Can we remember who we are while we are in the wilderness?

"Jesus desires to make of us tabernacles—walking sanctuaries of the Living God in our world."

"In order to be salt of the earth, we have to be in community with those who differ from us...Indeed, coming together in community with difference brings out the fullness of life that God has placed in creation and that God hopes for all of us on the earth."

"But whenever someone stands up for someone else’s dignity, whenever someone turns a stranger into a neighbor, whenever someone refuses to write themselves or anyone else off as a lost cause, the Beatitudes are no longer words on a hillside—they are signs of what God is really up to."

"Jesus interrupts Paul on the road to Damascus, and he experiences conversion. His story gives us hope for these wicked and violent times, not because the world is safe, but because God is still interrupting violence, still confronting power, and still calling people into costly transformation."

"Christianity is not a religion for the idle. We're not called to sit on our hands and idly wait and observe suffering around us. Our future is secure in Jesus Christ and God demands we do out part in bringing forth God's kingdom."

"We do not get to stand apart from our neighbors’ grief or pretend their fear has nothing to do with us."

"Christ reigns by drawing near—by standing with the vulnerable, by telling the truth about power, and by refusing to abandon the world even when the world rejects him. That means we cannot claim allegiance to this king while making our peace with the kingdoms that depend on violence, exclusion, or despair. We cannot bow before Christ and then quietly bow again before Herod."

"The grace of Jesus Christ also comes with relief: relief from feelings of guilt, relief from the need to live up to expectations, relief from the need for constant productivity. Through the grace of God in Jesus Christ, I have relief and am secure."

David Zahl

"Just when the world is leaning as far from the sun as it can, when Joseph is leaning as far from peace as possible, God leans toward him."