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Out of Darkness
The odd nature of this parable invites us to dig deeper, not into what we think it says, but into what we already know about Jesus’s mission.
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Dressed—wearing the right clothes
Clothes, and our expectations for what we wear and when, are a strange thing to condemn one another for. Well, really, ever.
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Rejected—and the morality of rejecting in return
Rejection is a prime example of something we hate experience and seem to love doing to others. Even when we don’t want to.
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Mercy as strategy and purpose
Rather than think of mercy as something we’re supposed to do when something happens, we cast it as a way of being in the world.
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Inquisitions are supposed to be rare—for Proper 18A
When helping people right their wrongs, it’s easy to find wrongs everywhere—and being the one to save them.
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Love—and dealing with the sin of others
Most of us don’t like talking to someone else about something they’ve done. We need to first figure out why we want to.
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Messianic virtue
Jesus rejects Peter’s protection; not because it is wrong, but because it itself is a rejection of true messianic virtue.
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This is bigger than tradition
For a gospel passage that lays the foundation for some big tradition, shouldn’t we take the context more seriously?