"sin" Tagged Touchpoints
The Assunder Blunder
“Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 2 Some,[a] testing him, asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” 5 But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father…
Bread to Die For
“Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” He said, “Moses and I are not the Father. Only God the father gives bread from heaven. We are the gift given to you for life and true liberation.” Using Father as the term for the source of all things is bad science now that we know a mother isn’t just an incubator and man the origin of both egg and sperm. Father represented the source of all things. No wonder Jesus referred to all his friends as his mothers and brothers. When we are together inclusively, we honor the Christ in all people. It is ours to remove the obstacles for people to crawl to spiritual freedom in a world that creates obstacle courses.”
The King’s Gambit
“When God tells Samuel, “They did not reject you, Samuel, they’re rejecting me,” God is reassuring Samuel that he did the right thing by not placing himself or anyone else above God. Even if he stands alone. He is not a failure as a king. He’s just not the kind of king they want. The Israelites want a king to do their bidding, not a King of Kings who is for them to live and move and have their being. There is only one King of all the Kings we’ve chosen. This King says, “Go ahead – choose who will lead, but understand the fallout, and know I was not chosen, I AM.”
Third Party Gods
“Let’s each ask ourselves, ‘Where do we linger the most? Where do we abide? What stokes our inner fire?’ This is an invitation, not a judgment. Compassion longs to take us by the hand and walk with us. Spirit’s compassion will celebrate the uncovering of false identities we’ve created, both of ourselves and of the third party gods.”
Let’s Get Tattoos!
“At baptism it is not about our declaration of acceptance of God, it’s about our full acknowledgment of God’s reception of us! This mystery invites us into God’s heart. This mystery is the heartbeat in all people, whether aware of it or not. Though we may sin, doubt, judge, curse, deny, betray, we cannot remove the tattoo placed on our hearts as a reminder that we belong.”
The ‘I’ in Team
“No wonder Jesus said, “Come as a child. Come with the innocence of wonder and awe. Don’t be a stumbling block.” My mom used to say as I was leaving to go with my friends, “Don’t be a stumbling block.” She meant don’t do anything bad that might change their image of you as a Christian.”
The Sin of Wages is Death
“To live under the law is to live under the mentality of the reward and punishment, earning, and wage system. That’s what the law is based on. Getting what you deserve, what you have coming to you, what you’ve earned. You know, reward and punishment. But that way only leads to death. Any relationship that is based on scorekeeping is a relationship of death. Any relationship based on reward and punishment is a relationship of death. Any relationship based on only getting what you deserve will not flourish and live, but will die.”
We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Tent
“So we – you, me and the Church – participate in the forgiveness of sin by bearing witness to the forgiveness that God pronounced from the Cross. Or we retain the sin, to our detriment, by not bearing witness to God’s grace. But forgiveness is not a possession of ours. It is not under our control. And so, the idea that forgiveness of sin is only available inside the Church is like believing the Spirit can only exist inside our tent, or only in our language and cultural concepts.”
Turning Point
“Repentance is something that happens to us. It is something that changes us. God acts and we are changed. God acts and we see things differently. God acts and we turn around. Some people have said the word ‘metanoia’ means to turn around, but I think a better phrase would be ‘turning point.’”
God is a Divorcée
“You see, for Jesus, life isn’t about being right or wrong. It’s about relationships. The greatest commandment isn’t, ‘Be right with all your heart soul and mind.’ No, it’s ‘Love with all your heart soul and mind.'”
Dis-membered and Re-membered
Grace and peace from the mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. And I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:31-34 I talk a lot about the word remember. I use it in connection to Holy Communion when Jesus says to “Do this to re-member me.” And I use it to mean, not the opposite of ‘forget’, but as the opposite of ‘dis-member’. To ‘re-member’ is to ‘member’, connect, join. We partake of this meal…
I AM (not)
This is the SIN the Lamb of God takes away from the world – our trying to be or become THAT which we think we NEED to be. Because when you realize you are not the Messiah, you actually get your life back as a gift – to be lived – and not something you have to save.