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The difference between justification and mercy
We make a habit of justification. We just want to explain. There was a reason we weren’t there. Something. Anything to avoid mercy. A justification is often the grounding upon which we make a case. We hope that everything we do is justified. That’s how we often think about it. But it isn’t how we…
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Lead with Love
We want Jesus to teach us how to love like it takes a methodology or more faith than we have. Instead, Jesus shows how that misses the point. Jesus and the teaching of uncommon forgivenessProper 22CLuke 17:1-10 We jump into the story with the apostles shouting “Increase our faith!” It makes it all sound random.…
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Who They Can’t Forgive
This moment in John 12:20-33 is the tipping point. Time’s up. Make your decision. And Jesus is surrounded by people who don’t understand that forgiveness is everything. Even after resurrection, we refuse to forgive what we don’t understand. Lent 5B | John 12:20-33 There’s a scene before this one. Before these Greeks come looking for…
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Defile a Person
Defile a Person (Day 22 of A Simple Lent) Saturday I’m becoming increasingly conscious of the presence and absence of a single letter in worship. Such a small thing, almost imperceptible. It shows up and completely changes our intentions. Most of us don’t even see it. A radical transformation of intention and expectation comes from a single…
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A word about mercy
Mercy is a gift to unburden a heavy soul, not an excuse to live without consequence. Considering all that we’re dealing with right now, we could use the reminder.
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The Beasts and the Angels
How Jesus’s time in the wilderness reminds us of our own journey. So this thing we call The Temptation of Jesus isn’t really about temptation, or about the Tempter or about GOD and the problem of evil at all. It’s about experience, creation, and GOD. It is about living in this world that GOD has…
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Forgiving GOD
how our understanding of forgiveness is too small a Homily for Proper 19A | Text: Matthew 18:21-35 The volume of forgiveness When Peter asks about forgiveness, about the volume of forgiveness, it triggers a cascade of central teachings to our faith. Teachings that are the foundation of everything. On the surface, it is a simple enough…
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Trusting Us: A Simple Act of Faith
a Homily for Easter 2A Text: John 20:19-31 Again, Thomas At one level, this is a simple story. Each year, the Second Sunday of Easter, we receive Thomas, the Twin. This is Easter. And Each year, we gather on that Easter and each year, Thomas misses it. A week later, like that fateful day 2000 years…