You’ve probably never heard a sermon these verses, particularly not the last sentence.

On Sunday, Brenna pointed out how Mary deeply loved Jesus and showed up early at the tomb while the boys were all back in bed.

There are so many different perspectives we have when it comes to God. Sometimes it’s helpful to ask the hard question: who do we really want?

Today we look at a few short insights about neighbor love.

Jesus is far more interested in people loving well than in talking a lot about love! After the amazing parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus invites the religious leader, and us, to actually do some loving.

Sometimes the famous parable of the Good Samaritan is weaponized to inflict guilt or shame on us when we fail to care for every need we face out in the world.

Inevitably, our Jericho Roads always make us face ourselves. The bring up questions like, Do I have what it takes to make a difference? What if God doesn’t show up? What can I do anyway? What if it costs me too much?

There’s a sense in which so many of us know what God’s plan is for our life - it’s to love more.

it often feels like suffering has a microphone. How do we hear God?

Are there places in your life where God is at work doing what only God can do… and yet you are still being invited in to participate in the healing?

For the prophets, hope was always a beacon of light, a magnate pulling them forward into a better future.

If we are going to have true hope, that means we’re going to have to face the difficulties of the world head on.

What God wants to know is: ‘Can you see past the rubbish, the damage, the crisis, the violence, the signs of decay... can you imagine that life still lingers there?

Jesus keeps showing up in the strangest places. Maybe that could even include our lives.

Are you “able-bodied”? Or are you just temporarily nondisabled? Everyone’s physical ability is a temporary situation, and that frightens us.

Have you had the experience of someone asking you a question that was really just a way of saying what they wanted to say anyway and pretending they were interested? Or maybe their questions was even an insult?

As we reflect on John 9 and Jesus’s interaction with the man who was born blind, there’s a lot going on. It takes just 7 verses for Jesus to restore his sight. But the entire rest of the chapter is about the process of Jesus bringing more complete healing.

Often (in both the ancient and contemporary world) religious leaders focus on curing instead of healing. Jesus prefers the kind of healing that enables us to know God sees us and loves us and that includes restoring us to our social networks.

Much of scripture is written in poetry. Poetry can sometimes opens a window where we only saw a wall.

Sometimes it seems like a scarcity mindset actually heightens the true scarcity we are facing.