Forgiveness is one of the most associated concepts with Christianity. Yet, by looking at today's text, we can see how forgiveness not only has the potential to be used abusively, but we'll talk about how the Church has done that very thing, time and time again. We'll deconstruct some of this, and try to think about forgiveness in a more radical and liberating way.

We don't realize that Jesus was the primary deconstructionist of his time. He was consistently looking at the emphasis of his religious system and critiquing it, trying to point people to something more essential. Today we hear a conversation that does this very thing between Jesus, the Pharisees, his disciples, and the gathered crowd. It helps us wonder about the question: what's more important, the traditions and ideologies we grew up with, or this way of life to which Jesus calls us? **NOTE** The recording cuts off early, but the presentation and most of the questions and answers are still there.

We treat the "Feeding of the Multitude" miracles as just that. It's an amazing miracle that displays Jesus' power. However, in each Gospel's telling of the story there's a lot more going on. In Matthew's version, he's connecting Jesus to Moses and the multitude to the Exodus. Matthew is intentionally helping people see a story of liberation, while at the same time giving this same meaning to the practice of communion.

Matthew's Kingdom of Heaven of parables are explicitly not talking about an afterlife experience, but also give the aura of something bigger and more mysterious that can be experienced in this lifetime. Today we talk about these meanings and consider what they say about our life today.

Another parable in Matthew's Kingdom of Heaven discourse, the Parable of the weeds among the wheat has often been used to describe individuals and the status of their "souls". However, when looked in it's historical context, we see that this parable is one of tremendous hope for people wrestling with how to respond to Roman persecution, which for today's audience, could still powerfully help us break the cycles of violence and polarization.

A parable that has often been utilized to compartmentalize the quality of people or even the quality of ourselves, the Parable of the Sower can be a parable that beats us over the head (or allows us to beat others over the head). But what if this parable is meant to describe each of us at different moments in our lives, not in a linear progression, but in an ongoing cycle? Perhaps with this perspective we might understand the generosity (or craziness of the sower?) of the divine towards humanity.

We talk about two points in this episode, one explicit and one implicit. The explicit, which is still often missed by the Church today, is the missional identity of Jesus followers. Jesus explicitly commands his followers to do what he does, which is not centered in worship, or evangelism, but the work of compassion. But the implicit point for us in the progressive church is that we don't often see ourselves on the healing side of the stories in the gospels. What does it look like for us also to consider ourselves from the perspective of the crowd who receives the good news? Today we talk about hope from both perspectives.

In today's Gospel text we see Jesus reach out to people on all sides of the spectrum of his day; from the most despised to the most powerful, from the most profane to the most righteous, and he seems to be inclusive and compassionate to all. We discuss the meanings of these identities and what it looks like for us to be both inclusive, while also making sure we continue to stand up and speak for the marginalized.

The vast majorities of Christians do not grow up with a contextual understanding of the Bible and how to interpret it and make decisions about it for our time today. One of the biggest obstacles that has prevented this has been Church Dogma. The vast majority of Christians have grown up having their church's dogma not only memorized, but ever ready to employ it both defense of life-decisions, and condemnation of others. Today we talk about the dangers of Dogma, and how looking at both our experience and the experience of others as a response.

The story of Pentecost, or the beginning of the Church, has had a dual affect in our society today. First, it has allowed the Church to say that it's decision making is ordained by God and others cannot question that decision making. And second, it has moved much of that decision making into activities that end up excluding people from being in. When we look at the story of Pentecost in context, especially its usage of the prophet Joel, we find that the story was indeed meant to be the ordination of the Church by God, but the activities the Church was always meant to engage in was radical inclusivity.