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change and resistance
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7 min read
I’m constantly hearing how people hate change for the sake of change. So why do we let our resistance to change off that same hook? While we often talk about not wanting change for the sake of change, we never talk about resistance to change for the sake of resistance. If we’re being intellectually honest…
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Jesus Keeps Walking
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9 min read
After Jesus makes his third passion prediction, his followers still don’t understand what it means to follow Jesus. And most of us don’t either. For Jesus, it isn’t just confronting power — it’s rejecting glory. Proper 24B | Mark 10:35-45 A few weeks ago, when we hosted our neighbors for our annual big blow-out communion…
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Becoming Beloved
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7 min read
Jesus wants us to talk about money. I know you don’t want me to talk about money. And you know I don’t want to talk about money. But here we are. Just like I didn’t want to talk about divorce last week, but there it was. Jesus wants us dealing with important stuff. Jesus is saying…
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It’s not really about divorce
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8 min read
When Jesus is asked about divorce in Mark 10:2-16, we act like he’s given us an answer. What he’s given us is a whole new question. Again Jesus pushes us to see the forest, not the trees. Proper 22B | Mark 10:2-16 Let me say at the top that Jesus doesn’t condemn divorce. Let’s first…
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Our problem isn’t that we can’t tell when someone’s lying. It’s that we refuse to punish those who lie or protect those who tell the truth. Truth is a weighty topic. And yet it all feels so subjective. The elephant parable comes to mind. The one in which many people touch the different parts of…
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Out of Line
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9 min read
In Mark 9, we get a vision of the flipped script, the powerless raised up and the powerful brought low. And still, we struggle to see ourselves in it. Jesus warns that being a stumbling block deprives us all Proper 21B | Mark 9:38-50 Is the second time ever the charm? At this point in…
