Travelers note: I left the serenity of a lake home in the Ozarks to go to the freeways of Dallas, Texas. Only two things made it worthwhile. BBQ at Blaylock’s in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. First, on every trip to Dallas over the years from LR or vice-versa we always stop. No longer how long the interval between stops, I walk in and the owner looks up and says, “Hey Hubbell, good to see you.” Nothing more nothing less. It can be years and has been this time since I have been in. By the way, the BBQ is wonderful.
Second thing that makes Dallas worth the trip — My son, daughter-in-law, and the 11 year old philosophers who are as tall as Suzy these days. I am downloading them for material, as much as I can. Y’all will be beneficiaries of their wisdom soon. W
On this Last Friday before Holy Week, that’s right, the end of Lent is fast approaching, one last thought on Judas. As I have said Judas was not excluded from the Bread or the wine, nor was he excluded from God’s forgiveness or mercy, in my opinion. Why? Because if there is no hope for Judas, there is no hope for any of us. If we exclude Judas from his love and forgiveness where does God draw the line. Exclusion is a slippery slope that always finds the excluder on the outside looking in rather than the the other way around. I think that those who erect a wall of exclusion, find the wall they constructed to hold people out, becomes a blockade, preventing them from going where they want to go. We should remember the Garden as much as the cross, for it is there he blesses Judas and all of us, and it is for Judas and all of us, that he is prepared to go out and die.
Webb,
I’ve really enjoyed your writings for the Lenten season… and this one was no exception. One of the Sufi blogs I read are writings from the very Pir Inayat Khan you referenced in a recent posting, about his sister being tortured by the Nazis – the posting for today is very fitting for both that horrible event his sister endured and your reference to Christ forgiving Judas. An excerpt from Khan’s posting today follows:
Forgiveness is a stream of love which washes away all impurities wherever it flows. By keeping this spring of love, which is in the heart of man, running, man is able to forgive, however great the fault of his fellow man may seem. One who cannot forgive closes his heart. The sign of spirituality is that there is nothing you cannot forgive, there is no fault you cannot forget.
Tom