February 16, 2017

Episode 14: Episode 14: All You Need Is Love

20 minutes

This week we reflect on the readings for this week in year A, which is the seventh Sunday in Epiphany: Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18; 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23 and Matthew 5:38-48.

Show Notes:

It is all finally one big story and as Paul knows and tells the Corinthians, it is all finally also a story of Grace, Grace, Grace. If we are properly gob smacked by the revelation that each of us now houses something of the divine, we are further bowled over to see that even when we do this imperfectly, we get saved anyway. The Lectionary asks us to skip verses 12-15. Granted, Paul’s imagery here is a little odd and this passage could easily be twisted into some works-righteousness scheme of salvation if one were not careful. But in context it is still all about grace. God does expect us to build on the solid foundation that just is Christ and his Gospel. Whether we build mightily and sturdily or poorly and weakly, however, we will still emerge saved because Temples of God’s Holy Spirit are just going to endure with that Spirit one way or the other!

-Scott Hoezee

more at: http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/sermon-starters/epiphany-7a/?type=lectionary_epistle#sthash.bRlPyaas.dpuf

I work as a chaplain for a non-profit hospice in Las Vegas. Anyone who has served as a chaplain will tell you that the work can be routine but it is never dull. The problems and situations that you find yourself working through with people in hospice run the gamut from the touching to the tragic to the hilarious (“hospice humor” is a thing – next time you meet a hospice worker, ask). But one thing has never come up in seven years. Nobody has ever asked me if they’ve gotten their politics correct. I’ve never heard a confession that someone had not stood up for marginalized people enough. Never have I had to absolve somebody on a deathbed for “being complicit in unjust structures.” There has never been a long dialogue between a hospice patient and me examining if the Kingdom has been sufficiently brought about by someone’s earthly efforts. Politics has a way of becoming a non-factor in one’s life after a terminal diagnosis.

-http://www.mbird.com/2017/02/letter-from-a-hospice-chaplain-in-las-vegas/

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-foster-father-sick-children-2017-story.html

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