A Tall Order - October 2, 2016

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Mathew 18:21-35

Action #1
Forgiveness is a powerful part of our faith journey. We experience forgiveness for ourselves through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And we are also invited to forgive others as we have been forgiven. Unfortunately there has been a lot of mixed up teaching about forgiveness. We have been taught to "forgive and forget". In essence, to put the past behind us, and move on as if nothing had happened. Now, in some cases that's easy. Little things that happen in our daily lives can certainly be forgiven and left behind us. But the big things, the ones that mark us and scar us are not easily forgiven, let alone forgotten. Some hurts take years to forgive, and yet, by the grace of God it is possible to let go of the anger,

Read more: A Tall Order - October 2, 2016

Making Amends - September 25, 2016

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Luke 19:1-10

Zaccheus is a tax collector. We've heard about them before...it was 4 weeks ago when we heard about another tax collector, Levi,...they're sinners. They're liars and thieves...they take from their own, skimming off the top before they pay Rome....or rather, inflating the amount due, before they hand anything over to Rome. These guys are bad. Do you remember Levi? The one who was supposed to be a priest? The family failure who not only didn't become a priest, but became a crook? Well, it's another one of him. And we all know about them.

We really don't need much more explanation at this point...Zaccheus was a tax collector... that means, he was a sinner of the worst kind. (sigh) another one of those people that Jesus decides to go hang around with. And not surprisingly when it happens, everyone around them, balks saying,

Read more: Making Amends - September 25, 2016

The Spirit of the law - September 18, 2016

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Revelation 21:1-6

• teaching on the sabbath in the synagogue
• woman who has been ailing 18 years (much like the bleeding woman who suffered for 12 years)
• She didn't do anything more than "appear" and Jesus told her should would be healed
• too often we get hung up thinking we have to do so much in order to earn Jesus' healing, but instead he simply offers it....it is a gift of grace. It's free. It's unmerited. Unearned. And his gift comes before any action on her part.
• He heals her, touches her, and she is able to stand up and the only thing that came to mind for

Read more: The Spirit of the law - September 18, 2016

You Don't Know The Cost - September 4, 2016

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Luke 7:36-50

This scene is early in Jesus' ministry. He's eating with a Pharisee and we don't know where the Pharisee stands in regard to Jesus. We don't know if he likes what Jesus is doing or doesn't like it. We don't know why he invited Jesus...was it to trap him or just to get to know him and see what this guy was really all about?

The Pharisee, named Simon, invites Jesus to dinner and the scripture tells us they were reclining...that tells us this was a formal dinner—maybe a sabbath meal—so Simon would have or should have prepared the very best for his guests. Now, as part of this formal meal it would have been customary to wash his guests' feet—well, not him, but a servant, and the host would have

Read more: You Don't Know The Cost - September 4, 2016

Not One Of Them - August 28, 2016

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Luke 5:27-32

Levi was a traditional name—it was that of the 3rd son of Jacob (later known as Israel) and that tribe of Jacob became the priests—known as the Levites. They were the ones who performed the priestly duties for all of Israel. They were the ones who bridged the gap between the people and God. And that would have been true for all of the men in that family. Since in that time you did what you father did for work and what his father did before him and his father before him.

So when we hear that this man is named Levi we know a bit about him. We know he's a Jew, from the line of Levi, son of Jacob. His father would have been a priest, and his father before him. And Levi, the tax collector, would have been expected to be a priest too. Yet he's not. So we know that somehow,

Read more: Not One Of Them - August 28, 2016