Indeed we are all in peril if the flawed messenger invalidates the message.

To some, the image of a pale body glimmering on a dark night whispers of defeat. What good is a God who does not control his Son's suffering? But another sound can be heard: the shout of a God crying out to human beings, "I LOVE YOU." Love was compressed for all history in that lonely figure on the cross, who said that he could call down angels at any moment on a rescue mission, but chose not to - because of us. At Calvary, God accepted his own unbreakable terms of justice. Any discussion of how pain and suffering fit into God's scheme ultimately leads back to the cross.

The world says you gain your life by getting more and more and more and more, but Jesus says, 'No, that leads to death. You get it back by giving it away and when you give it away you get it back.'

We admit that we will never reach our ideal in this life, a distinctive the church claims that most other human institutions try to deny.

God does not seem impressed by size or power or wealth. Faith is what he wants, and the heroes who emerge are heroes of faith, not strength or wealth.

What you and I think about Jesus and how we respond to Him will determine our destiny for all eternity.

The more we love, and the more unlikely people we love, the more we resemble God - who, after all, loves ornery creatures like us.