by Rev. Elizabeth Rawlings

It turns out it is hard to write for this week because of the variety of the readings and because some people do Palm Sunday, some do Passion Sunday, some combine the two. So here are some thought on this week written as I sit on a break from a border immersion experience in El Paso/Juarez with students from The Sanctuary, the campus ministry I co-lead.
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The beginning of the end... before the beginning.

Rev. Priscilla Paris-Austin
March 11, 2018
     Let’s name it. Sin is an uncomfortable topic. In church we seem to either be consumed with each other’s sins or we avoid “dwelling” on sin because “we are forgiven”. Rarely to I have conversations with folks willing to engage in naming, confessing, repenting. It’s a shame, because when I have had those conversations with people, it’s amazing how much joy comes from them. It downright liberating. And every time I witness that liberation, I wonder, why don’t we do this more?

Elle Dowd

“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” - Jeremiah 31:33

Lent is a time in which we face the reality of our own mortal frailty.  We begin the season off by reminding one another that we are made of dust, and that one day we will die and our bodies will return back to the ground. In this earthy, gritty reality we are recalling the images we know from the Genesis 1 creation story - God takes a little bit of earth and infuses it with God’s own spirit, breathing humankind into life. Human beings are both earth/body/flesh, and also soul/spirit/breath. ​

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles...
 
To answer Paul’s question this week: the debater of this age is a young bisexual Latinx woman who attends Parkland HS.