each other)

Love one another (John 13:34)

Serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13)

Be devoted to and honor one another (Romans 12:10)

Be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32)

Encourage one another daily (Hebrews 3:13)

Bear with and forgive one another (Colossians 3:13)

Pray for one another and confess your sins to one another (James 5:16)

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:21)

Offer hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

2. Negative Commands (What to avoid)

Do not bite and devour one another (Galatians 5:15)

Do not boastfully challenge or envy one another (Galatians 5:26)

Do not grumble against or slander one another (James 4:11, James 5:9)

Do not lie to one another (Colossians 3:9) [1, 2, 3]

3. Unity & Harmony Commands

Be of the same mind with one another (Romans 12:16, 15:5)

Accept one another, just as Christ accepted you (Romans 15:7)

Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16) [1, 2]

I talk to a recent seminary graduate who, in his entire seminary training, never hears of “reciprocal commands”. I wonder, What are they teaching these days? Perhaps a better question. What are Christians actually doing these days.

Writing…

The first followers of Jesus seek to Love a Lord who provides abundantly and to love their neighbors who respond reciprocally…most of the time.

There are challenges, however…witness Annanias and Saphira, in Chapter 5. Witness the Grecian and Hebraic Jews in Chapter 6. Luke, as a historian, joins with Ghandi in acknowledging that Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not enough to satisfy every man’s need.

Or every woman’s need either, right Robin? Luke sees the challenges of a “gift economy”. So does Robin. On page 58 of my (did I tell you signed) copy of her book, Kimmerer tells a story.

Her daughter leads an agricultural extension program for her county. After a summer of giving away food, they go to pack up the stand for the winter. They arrive at the place where the stand stands, only to find that it has been stolen!

She jokes that someone takes the “Free Food Stand” sign, literally.

Building…

Kimmerer acknowledges the challenges to a gift economy. She also, however, ends The Serviceberry on a hopeful note.

Buy and/or “Libby listen” to the book to find out the happy ending to the “Free Food Stand” story.

Then, write one of your own.

06/18/2026

*First Lady Michelle Obama (Oprah Dailey) A woman who is “With Jesus for You”

Who are you…With?

I type that question into google search and get this answer: I am an AI developed by Google. I don't have a physical form or accompany anyone, so I'm not with anyone right now.

AI, by its own admission, is not with me. There is Someone, however, who I believe is for me.

Reading through the Bible…Nehemiah 10-11/Acts 4:1-22

"When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say." (Acts 4:13-14 NIV)

Google AI isn’t with me. Peter and John, however, because they have been with Jesus, claim that there is Someone who is for me.

Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at Peter, said, “This man also was with him.” (Luke 22:56)

Both the servant girl and the elders in Jerusalem know that Peter has been with Jesus. They want to establish guilt by association. They want to argue that since they are with Jesus, the disciples must be against them.

Peter and John know that few things could be further from the truth.

If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. (Acts 4:9-10)

Peter and John invest three years, day in and out, with Jesus. They hear what He says. They see what He does. Because they have been with Jesus, they know that he (and they) must be for others.

Peter and John have been with Jesus and are for others as a result. They even have a witness to prove it…the lame man whom they heal.

Writing…

UFC heavyweight fighter Josh Hokit fights Derrick Lewis in the last fight of Trump’s birthday bash. Hokit claims in a short interview after the fight on the white house lawn, that he is with Jesus. He confesses Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

However, instead of standing with a lame man who Jesus heals, Josh stands next to a black man that he has brutally beaten. Hokit caps of our President’s birthday celebration as a spectacle of hurt, not of healing.

Potus’ prized fighter in a short two round fight wounds a black man with his fists. Then, Hokit adds insult to that injury by maligning Michelle Obama. Beat a black man. Berate a black woman. Seems like par for the course for a glorified caddie to our golfing President.

From what I can see, Josh Hokit has not been with Jesus, at least not with Jesus as His Lord.

“Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' but you don't do what I say? EASY Jesus said, 'If you refuse to obey me, do not call me, “Master, Master.” (Luke 6:46)

In my opinion, Josh may call Jesus Lord, but I can’t imagine him knowing Jesus as his Lord.

How do the elders know that Peter and John have been with Jesus? Not because of what they say or do against others. It’s because of what they do for others in Jesus’ name.

I don’t believe that you can be with Jesus and against those for whom He dies. You can’t love Jesus as your Lord and Savior and hate your neighbor.

I’m not going to dignify Josh’s comment about Michelle. The best I can do for him is give him the benefit of a doubtful diagnosis. Maybe, he has "dementia pugilistica or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). I don’t know.

I won’t comment on the last words of his interview. Still, as one who calls Jesus my Lord and Savior, I must close my comments with this…

When Josh calls Jesus Lord, I believe that he breaks the third commandment. He takes the name of the One he calls Lord…in vain. And…

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (Exodus 20:7 KJV)

I’m not Josh’s judge. Still, I don’t believe God will hold him guiltless for what he has said and done.

Building…

Who are you…with? When I type that question into google search, I get an answer from some thing without a physical form, some thing that can not ever be with me and may not ever be used for me.

When I type that question into your world, however, it’s a different story. You are able to be with. You are able to act for.

You have a Lord and Savior. Not the one Josh thinks he knows. The One to whom Peter, John and a once lame man testify.

There are some people (Like Josh) who will tell you that in order to be with Jesus, you have to be against others. Don’t believe them…

Believe Michelle, instead.

06/16/2026

*A 2014 picture of one of several donations my late wife Jeannette makes through Brownson Properties. Notice the logo of Love INC. You could interpret the red lines in the heart as a cross…I see them as a sword “piercing the heart”.

How’s your heart?

Reading through the Bible…Ezra 4-7/Acts 2:22-44

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the othepostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37 NIV)

After Peter preaches on Pentecost, the people are katanussó: pierced thoroughly, pricked, deeply moved or affected. They are cut to the heart.

His words, like God’s word described in Hebrews are alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

Spirit inspired words can divide soul and Spirit, separate joints and marrow, discern the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Spirit inspired words can cut to the heart, if our hearts are soft enough.

Twenty times in the book of Exodus, Pharoah’s heart gets hardened. Pharoah chooses to remain unmoved by the plight of the Hebrew slaves.

The women in Pharoah’s world differ. Their hearts get softened by a baby pulled out of the water (Moses). They feel for him.

Islamic tradition, honors the soft heart of Pharaoh’s wife, Asiya bint Muzahim. Muslims maintain that she secretly accepts the teachings of Moses, raises him after finding him in the Nile, and remains steadfast in her faith despite enduring severe torture from her oppressive husband.

In Jewish Midrash and tradition, Pharaoh’s daughter Bithiah has the soft heart. She sees baby Moses in the water and raises him as her own.

Pharoah has a hard heart. He chooses to feel nothing for the slaves in Egypt. The women, on the other hand, have soft hearts.

Writing…

How’s your heart?

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) identifies the hardening and thickening of the heart muscle itself. It is genetic condition which causes the heart walls to become stiff and enlarged, making it harder for the heart to pump blood

Leaving Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) untreated can lead to severe, progressive complications like heart failure, dangerous arrhythmias (such as atrial fibrillation), stroke, and sudden cardiac death.

Leaving HCM untreated is dangerous. Shutting off our feelings for others can be fatal as well.

So, how can we keep our hearts soft? Not by reading the news. Nurturing relationships with others, however, just might help.

Pharoah’s heart get hardened because he cuts off contact with the slaves. The mother and daughter of Moses, according to two very different religious traditions, have hearts that remain soft because they nurture a child from a very different background.

Being intentional about relating to people who differ from us can keep our hearts soft.

Building…

Jeannette, while running a for profit business, seeks out relationships with agencies who are non profit. She gives money to them. They give meaning back to her.

I am continuing that tradition with Jeannette’s memorial fund which matches donations from Realtors given to local non profits.

I try to nurture relationships with different non profits. I also try to nurture relationships with non Democrats.

I am late again on my article, this time I am having coffee with a supporter of Donald Trump. He continues to defend the present administration. I do not.

He has shared with me previously about the loss of his first wife to cancer at a young age. Now, his second wife is in the early stages of alzheimers, requiring an increasing amount of his time and care.

My time with him doesn’t change my politics. It does, however, soften my heart. It is just what this hard heart needs today.

How’s your heart? Is it hard? Maybe, reaching across an aisle of differences would help.

06/15/2026

*All together yesterday in BLVD Church with Kate Stouten speaking our languages, describing God’s mighty works.

Reading through the Bible…Nehemiah 1-3/Acts 2:1-21

When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place…speaking our languages, describing God’s mighty works!” (Acts 2:1 &11)

Pentecost (meaning fiftieth from Greek word Pentecoste) takes place fifty days after Passover. Initially, it is a celebration of the first fruits of the Harvest. It becomes, in Jewish tradition, also a celebration of the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai.

Jews come together in Jerusalem from all over the known world to celebrate receiving that law from Moses. In our reading, however, some Jews also celebrate receiving the Spirit from Jesus.

Jesus promises on Passover. Jesus delivers on Pentecost. Jesus imparts the Holy Spirit, the invisible, yet inviting Presence and Power of God in fire and wind. She (Ruah is feminine for the Holy Spirit in the OT) She transforms what the disciples then say and hear.

First speech. The Spirit enables them to speak in different languages. Jesus promises that they will be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. They are…on Pentecost. They are given not just one language, but many, each designed for a particular audience.

They are miraculously able to speak the language of their listeners. Better yet, they speak their dialect. No market research needed. The Spirit translates into just the right words and idioms.

The Holy Spirit changes how all the disciples speak. Then, the Holy Spirit transforms how the visitors to Jerusalem listen.

They hear more than prose. They hear prophecy. They hear more than words from women and men. They hear words from God. They get a description of God’s mighty works.

*President Donald Trump gestures as he attends UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 15, 2026. Pool Photo By Evan Vucci, AFP Via Getty Images

Writing…

The first followers of Jesus are all together in one place for the birth of the Christian Church. Followers of our President are all together in one place for his birthday.

The first group gets that for which they pray, the Presence and Power of God. The second group in D.C. get only that for which they pay.

One group gets Spectacle. The other gets Spirit. One group gets to sweat and fight (both spectators and performers on a 90 degree night). The other group gets fire and wind.

One group gets to see some of what a President can do on his birthday. The other gets to see what God can do at the birth of the church.

One group hopes to get their money paid back in greed and graft. The other group plans to pray their gifts forward.

People of faith set Sundays aside for worshipping, not fighting. Sundays, for us, are not for communicating and celebrating the works of white men. They are reserved for God’s mighty works proclaimed in languages and dialects that everyone can understand.

Building…

The Presence and Power of God comes for anyone who will pray…not just for a few select billionaires who can pay. Jesus assures us of that fact.

"If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (NIV)

On Sunday, some are together in one place celebrating a Church, born of the Spirit. Others gather last night to celebrate the birth of a person. Now, on Monday, we get to have a hand in what happens next…

06/14/2026

Reading through the Bible…Ezra 6-8/John 21

After this, Jesus appeared again to the disciples, this time at the Tiberias Sea (the Sea of Galilee). This is how he did it: Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed “Twin”), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the brothers Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. Simon Peter announced, “I’m going fishing.” (John 21:1-2)

It’s back to his old ways for Peter. After his denial and Jesus’ death, Peter goes back to his old job. The other disciples join him. Still, they are unsuccessful. They fish all night without netting a nibble.

Then, in a scene reminiscent of when Jesus first calls them, He appears. They don’t recognize His resurrected body at first. There is mystery around how Jesus is, and how we may be, raised (I Corinthians 15:35-38).

Jesus gives them the same simple instructions he gives them when He first calls them. Try dropping the net on the other side of the boat (Luke 5:4-6/John 21:6-8). They oblige. They are rewarded. A huge catch.

Peter leaves it to the rest to bring the boat and fish in. He jumps into the water, maybe not walking on water, but at least rushing to meet Jesus.

In the following conversation with Jesus, Peter discovers what we could have told him is true. He can’t go back. He can’t undo his denial . He has to let Jesus forward give him a chance to do things differently in the future.

Writing…

This article comes out late today because I have been Going Fishing for political candidates. Last night I go to a gathering to catch Joseph McCluskey’s message to voters as he runs for Michigan’s 86th House District (my district). Then, this afternoon, I reel in Abdul El-Sayed’s stump speech at the 205 Coffee Bar as he candidates for the U.S. Senate.

I’m not playing identity politics. The two people I am supporting are very different from me in their identities. Still, they share similar platforms to the One who teaches me to fish for people.

"God's Spirit is on me; he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, 'This is God's year to act!'" (Luke 4:18-19)

Building…

I am fishing for candidates who have some good news for the poor. I am interested in those who want to set the burdened and battered free, rather than ICEing them into detention centers. I want to net people who value a safety net, particulary for those who struggle with chronic medical conditions like blindness.

I’m going fishing. I don’t plan on stopping until November 3rd. Why don’t you join me?

06/12/2026

https://apnews.com/article/southern-baptist-convention-evangelicals-women-pastors-7d85ddc4cc13f3c90a05c1ce3de196b3

Reading through the Bible…Ezra 3-5/John 20

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance…Jesus said, “Don’t cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go to my brothers and tell them… (John 20:1-2 & 17)

It’s not my idea of fun, going to a cemetery in the dark. Apparently, it isn’t the idea of any of the men who follow Jesus, either. The women, however, with Mary Magdalene leading their group, go to the tomb while it is still dark to “spice up” or embalm Jesus’ body.

Mary from Magdala is the one from whom Jesus casts out seven demons. Luke also tells us that Mary, along with other women, travel with Jesus while financially supporting His ministry. (Luke 8:2)

The women witness the miraculous. The women witness the miserable. They follow Jesus while it is still dark to the cross. (Matthew 27:45). The follow Jesus while it is still dark, to the tomb (John 20:1)

Once Mary arrives and sees Jesus, He gives her these instructions: Go to my brothers and tell them…

Writing…

Jemar Tisby reports that the Southern Baptist Convention votes-under the leadership of Al Mohler, to change its constitution to ban women from preaching to assembled congregations.

Tisby goes on to explain:

I was baptized in an SBC church at the age of 8-years old.

Al Mohler took me and a group of seminary administrators on a tour of his house in Louisville.

I briefly enrolled in a PhD program at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (where Mohler is president).

Tisby claims, and I agree, that the SBC may want woman to keep quiet for some of the same reasons they want slaves to keep quiet when the denomination initially forms. Perhaps, also, for the same reason the Republicans want to eliminate black majority voting districts.

If women, and if blacks, have a vote and a voice, white male men just might lose some of their power. We can’t have that, can we?

Southern Baptists envision a heirachical church. Luke describes a very different type of church in Acts 1:14. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren (KJV)

We used to joke about this passage. How did they get all those men and women to fit into one (Honda) Accord?

The Romans in the first century, and white Christian nationalists in the 21st century, want to rule over. Christians, at least early church Christians, want, instead, to join together (the literal meaning of in one accord)

Imagine with me, if the Romans succeed in fully silencing women, along with the brown and black skinned people of their day. If they succeed, Mary, as a woman, doesn’t tell the other disciples that Jesus is alive. Peter, as a brown skinned Jew, fails to “cut three thousand to the heart” with his words on Pentecost.

Even worse, they both, along with the group of 120 in Acts 1, can’t fit into one Honda Accord :)

Building…

Jesus rewards Mary’s action of going to the tomb while it was still dark. He honors her courage by commissioning her, can I say ordaining her, to be the first person to preach the Gospel.

Mary of Magdala is willing to “go there” to the tomb to find Jesus in a dark place. Jesus, in turn, instructs her to go out with the message of His resurrection and be a light to the world.

I’m glad He does and she does...Aren’t you?

Thousands of Southern Baptists have voted overwhelmingly to advance a formal ban on churches with women pastors in the nation’s largest conservative evangelical denomination.

06/11/2026

*New York rallied to beat San Antonio to grab a 3-1 NBA Finals lead. Getty Images

I’m telling the truth, so that you may believe…the New York Knicks come back, after being down by 29 points to beat the San Antonio Spurs and take a 3-1 lead in the NBA finals.

I’m telling the truth…

So is the writer of the Gospel of John…

Reading through the Bible…Ezra 1-2/John 19

But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”[c] and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”[d] (John 19:33-37)

John writes to ear witnesses. His Jewish audience might know that not one of the bones of a passover lamb will be broken (Exodus 12:46/Numbers 9:12). They might recall that the righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. (Psalm 34:19-20)

They also may remember from the Scriptures, the phrase “They will look on the one they have pierced.” which in turn echoes Zechariah’s words, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit[a] of grace and supplication. They will look on[b] me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. (Zech. 12:10)

John communicates to ear witnesses, people familiar with some of the prophecies in the Old Testament about a coming Messiah. He also writes with the authority of an eye witness. He provides not just one eye witness to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His is one of four Gospel eye witnesses.

John provides both ear witness and eye witness. He wants his readers to remember what they hear. He wants them to see what he sees.

Why go to all that trouble?

"So that you also may believe..."

The author of the Gospel of John wants all of us to remember the truth about the past. He wants us to also witness the truth in the present. So that, we can have hope for the future.

Writing…

Neither Trump or Mamdani are eye witnesses to game four. They are not present in Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks historic comeback. Instead, they are arguing about why the watch parties in NYC are again cancelled.

Each one of them claims to be telling the truth. Still, it’s not so that we can believe. It’s so that we can berate the other person. Their argument feels to me like a microcosm of our whole political dialogue today.

They are not personally present with the basketball players in Madison Square Garden. We are not eye witnesses either to most of those now running for political office.

I have no eye witness knowledge of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s indiscretions. Nor do I know personally the details of Graham Platner’s escapades. Still, I have plenty of people who are more than willing to ear witness to me about them both…not so that I can believe, but so that I can berate.

Building…

I don’t watch the Knicks-Spurs basketball game. I just check the Internet breifly after the end of the first quarter. I think the score is 41 to 22 at the time. The Spurs are almost doubling the Knicks in score.

I immediately and irrationally attribute the Knicks’ first quarter performance to the “Trump curse”. The Knicks will lose game four because Trump attended game three. It’s all his fault.

Imagine my surprise when I wake up this morning to discover that the Knicks win! I may believe in Jesus. I don’t, however, believe that the Knicks can come back from such a huge deficit.

Whose fault is that? I don’t know. Maybe, a better question is whose lack of faith is that?

Maybe an even better question is…”What is there in the Knicks comeback that might give us all some hope for our own comebacks?” Or…”What can we learn from a basketball game that might help us in the game of life.”

I’m telling the truth. Every day in the news, we can count on getting eye witness and ear witness reports. We get to decide what we will do with them.