Rich Dixon is looking away from the easy thing: +++ Jon’s been writing about The Sermon on the Mount – feels like, if I took Jesus at his word, it’s an invitation to do difficult things. As Bob Goff says, we ought to be content in our circumstances, but that’s not a hall pass for […]

If you are taking your sacrifice to the temple, Jesus says, and you remember that someone is angry at you, go to them and make it right. Then come back and offer your sacrifice, give your gift, fulfill your obligation. We read that and we want to start a conversation with him. But Jesus, what […]

And now Jesus begins to illustrate what he means by not measuring up. He’s going to take what everyone had thought of as spiritually sufficient and change the routine. He starts in a way that is very familiar to all of us who like to attack the status quo: “You have heard it said that, […]

God.  The year is two weeks old. All around us we are aware of needs. As much as we try, we are not enough. Each hour as we look at our social media, we are aware that we cannot understand all the hate, be present for the grief, encourage all the persistence, offer all the […]

Now the conversation turns. Jesus was always surrounded by people who had nothing left to lose. As they learned they could trust him, he attracted “sinners” and prostitutes, tax collectors and Palestinians, wealthy women and line workers. They sat closer and closer. But almost always, standing at the edge of the crowd, keeping a safe […]