Speaker: Rev. James Duckett

…if you do good, you will be rewarded. If you do bad, you will be punished. It’s simple and effective. Our world works on a similar principle—most of the time, anyway.
But it doesn’t seem as though it’s the same principle that Jesus operates under. At least not consistently.

this is totally absurd. This would never happen. It’s not meant to be believable. It’s a parable, not reality.
And that’s just the point that Jesus is trying to make. Nobody would say no to a feast like that (let alone treat the messengers so horribly).

If one worships the sunset because it paints such a beautiful picture on the horizon, what or who is responsible for that? If one marvels in the eyes of a beautiful human being, who gets the credit for placing those eyes there?

So, even though the law plainly stated that the punishment for certain offences was death by execution (usually stoning), in practice, what was usually done in Jesus’ time was probably something more like “excommunication” as we understand it today.

Today’s story is about how God continued to work for the good of God’s people through chosen actors like Joseph—and today those chosen actors are all women who refused to follow (ungodly) orders!

People are not meant to survive getting out of boats in storms. It’s not a high-survival-rate activity. But then again, people are not meant to survive walking between trees at twenty feet in the air – and yet, here I am.

Freedom, even in our world, hopefully extends beyond not being owned by anyone. Those first people who were freed didn’t immediately transition to lives of prosperity and comfort. In fact, close to two hundred years later, the impact of generations of enslavement is still having an impact on people today.

Wait…Jesus is going to give us a yoke? What happened to laying down our burdens?

What can this be about?

Clearly, the story of Abraham being blessed and being a blessing to all the world was not a story about someone following the rules. That’s the point Paul is making.

And really, it seems like that is the point that Jesus is making too—three times!