Where I come from, it’s common to ask someone after you’ve met them, “Who are your people?” There are a lot of family names in the area that are common, and, for better or worse, it’s a way to size up a person’s background.
“We have to take off the clothing we have come in with – our attitudes, values and assumptions about the world and about God – so that we can put on that which allows us to celebrate the mind-boggling, boundless love and belonging that are God’s true kingdom.”
“Even into the depths within ourselves, God still presses upon us, behind and before, below and above, and calls us out of ourselves, out of the toxic individualism that leaves us afraid, instead calling us into community with God, and with each other.”
“Thanks to God who sits in the silence and dances in the joy.”
“Jesus is not only vandalizing, yes, vandalizing the Temple court, and bringing himself to the attention of the Temple authorities as his time draws near, but making it quite clear that he, as Christ/Messiah, is a new way, one that doesn’t require doves and lambs to be killed on God’s altar. He is the Lamb. He brings the Dove.”
“The message is that Jesus can be fully alive to the marginalized and not be diminished for those who were in the in-group to start with. Healing and blessing are not zero-sum games. There’s plenty for everybody. So, if somebody else gets a blessing, you can still have yours.”
“All we need are 1 million Joys at the doors of our churches and the fences and gates of our borders rather than 1 million AK-47s pointed across that short space between us and the rest of the world.”
“For all that the narrative of Peter and Paul can be one of battling it out for the soul of the early church, from the passages appointed for their shared feast, it is clear that they agreed on at least three things: the message of Jesus was important enough to spend (and risk) their lives on; all are welcome to follow Jesus and enter into the community of believers; and sometimes, the messenger matters.”
“The best I can do is to say he is as vulnerable as it is possible for a person to be. And, for that reason, this is my image of God: God is completely and utterly vulnerable.”
It is common wisdom that dogs think we are gods, while cats know that they are gods.