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Repentance
We are already turning The word repent means to turn and go another way. In Mark, we see that repentance is the driver of Jesus’s ministry and the very mantle he takes up from John the Baptizer. It is also what Jesus demonstrates in Mark 8, when he rebukes Peter for getting between him and…
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The Beginning of the Good News
John the Baptizer invites us to talk about sin like it’s something we can repent and get rid of. Because it is.
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Facing Repentance
In Mark 1:9-15, Jesus reveals the mission of God, but another school shooting tests our resolve to see it, or to listen to his words of hope, saying that the time is now, kin-dom is here! A school shooting tests Ash Wednesday’s invitation to reconciliation Lent 1B | Mark 1:9-15 I had a really good…
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Repentance–Turning Toward Love
In preaching repentance, John reveals the surprising truth about the mission of Jesus. That we are first called to admit that we were wrong. Advent 2B | Mark 1:1-8 Reading the opening verses of Mark, we’re often struck by what’s not there. There’s no Mary and Joseph. No trip to Bethlehem, to David’s city. We…
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Why Do Christians Always Talk About Sin?
Some Christians seem totally obsessed with it. Some never talk about it. Why? What is it about sin that makes Christians talk about it all the damned time? We have to deal with it because it is a huge part of the faith. The problem is that we often are dealing with the baggage and the…
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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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Turning to GOD
And still we say that GOD punishes and we treat one another with great cruelty because we believe that GOD is in the business of hating and punishing and driving the immigrant out of the community in spite of everything written in Scripture which bears that as a lie, which reveals how false a claim…
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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…