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Needing a break
For SundayEighth Sunday after Pentecost Collect Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your…
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And he cured all of them
The time Jesus breaks the law to fulfill it. By healing people. Which shouldn’t be such a big deal. But totally is.
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A Convincing Argument
We sometimes get stuck in a convincing argument because it sounds right. In the case of Sabbath law, we’re seduced by only half of the point. Sabbath remains a revolutionary conceptProper 16C | Luke 13:10-17 When we remember the creation story, we recall more than an origin. We receive our purpose. Light and dark. Day…
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Hallowing the Sabbath
The Pharisees confront Jesus because his disciples break Sabbath law. Jesus turns the story around to show how few of them are really keeping the Sabbath. We could easily say the same about us. In Breaking the Sabbath, Jesus seeks to keep it. Proper 4B | Mark 2:23-3:6 “One sabbath Jesus and his disciples were going…
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Skip the Vacation Advice. This is What We Really Need.
We don’t need vacation advice. We need forgiveness for going on vacation. Maybe you’re like me and struggle with going on vacation. It isn’t easy to leave work or home. Packing the car and getting away long enough to forget about the other stuff. So we go looking for vacation advice. Or maybe it’s worse.…
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Suffering and Salvation – Liberation as the work of the community
A preacher was on vacation and came home to a flood “of Biblical proportions.” He spoke of needing to canoe out of his Louisiana house and escape the devastation. That the preacher is notorious for a sense of ill-will to many and is politically powerful gave the experience a sense of delicious irony. Proper 16C…
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To Save Life Or To Kill
To Save Life Or To Kill (Day 10 of A Simple Lent) My absolute favorite part of Jesus’s teaching is his few teachings about Sabbath. I think dealing with them is an essential part of understanding Jesus. Sabbath law is at the core of Torah. The literal observance of the Sabbath day is important. More important,…
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Peace
I’m not sure there is a more foundational element to the Christian faith than peace. We want peace, we crave peace. Peace to us is safety and security. It is silence and quiet. It is solitude in chaos. It is the sound of birds chirping and streams bubbling when we are resting in the grass.…