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Violence Doesn’t Teach What You Think
Violence doesn’t teach them to respect you. It teaches them the lengths you will go to have your way. We expect violence to communicate the complex thoughts, the most sophisticated of desires, the very contents of our minds, but it doesn’t make them mind readers. It doesn’t communicate what we want to communicate.…
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To Widen the Circle
Pentecost, with its loud, violent wind, its flaming tongues, and its utter chaos of voices which resound into a symphony of unity in diversity, is about GOD so utterly changing the game we still aren’t sure how to play it. The Spirit reveals and reconciles Pentecost | Acts 2:1-21 As Jesus ascends, two men appear and…
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How Failures Win: In Movements and In Life
Failing is good. Every day I remind myself. We call ourselves perfectionists because we’re in pain. We use perfectionism as a kind of diagnosis which makes us feel better about playing it safe or feeling hurt. The kind of imperfection that can become a badge of honor – the strength we pass off as a weakness…
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From Brutality to Peace: Transformed By Love
Jesus reveals the evilest character of the world is its brutality. That true peace cannot come through fighting but through the triumph of good: the peace of Christ. GOD revealed in Acts, culture, and mothers Easter 7C | Acts 16:16-34 This morning, we get a story of revealing, of true revelation. A story of…
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Ascension: The Third Wheel of Faith
Be honest. When it comes to Jesus and GOD and that metaphysical cocktail of intense love and monogamous boredom all shaken together then poured over the rocks of existential longing, you hear the death and resurrection as the whole story. For us, it isn’t Romeo and Juliet, it is Crucifixion and Empty Tomb. That is the…
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Should Christians Vote?
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I think there’s an election coming up! You wouldn’t know, what with how little the media is covering it… I’m kidding, of course. Election coverage is everywhere. And today is Primary Day in Indiana, so there is all sort of focus and attention going on right now. We…
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GOD’s Greatest Gifts
This is the life Jesus talks about, the life GOD reveals, the life the Holy Spirit inspires us to live. A life of a revealed GOD and the presence of Shalom. A life of hope and opportunity to serve and be served; to love and be loved. A life of true living. How Jesus reveals…
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Mocking Jesus
Jesus gets mocked. A lot. I’ve always known that people mock Jesus in each telling of the Passion. But I am struck by how the gospel we call Luke uses the mocking of Jesus as a recurring theme. [bctt tweet=”The mockery is an active participant, a character in the story.” username=”revdrewdowns” nofollow=”yes”] For Luke, the…
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