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Remembering God is the hero in our story
The search for meaning, purpose, and place is deeply human. Jesus teaches his disciples to fixate less on what they do and more on who they are.
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Seeking the mind of the father
We ought to read the the parable of the prodigal son with the other lost parables — it helps us better see the mind of the father.
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On sinners and eating with them
Jesus undermines the prohibition of relationship between the ritually pure and the condemned because grace is more important.
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Forgiveness is the given
Our brains start with the wrong presumption. Forgiveness, not punishment, is the starting place for dealing with our neighbors.
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Mercy. Always.
The problem with mercy is we don’t trust others with it. Which means, whether we like it or not, that we also don’t trust God with it.
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We are who we choose to be—for Proper 19A
This week, we wrestle with the nature of forgiveness and mercy. We do so knowing we might not want to offer it. But we can so choose 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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Normalize Mercy
The challenge of stumbling into Matthew 18 without its context is that we get the point Jesus is trying to make completely backward.