• The freedom we need for true happiness requires us first to deny ourselves; being rooted in what we are now leads only to a dead end . . . If we struggle against God’s grace, against God's providence, if we struggle to remain as we are now, we will eventually find ourselves getting what we struggle for: ourselves, entirely closed to anything but ourselves . . . If we want self-fulfillment, we must deny ourselves. We must open ourselves to God and God's infinite freedom, so that we can then find our place in the world. Once we know it, then we can act upon it . . .• Genesis 3:22-24• “Humans, having already exceeded the limits of creaturehood, have radically altered the perspective of human existence. They live henceforth in the consciousness of their mortality. They may therefore be tempted to change their condition by artificial means, rather than by restoring the ruptured harmony between divine will and human will, the harmony that is ultimately the definition of paradise” –JPS Commentary on Genesis• Luke 14:25-35• “Again, then, 'hating' one’s self should not be taken as a reference to an affective self-abhorrence, but as a call to set aside the relationships, the extended family of origin and inner circle of friends, by which one has previously made up one’s identity. Here Jesus is calling for the reconstruction of one’s identity, not along ancestral lines or on the basis of one’s social status, but within the new community oriented toward God’s purpose and characterized by faithfulness to the message of Jesus. Bearing the cross is used as a metaphor of discipleship – indeed, as a requirement for one’s identity as a disciple. Such persons would live as through they were condemned to death by crucifixion, oblivious to the pursuit of noble status, finding no interest in securing one’s future via securing obligations from others or by stockpiling possessions, free to identify with Jesus in his dishonorable suffering. Importantly, both statements concerning the conditions of discipleship are addressed to 'whosoever' a reminder that the invitation is an open one.” –Joel Green.• “The opposite of faith is not doubt, it is control” – Richard Rohr• Control is a result of being attached to a specific outcome—an outcome we’re sure is best for us, as if we always know what’s best.• Practical Guide to Self-Denial:o Seek God’s benefit and the Kingdom of God’s benefit above your own.o Seek the good of your neighbor above your own.o It is not something we can “do” – it is a result of something we do.[Prayer of Saint Ephraim]Lord and Master of my life,Grant not unto me a spirit of idleness,of discouragement, of lust for power, and of vain speaking.But bestow upon me, Thy servant,the spirit of chastity,of meekness, of patience, and of love.Yes, O Lord and King,grant that I may perceive my own transgressions,and judge not my brother or sister,for blessed art Thou unto ages of ages.Amen.

• The freedom we need for true happiness requires us first to deny ourselves; being rooted in what we are now leads only to a dead end . . . If we struggle against God’s grace, against God's providence, if we struggle to remain as we are now, we will eventually find ourselves getting what we struggle for: ourselves, entirely closed to anything but ourselves . . . If we want self-fulfillment, we must deny ourselves. We must open ourselves to God and God's infinite freedom, so that we can then find our place in the world. Once we know it, then we can act upon it . . .• Genesis 3:22-24• “Humans, having already exceeded the limits of creaturehood, have radically altered the perspective of human existence. They live henceforth in the consciousness of their mortality. They may therefore be tempted to change their condition by artificial means, rather than by restoring the ruptured harmony between divine will and human will, the harmony that is ultimately the definition of paradise” –JPS Commentary on Genesis• Luke 14:25-35• “Again, then, 'hating' one’s self should not be taken as a reference to an affective self-abhorrence, but as a call to set aside the relationships, the extended family of origin and inner circle of friends, by which one has previously made up one’s identity. Here Jesus is calling for the reconstruction of one’s identity, not along ancestral lines or on the basis of one’s social status, but within the new community oriented toward God’s purpose and characterized by faithfulness to the message of Jesus. Bearing the cross is used as a metaphor of discipleship – indeed, as a requirement for one’s identity as a disciple. Such persons would live as through they were condemned to death by crucifixion, oblivious to the pursuit of noble status, finding no interest in securing one’s future via securing obligations from others or by stockpiling possessions, free to identify with Jesus in his dishonorable suffering. Importantly, both statements concerning the conditions of discipleship are addressed to 'whosoever' a reminder that the invitation is an open one.” –Joel Green.• “The opposite of faith is not doubt, it is control” – Richard Rohr• Control is a result of being attached to a specific outcome—an outcome we’re sure is best for us, as if we always know what’s best.• Practical Guide to Self-Denial:o Seek God’s benefit and the Kingdom of God’s benefit above your own.o Seek the good of your neighbor above your own.o It is not something we can “do” – it is a result of something we do.[Prayer of Saint Ephraim]Lord and Master of my life,Grant not unto me a spirit of idleness,of discouragement, of lust for power, and of vain speaking.But bestow upon me, Thy servant,the spirit of chastity,of meekness, of patience, and of love.Yes, O Lord and King,grant that I may perceive my own transgressions,and judge not my brother or sister,for blessed art Thou unto ages of ages.Amen.

•Christian worship is a defiant act of re-orienting our interests and desires against the liturgical rituals of our society which tells us to compete and spend. We instead bow to God and re-orient our desires to align with God's interests toward God's people and creation. "Forever you will be the Lamb upon the throne we gladly bow our knees to worship you alone..."•The modern world leaves us with 3 pathologies: Anxiety. Addiction. Alienation. •Luke 12:13 – The Rich FoolLuke 12:22 – Anxiety and worryLuke 12:48 – to those given much…Luke 16:1 – Shrewd ManagerLuke 16:19 – Lazarus & the Rich ManLuke 18:18 – Rich Young RulerLuke 19:1 – Zacchaeus the Tax CollectorLuke 19:11 – Parable of the TalentsThese are just overtly about money – •Luke 12:13-21•Luke 12:32-34•Simply put – we must reject any ideology that puts profit over people.•How do we live and participate in Sabbath Economics?Kingdom Economics?1. Simplicity - Live on less2. Surplus Capital3. Give. Tithe. “Tithe Plus”4. Live “Green”5. Live in Solidarity6. Work & Sabbath•“Though we only see a fraction of it, Americans consume 120 pounds – nearly their average body weight – every day in natural resources extracted from farms, forests, rangelands, and mines. The levels of US consumption far exceed the earth’s capacity. For the whole world to consume at the level of a typical American would require four more earths worth of productive land. In other words, we are three planets short.” “Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption…We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever increasing rate.” –Victor Lebow (1950) •“Only through simplicity can we find deep contentment instead of perpetually striving and living unsatisfied. Simple living is the foundational social justice teaching of Jesus, Francis, Gandhi, and all hermits, mystics, prophets, and seers since time immemorial. The Franciscan alternative orthodoxy asks us to let go, to recognize that there is enough to go around and meet everyone's need but not everyone's greed." —Richard Rohr •Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (www.iccr.org) - “Shareholders calling the world’s most powerful companies to address their impacts on the world’s most vulnerable communities”The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (www.socialinvest.org)Community Investment - Community investing channels public and private investment to low income and other underserved communities in order to provide capital, credit and training that these communities would otherwise lack. (www.communityinvest.org) •Leviticus 24:23-24•“Our hard and very urgent task if to realize that nature is not primarily a property to be possessed, but a gift to be received with admiration and gratitude. How differently we would live if we always sense that the nature around us is full of desire to tell us the great story of God’s love, to which it points.” –Henri Nouwen •In their book: Stuff: the Secret Life of Ordinary Things the authors follow the journey taken by various consumer goods from their environmental origins to our homes. They follow their morning cup of Columbian coffee and say, “Gulp, I drink two cups a day. At that rate, I’ll down 34 gallons of java this year, made from 18 pounds of beans. Columbian farms have 12 coffee trees growing to support my personal addiction. Farmers will apply 11 pounds of fertilizers and a few ounces of pesticides to the trees this year. And Columbia’s rivers will swell with 43 pounds of coffee pulp stripped from my beans.” •“In his essay “The Two Economies,” Kentucky farmer and author Wendell Berry speaks of the “Great Economy.” By this he means the comprehensive economy of creation: mutually dependent and interactive through countless complex chains of relationships. The “Great Economy” is one in which the fall of every sparrow is indeed a significant event. By denying this reality, humans risk cutting off the very hand that feeds them. While we can comprehend small pieces of this web, it would be hubris to imagine this economy was anything but a final mystery beyond human comprehension or mastery.” •The Great Economy is the land. Lives. Futures. Animals. Humans. Environment. Money. Business. Church. All interwoven •Reduce consumption. Reuse as much as possible. Recycle – but can’t rely upon recycling. Eat local. Organic when possible (so lessens pesticides). Fair trade to value farmers. Cut back or stop eating non-organic/non-local meat (industrial meat industry is bad, bad, bad for animals, environment and people) •Living with those being marginalized and isolated so they can have hope. This will require us to intentionally align our location, vision, life, future and hope with those we are in solidarity with.This is the purpose of intentional relocation. No better way to stand in solidarity than to live with people we are being in solidarity with. •“Solidarity is therefore not a form of disengagement with those who are not poor. It is instead an engagement with the whole world from the vantage point of a deep connection with those who have been excluded, confined to the margins of society, or made poor by the economic systems and structures of that world. It is the practice of aligning one’s hopes with the poor and marginalized by placing one’s self in proximity to those people.” –Matthew Colwell, Sabbath Economics: Household Practices•Luke 12:48•“The great obstacle is simply this: the conviction that we cannot change because we are so dependent upon what is wrong. But this is the addict’s excuse, and we know that it will not do.” –Wendell Berry•God, we surrender all to you today. We pray that you would change our hearts and change our lives. We pray that you would help us to live for your Kingdom and in solidarity with those who are hurting. Use us to bless the world we pray. We pray for those that have much, that they would give much. We pray for those who do not care about the suffering of others, we pray that they would be moved to care. We pray that you would deliver us from anxiety and addiction and alienation and help us to live a life of hope, mercy and compassion. God, we trust in you alone.

•Christian worship is a defiant act of re-orienting our interests and desires against the liturgical rituals of our society which tells us to compete and spend. We instead bow to God and re-orient our desires to align with God's interests toward God's people and creation. "Forever you will be the Lamb upon the throne we gladly bow our knees to worship you alone..."•The modern world leaves us with 3 pathologies: Anxiety. Addiction. Alienation. •Luke 12:13 – The Rich FoolLuke 12:22 – Anxiety and worryLuke 12:48 – to those given much…Luke 16:1 – Shrewd ManagerLuke 16:19 – Lazarus & the Rich ManLuke 18:18 – Rich Young RulerLuke 19:1 – Zacchaeus the Tax CollectorLuke 19:11 – Parable of the TalentsThese are just overtly about money – •Luke 12:13-21•Luke 12:32-34•Simply put – we must reject any ideology that puts profit over people.•How do we live and participate in Sabbath Economics?Kingdom Economics?1. Simplicity - Live on less2. Surplus Capital3. Give. Tithe. “Tithe Plus”4. Live “Green”5. Live in Solidarity6. Work & Sabbath•“Though we only see a fraction of it, Americans consume 120 pounds – nearly their average body weight – every day in natural resources extracted from farms, forests, rangelands, and mines. The levels of US consumption far exceed the earth’s capacity. For the whole world to consume at the level of a typical American would require four more earths worth of productive land. In other words, we are three planets short.” “Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption…We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever increasing rate.” –Victor Lebow (1950) •“Only through simplicity can we find deep contentment instead of perpetually striving and living unsatisfied. Simple living is the foundational social justice teaching of Jesus, Francis, Gandhi, and all hermits, mystics, prophets, and seers since time immemorial. The Franciscan alternative orthodoxy asks us to let go, to recognize that there is enough to go around and meet everyone's need but not everyone's greed." —Richard Rohr •Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (www.iccr.org) - “Shareholders calling the world’s most powerful companies to address their impacts on the world’s most vulnerable communities”The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (www.socialinvest.org)Community Investment - Community investing channels public and private investment to low income and other underserved communities in order to provide capital, credit and training that these communities would otherwise lack. (www.communityinvest.org) •Leviticus 24:23-24•“Our hard and very urgent task if to realize that nature is not primarily a property to be possessed, but a gift to be received with admiration and gratitude. How differently we would live if we always sense that the nature around us is full of desire to tell us the great story of God’s love, to which it points.” –Henri Nouwen •In their book: Stuff: the Secret Life of Ordinary Things the authors follow the journey taken by various consumer goods from their environmental origins to our homes. They follow their morning cup of Columbian coffee and say, “Gulp, I drink two cups a day. At that rate, I’ll down 34 gallons of java this year, made from 18 pounds of beans. Columbian farms have 12 coffee trees growing to support my personal addiction. Farmers will apply 11 pounds of fertilizers and a few ounces of pesticides to the trees this year. And Columbia’s rivers will swell with 43 pounds of coffee pulp stripped from my beans.” •“In his essay “The Two Economies,” Kentucky farmer and author Wendell Berry speaks of the “Great Economy.” By this he means the comprehensive economy of creation: mutually dependent and interactive through countless complex chains of relationships. The “Great Economy” is one in which the fall of every sparrow is indeed a significant event. By denying this reality, humans risk cutting off the very hand that feeds them. While we can comprehend small pieces of this web, it would be hubris to imagine this economy was anything but a final mystery beyond human comprehension or mastery.” •The Great Economy is the land. Lives. Futures. Animals. Humans. Environment. Money. Business. Church. All interwoven •Reduce consumption. Reuse as much as possible. Recycle – but can’t rely upon recycling. Eat local. Organic when possible (so lessens pesticides). Fair trade to value farmers. Cut back or stop eating non-organic/non-local meat (industrial meat industry is bad, bad, bad for animals, environment and people) •Living with those being marginalized and isolated so they can have hope. This will require us to intentionally align our location, vision, life, future and hope with those we are in solidarity with.This is the purpose of intentional relocation. No better way to stand in solidarity than to live with people we are being in solidarity with. •“Solidarity is therefore not a form of disengagement with those who are not poor. It is instead an engagement with the whole world from the vantage point of a deep connection with those who have been excluded, confined to the margins of society, or made poor by the economic systems and structures of that world. It is the practice of aligning one’s hopes with the poor and marginalized by placing one’s self in proximity to those people.” –Matthew Colwell, Sabbath Economics: Household Practices•Luke 12:48•“The great obstacle is simply this: the conviction that we cannot change because we are so dependent upon what is wrong. But this is the addict’s excuse, and we know that it will not do.” –Wendell Berry•God, we surrender all to you today. We pray that you would change our hearts and change our lives. We pray that you would help us to live for your Kingdom and in solidarity with those who are hurting. Use us to bless the world we pray. We pray for those that have much, that they would give much. We pray for those who do not care about the suffering of others, we pray that they would be moved to care. We pray that you would deliver us from anxiety and addiction and alienation and help us to live a life of hope, mercy and compassion. God, we trust in you alone.

•Christian worship is a defiant act of re-orienting our interests and desires against the liturgical rituals of our society which tells us to compete and spend. We instead bow to God and re-orient our desires to align with God's interests toward God's people and creation. "Forever you will be the Lamb upon the throne we gladly bow our knees to worship you alone..."•The modern world leaves us with 3 pathologies: Anxiety. Addiction. Alienation. •Luke 12:13 – The Rich FoolLuke 12:22 – Anxiety and worryLuke 12:48 – to those given much…Luke 16:1 – Shrewd ManagerLuke 16:19 – Lazarus & the Rich ManLuke 18:18 – Rich Young RulerLuke 19:1 – Zacchaeus the Tax CollectorLuke 19:11 – Parable of the TalentsThese are just overtly about money – •Luke 12:13-21•Luke 12:32-34•Simply put – we must reject any ideology that puts profit over people.•How do we live and participate in Sabbath Economics?Kingdom Economics?1. Simplicity - Live on less2. Surplus Capital3. Give. Tithe. “Tithe Plus”4. Live “Green”5. Live in Solidarity6. Work & Sabbath•“Though we only see a fraction of it, Americans consume 120 pounds – nearly their average body weight – every day in natural resources extracted from farms, forests, rangelands, and mines. The levels of US consumption far exceed the earth’s capacity. For the whole world to consume at the level of a typical American would require four more earths worth of productive land. In other words, we are three planets short.” “Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption…We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever increasing rate.” –Victor Lebow (1950) •“Only through simplicity can we find deep contentment instead of perpetually striving and living unsatisfied. Simple living is the foundational social justice teaching of Jesus, Francis, Gandhi, and all hermits, mystics, prophets, and seers since time immemorial. The Franciscan alternative orthodoxy asks us to let go, to recognize that there is enough to go around and meet everyone's need but not everyone's greed." —Richard Rohr •Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (www.iccr.org) - “Shareholders calling the world’s most powerful companies to address their impacts on the world’s most vulnerable communities”The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (www.socialinvest.org)Community Investment - Community investing channels public and private investment to low income and other underserved communities in order to provide capital, credit and training that these communities would otherwise lack. (www.communityinvest.org) •Leviticus 24:23-24•“Our hard and very urgent task if to realize that nature is not primarily a property to be possessed, but a gift to be received with admiration and gratitude. How differently we would live if we always sense that the nature around us is full of desire to tell us the great story of God’s love, to which it points.” –Henri Nouwen •In their book: Stuff: the Secret Life of Ordinary Things the authors follow the journey taken by various consumer goods from their environmental origins to our homes. They follow their morning cup of Columbian coffee and say, “Gulp, I drink two cups a day. At that rate, I’ll down 34 gallons of java this year, made from 18 pounds of beans. Columbian farms have 12 coffee trees growing to support my personal addiction. Farmers will apply 11 pounds of fertilizers and a few ounces of pesticides to the trees this year. And Columbia’s rivers will swell with 43 pounds of coffee pulp stripped from my beans.” •“In his essay “The Two Economies,” Kentucky farmer and author Wendell Berry speaks of the “Great Economy.” By this he means the comprehensive economy of creation: mutually dependent and interactive through countless complex chains of relationships. The “Great Economy” is one in which the fall of every sparrow is indeed a significant event. By denying this reality, humans risk cutting off the very hand that feeds them. While we can comprehend small pieces of this web, it would be hubris to imagine this economy was anything but a final mystery beyond human comprehension or mastery.” •The Great Economy is the land. Lives. Futures. Animals. Humans. Environment. Money. Business. Church. All interwoven •Reduce consumption. Reuse as much as possible. Recycle – but can’t rely upon recycling. Eat local. Organic when possible (so lessens pesticides). Fair trade to value farmers. Cut back or stop eating non-organic/non-local meat (industrial meat industry is bad, bad, bad for animals, environment and people) •Living with those being marginalized and isolated so they can have hope. This will require us to intentionally align our location, vision, life, future and hope with those we are in solidarity with.This is the purpose of intentional relocation. No better way to stand in solidarity than to live with people we are being in solidarity with. •“Solidarity is therefore not a form of disengagement with those who are not poor. It is instead an engagement with the whole world from the vantage point of a deep connection with those who have been excluded, confined to the margins of society, or made poor by the economic systems and structures of that world. It is the practice of aligning one’s hopes with the poor and marginalized by placing one’s self in proximity to those people.” –Matthew Colwell, Sabbath Economics: Household Practices•Luke 12:48•“The great obstacle is simply this: the conviction that we cannot change because we are so dependent upon what is wrong. But this is the addict’s excuse, and we know that it will not do.” –Wendell Berry•God, we surrender all to you today. We pray that you would change our hearts and change our lives. We pray that you would help us to live for your Kingdom and in solidarity with those who are hurting. Use us to bless the world we pray. We pray for those that have much, that they would give much. We pray for those who do not care about the suffering of others, we pray that they would be moved to care. We pray that you would deliver us from anxiety and addiction and alienation and help us to live a life of hope, mercy and compassion. God, we trust in you alone.

•Christian worship is a defiant act of re-orienting our interests and desires against the liturgical rituals of our society which tells us to compete and spend. We instead bow to God and re-orient our desires to align with God's interests toward God's people and creation. "Forever you will be the Lamb upon the throne we gladly bow our knees to worship you alone..."•The modern world leaves us with 3 pathologies: Anxiety. Addiction. Alienation. •Luke 12:13 – The Rich FoolLuke 12:22 – Anxiety and worryLuke 12:48 – to those given much…Luke 16:1 – Shrewd ManagerLuke 16:19 – Lazarus & the Rich ManLuke 18:18 – Rich Young RulerLuke 19:1 – Zacchaeus the Tax CollectorLuke 19:11 – Parable of the TalentsThese are just overtly about money – •Luke 12:13-21•Luke 12:32-34•Simply put – we must reject any ideology that puts profit over people.•How do we live and participate in Sabbath Economics?Kingdom Economics?1. Simplicity - Live on less2. Surplus Capital3. Give. Tithe. “Tithe Plus”4. Live “Green”5. Live in Solidarity6. Work & Sabbath•“Though we only see a fraction of it, Americans consume 120 pounds – nearly their average body weight – every day in natural resources extracted from farms, forests, rangelands, and mines. The levels of US consumption far exceed the earth’s capacity. For the whole world to consume at the level of a typical American would require four more earths worth of productive land. In other words, we are three planets short.” “Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption…We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever increasing rate.” –Victor Lebow (1950) •“Only through simplicity can we find deep contentment instead of perpetually striving and living unsatisfied. Simple living is the foundational social justice teaching of Jesus, Francis, Gandhi, and all hermits, mystics, prophets, and seers since time immemorial. The Franciscan alternative orthodoxy asks us to let go, to recognize that there is enough to go around and meet everyone's need but not everyone's greed." —Richard Rohr •Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (www.iccr.org) - “Shareholders calling the world’s most powerful companies to address their impacts on the world’s most vulnerable communities”The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (www.socialinvest.org)Community Investment - Community investing channels public and private investment to low income and other underserved communities in order to provide capital, credit and training that these communities would otherwise lack. (www.communityinvest.org) •Leviticus 24:23-24•“Our hard and very urgent task if to realize that nature is not primarily a property to be possessed, but a gift to be received with admiration and gratitude. How differently we would live if we always sense that the nature around us is full of desire to tell us the great story of God’s love, to which it points.” –Henri Nouwen •In their book: Stuff: the Secret Life of Ordinary Things the authors follow the journey taken by various consumer goods from their environmental origins to our homes. They follow their morning cup of Columbian coffee and say, “Gulp, I drink two cups a day. At that rate, I’ll down 34 gallons of java this year, made from 18 pounds of beans. Columbian farms have 12 coffee trees growing to support my personal addiction. Farmers will apply 11 pounds of fertilizers and a few ounces of pesticides to the trees this year. And Columbia’s rivers will swell with 43 pounds of coffee pulp stripped from my beans.” •“In his essay “The Two Economies,” Kentucky farmer and author Wendell Berry speaks of the “Great Economy.” By this he means the comprehensive economy of creation: mutually dependent and interactive through countless complex chains of relationships. The “Great Economy” is one in which the fall of every sparrow is indeed a significant event. By denying this reality, humans risk cutting off the very hand that feeds them. While we can comprehend small pieces of this web, it would be hubris to imagine this economy was anything but a final mystery beyond human comprehension or mastery.” •The Great Economy is the land. Lives. Futures. Animals. Humans. Environment. Money. Business. Church. All interwoven •Reduce consumption. Reuse as much as possible. Recycle – but can’t rely upon recycling. Eat local. Organic when possible (so lessens pesticides). Fair trade to value farmers. Cut back or stop eating non-organic/non-local meat (industrial meat industry is bad, bad, bad for animals, environment and people) •Living with those being marginalized and isolated so they can have hope. This will require us to intentionally align our location, vision, life, future and hope with those we are in solidarity with.This is the purpose of intentional relocation. No better way to stand in solidarity than to live with people we are being in solidarity with. •“Solidarity is therefore not a form of disengagement with those who are not poor. It is instead an engagement with the whole world from the vantage point of a deep connection with those who have been excluded, confined to the margins of society, or made poor by the economic systems and structures of that world. It is the practice of aligning one’s hopes with the poor and marginalized by placing one’s self in proximity to those people.” –Matthew Colwell, Sabbath Economics: Household Practices•Luke 12:48•“The great obstacle is simply this: the conviction that we cannot change because we are so dependent upon what is wrong. But this is the addict’s excuse, and we know that it will not do.” –Wendell Berry•God, we surrender all to you today. We pray that you would change our hearts and change our lives. We pray that you would help us to live for your Kingdom and in solidarity with those who are hurting. Use us to bless the world we pray. We pray for those that have much, that they would give much. We pray for those who do not care about the suffering of others, we pray that they would be moved to care. We pray that you would deliver us from anxiety and addiction and alienation and help us to live a life of hope, mercy and compassion. God, we trust in you alone.

•Luke 4:1-13•“The first temptation was to be relevant – to turn stones to bread… Oh, how often have I wished I could do that! Walking through the “young towns” on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, where children die from malnutrition and contaminated water, I would not have been able to reject the magical gift of making the dusty stone-covered streets into places where people could pick up any of the thousands of rocks and discover that they were croissants, coffee cakes, or fresh-baked buns, and where they could fill their cupped hands with stale water from the cisterns and joyfully realize that what they were drinking was delicious milk. Are we not called to do something that makes people realize that we do make a difference in their lives? Aren’t we called to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and alleviate the suffering of the poor? Jesus was faced with these same questions, but when he was asked to prove his power as the Son of God by the relevant behavior of changing stones into bread, he clung to his mission to proclaim the Word and said, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”” In the Name of Jesus- Henri Nouwen•What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life. - Nouwen, Henri J. M. (1992-10-01). In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership.

•Luke 4:1-13•“The first temptation was to be relevant – to turn stones to bread… Oh, how often have I wished I could do that! Walking through the “young towns” on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, where children die from malnutrition and contaminated water, I would not have been able to reject the magical gift of making the dusty stone-covered streets into places where people could pick up any of the thousands of rocks and discover that they were croissants, coffee cakes, or fresh-baked buns, and where they could fill their cupped hands with stale water from the cisterns and joyfully realize that what they were drinking was delicious milk. Are we not called to do something that makes people realize that we do make a difference in their lives? Aren’t we called to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and alleviate the suffering of the poor? Jesus was faced with these same questions, but when he was asked to prove his power as the Son of God by the relevant behavior of changing stones into bread, he clung to his mission to proclaim the Word and said, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”” In the Name of Jesus- Henri Nouwen•What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life. - Nouwen, Henri J. M. (1992-10-01). In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership.

•Luke 4:1-13•“The first temptation was to be relevant – to turn stones to bread… Oh, how often have I wished I could do that! Walking through the “young towns” on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, where children die from malnutrition and contaminated water, I would not have been able to reject the magical gift of making the dusty stone-covered streets into places where people could pick up any of the thousands of rocks and discover that they were croissants, coffee cakes, or fresh-baked buns, and where they could fill their cupped hands with stale water from the cisterns and joyfully realize that what they were drinking was delicious milk. Are we not called to do something that makes people realize that we do make a difference in their lives? Aren’t we called to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and alleviate the suffering of the poor? Jesus was faced with these same questions, but when he was asked to prove his power as the Son of God by the relevant behavior of changing stones into bread, he clung to his mission to proclaim the Word and said, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”” In the Name of Jesus- Henri Nouwen•What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life. - Nouwen, Henri J. M. (1992-10-01). In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership.

•Luke 4:1-13•“The first temptation was to be relevant – to turn stones to bread… Oh, how often have I wished I could do that! Walking through the “young towns” on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, where children die from malnutrition and contaminated water, I would not have been able to reject the magical gift of making the dusty stone-covered streets into places where people could pick up any of the thousands of rocks and discover that they were croissants, coffee cakes, or fresh-baked buns, and where they could fill their cupped hands with stale water from the cisterns and joyfully realize that what they were drinking was delicious milk. Are we not called to do something that makes people realize that we do make a difference in their lives? Aren’t we called to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and alleviate the suffering of the poor? Jesus was faced with these same questions, but when he was asked to prove his power as the Son of God by the relevant behavior of changing stones into bread, he clung to his mission to proclaim the Word and said, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”” In the Name of Jesus- Henri Nouwen•What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life. - Nouwen, Henri J. M. (1992-10-01). In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership.