According to a recent commercial and the Bible, "when something goes wrong, you find someone to blame.  It's what we do."  Yes, scapegoating, is often what we do, but in story after story, God loves those to are blamed.  Hagar and Ishmael, for example, reveal to us the who God sees, hears, and loves the excluded.  

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The image of the scapegoat runs throughout the Bible with God's love seeking to interrupting this cycle of blame.  What can we learn from those who scapegoat and from those who are often blamed and excluded?  

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Welcome our guest preacher Rev. Suzanne Swartz.

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Welcome our guest preacher Rev. Elizabeth Gibbs Zehnder.

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On Resurrection Sunday we celebrate that the scapegoating of Jesus by the Roman Empire didn't win.  On Easter we are challenged to see the ways we scapegoat others and to see the hope that comes from welcoming those who are excluded.

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Jesus enters Jerusalem as a sacrifice.  But what does that mean?  Is Jesus' death needed to appease a blood-thirsty God?  Or is there a better way to understand the cross?  

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Why would the altar, the priestly robes, and the tabernacle, need to be purified?  Did the tabernacle sin or was it the people?  Built into the rituals in Leviticus were both reminders of God's forgiving nature and the values the people were intended to live out with one another. 

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How do you explain to a new driver how to drive?  I don't know how to explain it, I just do it.  Like anything that has become instinctual, it’s easy to stop noticing what we're doing or why we're doing it.  In the same way, when it comes to our faith, we can sometimes lose the meaning or the meaning can get distorted when things become too familiar.  

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Welcome Rev. Dr. Kikanza Nuri-Robins speaking about the stories we tell and the importance of listening to the stories that others tell.  

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Why animal sacrifice?  What is the point of these ancient and seemingly barbaric practices?  You might be surprised by the idea that these rituals set us on the trajectory of experiencing God's justice and rest.  

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