Cross Purposes

“We need to examine our hearts and watch for the signs of when our need to feel good about ourselves gets in the way of drawing closer to our neighbor.”

“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

“Like the slave, we do the work we are called to, knowing who we are, and who God is. The work we do and the lives we live make up our response to God.”

“We are called to love each other as God loves all of us—not just those inside our iron gates, not just those on our side of the chasms that separate us one from another.”

“We will move forward toward God’s kingdom, toward the healing of this planet, so that our young brothers and sisters in Christ here today, and the millions of children of this age around the world, will have a future, will have a home, will have a life.”

“’Create in me a clean heart, O God, * and renew a right spirit within me.’ Our faith in God the Creator, in Jesus Christ the Redeemer, and in the Holy Spirit who creates in us clean hearts and renews right spirits within us—that faith calls us ‘toward a new world together.’ That faith calls us to imagine the rejoicing of God when we learn to reconcile with one another.”

“But that very cost, that very sacrifice that we make to become true disciples of the way of Jesus—precisely because the power and grace of God are so abundant, in discipleship there is also joy; there is also hope; there is also love; there is also peace.”

“Being church together means exploring new ways to share the bounty of God’s table, the abundance of God’s world, beyond the walls of our church home. Being church together means working constantly, creatively, generously, to help people find home who have no home.”

“Whoever the clouds of witnesses are for each of us, they represent an important way that God works in our lives.”

“The story of faith that we find in scripture is not a story of everyone staying at home, but of wandering, exploration, exile, and encounter with the stranger; a story of restless movement, always a journey from home to elsewhere. A journey always in search of the kingdom of God.”