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The Loving Father's Wide Grace

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To hear the full unabridged message listen here: Parables for the Long Way Home - The Loving Father’s Wide Grace

As we continue our journey through Lent, wandering toward the resurrection, there is one story I haven’t been able to escape. It’s a parable that seems to creep into almost every sermon I preach, regardless of the text. It’s the story many of us know as the “Parable of the Prodigal Son," but the more I sit with it, the more I’ve fallen in love with a different title: The Parable of the Loving Father.

Found in Luke 15:11-32, this story is a cornerstone of our cultural consciousness. We use the word “prodigal” to describe anyone who wanders away and eventually returns with their tail between their legs. But if we look closer at the cultural context and the second half of the story, we find that Jesus wasn’t just talking about reckless rebels—He was talking to the “good people” standing in the room.

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Amy and I are enjoying our brief get away to Iowa City to spend some time with Ethan. We hiked Indiana State Dunes yesterday and Lake MacBride North Shore today.

1.4 Flexibility - Faith that Bends Without Breaking

About This Episode

In this episode, I’m digging into something I’ve been thinking a lot about in my own physical fitness: flexibility. We often talk about building “strength” in our faith, but strength without the ability to bend leads to injury. If our spiritual muscles are rigid, they’re going to tear when life gets heavy.

I want to talk to you about the difference between a rigid faith and a resilient one. Whether you’re wrestling with questions, feeling the weight of “certainty,” or unlearning things you were taught as a child, I want you to know that a faith that stretches isn’t a faith that’s failing—it’s a faith that’s growing.

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Psalm 120 really speaks today.

I call on the LORD in my distress, and he answers me.

Save me, LORD, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues.

What will he do to you, and what more besides, you deceitful tongue?

He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows, with burning coals of the broom bush.

Woe to me that I dwell in Meshek, that I live among the tents of Kedar!

Too long have I lived among those who hate peace.

I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

Did you know that as an adult you can choose to have breakfast food for any meal of the day?

Wild right?!

#TIL

I am not an expert on politics. I am not an expert on war.

I think I may have developed an expertise over my years and training in the areas of Bible and theology.

As I have read the arguments on behalf of this military action, it does not appear to rise to meeting the requirements of a just war.

Beyond that, I do not think this falls in line with the peacemaking ethic of Matthew 5.

As a pastor, I cannot in good faith support this military action.

I am praying for a quick resolution, for the protection of civilians, for the protection of troops, and for peace to be restored. I am praying that wisdom and discernment rule the day.

I am preaching the parable of the sower Sunday. I am wrestling with how to avoid the moralistic, “you control the soil of your heart.”

This is the message that I’ve heard communicated over and over.

That’s too easy and I think misses the point of the beauty of what the sower is doing.

Being able to sit on the patio feeling the sun on your face and not be freezing is joy giving. I’m feeling my tank being re-filled moment by moment!

“The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in the hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love.”
  • Parker Palmer, Quaker educator

Another super slick feature of Micro.blog? When you host your podcast there, it creates an autoMAGIC transcript!

Thursdays have become one of my favorite days of the week. I spend them in a town where I get to be present with a group of people who graciously allow me to serve as their unofficial pastor. On top of that, I get to commute with Amy!

I am currently reading: Dominion by Tom Holland 📚

Spent some with this one today. Seeing the influence of Christianity, the good and the bad is so helpful to hold a nuanced understanding of the development of Western Civilization.