So what's it like when you don't have much power, but you're seeking justice?

Well, you just keep showing up. That's what we discuss today.

The borderlands are a thin place. Gloria Anzaldúa says they're “a psychic, social, and cultural terrain that we inhabit, and that inhabits all of us.” She writes that while borders “are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from them … ” a “borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary … the prohibited and forbidden are its inhabitants.”

So what does it mean when Jesus meets people in the borderlands? How are their identities changed? We explore that with the ten lepers today.

We had quite a week at SJPC last week. Not only did we prep for World Communion and Ian, but we also had an immigrant family show up on our doorstep, and we had a chance to care for them on Friday.

It's easy to pat ourselves on the back for these kind of things, but in the gospel today, we're challenged to reconsider. Sometimes in our journey, we'll called just to do the things asked of us just because it's the thing we're supposed to do. However, when we do them, we can be amazed by the results.

So Jesus is totally scandalous here in Luke 16. Almost inconsistent. How do we celebrate someone who is literally dishonest (and, as said in the sermon, there's no way to get out of the "not right"-ness of the manager)?

Well, it may be in the focus on the ends and a willingness to use whatever means available. We unfold that, with attention given to the complimentary Amos 8 passage as well.

This morning comes one of the more difficult passages in the Gospels - we have to hate our families and ourselves to follow Jesus?

Some of the issue is in translation, yes, but it's also an issue of intention: Jesus wants us to have a gut-check before we commit to what's in store.

What if we saw ourselves and others and their precious, priceless hearts and souls the same way? We talk about that today.

Rounding out our Sermon Madness series today, we turn to John and the story of Jesus washing the disciples feet to understand showing Grace and Mercy to Others.

There's a great little saying that's used for grace and mercy:

Grace is giving people what they don't deserve, and mercy is not giving people what they do deserve.

But that all hinges on "deserve," a word closely related to worth. In a world that so often index worth to production, we can treat grace and mercy like something to be earned.

But Jesus shows otherwise, even to the protest of Simon Peter. But in order for grace and mercy to really occur, we have to somehow receive it ourselves with a new sense of "deserving."

Almost taboo amongst the more genteel sort, we don't tend to talk about the confluence of Christianity and Patriotism. That silence leads to limited examination at times. Or, it means that those who are particularly loud get to run the show - a little like Mean Girls.

Could it be that really, we've lost the balance of what we offer to the state and what we offer to God? Luke 20 opens up that conversation, and we consider patriotism through that lens.

A single verse is always a risky enterprise. Prooftexting can steer people into some awful directions. So when the request for a single passage came up in this year's bracket (and one so often used in some not-so-great ways), it was an extra challenge.

But, God invites us into active participation to the very best.

Put another way, Romans 8:28 says: "...and our experiences already demonstrate to us that everything that ever has been, is, and will be, works with Good towards the very good, and those who love Good and can't help but be drawn to Good join in the work."

We begin our annual bracket sermon series. After voting, our first sermon is "The Gospel and Social Justice."

With the way that partisanship has taken hold of concepts of justice and "wokeness," we might not always know what social justice is. So we're taking a step back, and talk about Marcel the Shell. Who would've thought!?

Big topics = big sermons... so that's why you'll see the the 29:30 mark.

Put bluntly, churches often major in the minors. We place the priorities of secondary things above the primary.

James reminds us that faith and works are intertwined and inseparable. If we're prioritizing appropriately, we will be relentless in our pursuit of good works (the public trust granted in covenant with God) to express the depth of our faith. To do otherwise should force us to question how meaningful our faith truly is.

This wraps up our four week series, and Rev. Anderson will be off for three Sundays.