As Jesus ministry takes a turn toward Jerusalem, we are reminded of the way our faith is lived out as we go- along the way. For the lawyer in Luke 10, and for all of us, there is a question behind the question, “Who is my neighbor?”

How do we cope with unmet expectations? How can we find the Divine in our disappointments, frustrations, and misunderstandings? Can we learn to balance belief with a humble lack of certainty?

How can we adopt a faith of radical hospitality and dependence on others? How can we seek the welfare of others as an act of opposition to the political and spiritual forces of darkness?

What do the Parable of the Sower, Jesus healing and resurrecting people, and John the Baptist have in common? The confusing, excessive, life-giving grace of God.

Jesus' teaching 'on the level place' gave the crowd a picture of what solidarity with the hurting and poor might look like. It includes a picture of a tree living into its purpose of producing good fruit and a building withstanding storms because of its foundation.

How did Jesus both inhabit and honor his Jewish faith while offering unique and daring visions of it for his time? How are we called to both honor the traditions we inherited and adapt them for our current moment?

Luke 4 launches us into a new phase of Jesus' life and ministry. He makes very clear to his hometown synagogue and to the surrounding communities his preferential treatment toward the poor, the hurting, and the stranger. This posture and this announcement prompted the opposition Simeon predicted in Luke 2.

How does Luke present the upside down Kingdom of God as a Wilderness story? How can a singular voice be as powerful as an Empire? How can we immerse ourselves in God so that we lead more ethical lives?

Luke 2 invites us into two stories of Jesus in the temple and two stories of people who are looking for and surprised by who they discover Jesus to be. What happens when we, like Mary and Joseph, lose the Jesus we thought we knew? 

The story of Jesus may be overly familiar to some or completely new to others, but there’s always potential for new insights because we are never the same people we were the last time we read the story. What if the story of Jesus still has surprising ways of bringing us into the upside down Kingdom of God? How can we appreciate the surprises that may happen in others that will be different from our own?