healing
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When we are all blind
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7 min read
This isn’t a story of healing, but of spiritual blindness. A story about skepticism and the rhetorical knots we tie ourselves in. A story about seeing the truthLent 4A | John 9:1-41 The centerpiece of the story has to be the miracle, right? A stranger walks up, gives a man sight, and then keeps on…
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Seeing Jesus
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6 min read
Why do bad things happen? That isn’t the question this passage answers. Nor does it answer why we suffer, why some are blind or disabled, or why some of us are total jerks. Instead, it tells a story. A story of people willfully blind to the beauty of God. Lent 4A | John 9:1-41 The…
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Ephphatha – Be Opened
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4 min read
Ephphatha (Day 23 of A Simple Lent) Monday Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ The daily lectionary actually carved up one of the most challenging moments in Jesus’s ministry, in which, giving us the conclusion today before moving on to one of the seemingly most typical. In…
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Why Trouble the Teacher
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4 min read
Why Trouble the Teacher (Day 17 of A Simple Lent) Monday One of the most profound tools in the evangelist’s toolbox is the literary frame. It’s surprising, really when you think about it. You’re telling a pretty amazing story about a dude who can heal people and control the weather. The substance of the story…
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The scandal of Jesus
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8 min read
Jesus doesn’t force us to believe. Jesus doesn’t want us to work on the earnestness of our belief: just believe harder – believe more – believe right: to force us to get it. Jesus gives us signs and invitations and these opportunities to see something truly profound: to see this life with a sense…