•Luke 5:1-39•“the cleansed leper’s task is not to publicize a miracle but to help confront an ideological system: the change in object (from “priest” to “them”) suggests a protest against the entire purity apparatus, which the priests control. He is to make the offering for the purpose of “witnessing against them” (eis marturion autois). This is a technical phrase in the Gospel for testimony before hostile audiences (Mark 6:11, 13:9). –Ched Myers•The word here, “aphientai” means “are this moment forgiven.”•“In choosing to introduce the language of the debt code, Jesus is elaborating the symbolics of hierarchy. The man’s lack of bodily wholeness would have been attributed to either his own sin, or, if a birth defect, inherited sin; he was thus denied full status in the body politic of Israel. Jesus summarily releases him from all debt -- hence restoring his social wholeness and thus his personhood, which in turn is equated with the restoration of physical wholeness.” “The scribes are incensed, and for good reason. Their complaining that none but God can remit debt is not a defense of the sovereignty of Yahweh, but of their own social power. As Torah interpreters and co-stewards of the symbolic order, they control determinations of indebtedness. But as Jesus did with the priestly prerogative, he has also expropriated this function. Faced with this threat, the scribes accuse Jesus in the strongest possible language: “He blasphemes!” This will ultimately be the charge for which Jesus is condemned to death at the end of the story.” –Myers••The word “sinner” here is a derogatory word. It is not kind. It is not nice. It is not describing what someone did – it was describing who someone was.Less than us.Broken.Dirty.Not blessed by God.•“For the oriental every table fellowship is a guarantee of peace, trust or brotherhood…The oriental, to whom symbolic action means more than it does to us, would immediately understand the acceptance of the outcasts into table fellowship with Jesus as an offer of salvation to guilty sinners and as the assurance of forgiveness.” –Jeremias•“Jesus’ concluding maxim unmasks the Pharisaic duplicity: for all their rhetoric about extending holiness to all of Israel, their practice betrays their commitment to rigid social boundaries between the “righteous” and the “sinner.” This boundary Jesus flatly rejects and his mission is specifically aimed at transgressing it. His identification of the “sick” with the “sinner” ties the issue back to his attack upon the debt code in the previous story. It seems Luke wants to stress here that Jesus’ disciples may freely mix with “sinners,” because Jesus’ repudiation of the debt code has made everyone equal again before God. There are now only sinners on the road of discipleship. Although the community of discipleship is in one sense distinct, its group boundaries embrace the socially outcast – in utter contrast to the Pharisaic program of identity through separation.” - Myers•John 9:1-3•what is sin?Transgression against divine law - against God's covenantBigger than just "in the heart"•Breaking shalom – or God’s overarching peace between us and God, us and each other, and us and creation.That means – anything that destroys community, hurts our neighbor, takes what is not ours, whatever worships or promotes gods other than God and whenever we integrate our lives into power systems of the world•Exodus 20:1-26•“Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.” - Brene Brown•"I think shame is lethal," she says. "I think shame is deadly. And I think we are swimming in it deep." Brown explains that feelings of shame can quietly marinate over a lifetime. "Here's the bottom line with shame," she says. "The less you talk about it, the more you got it. Shame needs three things to grow exponentially in our lives: secrecy, silence, and judgment." By keeping quiet, Brown says your shame will grow exponentially. "It will creep into every corner and crevice of your life," she says. The antidote, Brown says, is empathy. She explains that by talking about your shame with a friend who expresses empathy, the painful feeling cannot survive. "Shame depends on me buying into the belief that I'm alone," she says. Here's the bottom line: "Shame cannot survive being spoken," Brown says. "It cannot survive empathy."•We use words like “love the sinner but hate the sin.” •How about we say: We are going to love and embrace all humans generously, sacrificially and boldly – not putting a division between us and them – declaring to them that God has forgiven them of their debt and desires to see them live in freedom and hope following Jesus and praying the Spirit will empower them to abandon the behavior that is destroying themselves, those they love, and creation.•Our gay children are in crisis. 25% of homeless gay youth became homeless on the very day they came out to their parents. 40% of all homeless youth are gay. 70% of those attempt suicide. The non-affirming church has used shame and condemnation and false teaching to drive these kids out of their homes, the churches, and to the streets. As Kimberly Knight said, “The church is killing its gay children.”
