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I need to be broken apart and put back into a different shape by that merging of things human and divine, which is really screwing up and receiving grace and love and forgiveness rather than receiving what I really deserve. I
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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c5d4d32
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what if God's Word is so much more powerful than our ability to become worthy of God? I mean, not for nothing, but if God can create the universe by speaking it into existence, then I think God can make us into God's beloved by simply saying it is so. This, it seems to me, is a vital and overlooked miracle of the Annunciation story.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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fa02656
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A lot of people don't experience that kind of freedom, and they're hungry for it. Yet instead, people have been fed spoonfuls of nonsense and told it was Jesus.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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3d89907
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We have to hear again and again who God is for us and what God has done on our behalf. We must free each other from bondage through our confession and forgiveness.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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4ecefdf
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But around God's table, and around God's people, you don't have to pretend or overcompensate. You can just be. And in just being, you can, in the fierce and loving eyes of God, be known, be whole, and maybe even find a little rest. Because keeping it all going is just exhausting.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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c7014af
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Che Guevara, since
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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even though this is often how we treat Jesus, like we are trying to shelter him from reality. We often behave as though Jesus is only interested in saving and loving a romanticized version of ourselves, or an idealized version of our mess of a world, and so we offer to him a version of our best selves. With our Sunday school shoes on, we sing songs about kings and drummers at his birth, perhaps so we can escape the Herod in ourselves and in..
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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McPreachy's Kool-Aid fountain of positive thinking.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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1cb1d09
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to say "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy" is to lay our hope in the redeeming work of the God of Easter as though our lives depended on it. Because they do. It means that we are an Easter people, a people who know that resurrection, especially in and among the least likely people and places, is the way that God redeems even the biggest messes we make "
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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87287b2
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How is it that Judas, who betrayed Jesus once and was filled with remorse, became the villain, while Peter, who denied Jesus three times and wept bitterly, became the rock on which the church was built? When it comes down to it, what is the difference between Peter and Judas? Well, maybe nothing. And maybe there's not a whole lot of difference between us and them too.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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db8d5c1
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Jesus could have hung out in the high-end religious scene of his day, but instead he scoffed at all that, choosing instead to laugh at the powerful, befriend whores, kiss sinners, and eat with all the wrong people. He spent his time with people for whom life was not easy. And there, amid those who were suffering, he was the embodiment of perfect love.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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091d389
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God is always present in love and in suffering.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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179b3c2
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I can, however, talk endlessly about the way I've been thrown on my ass over and over by the Bible, the practices of the church, and the people of God. That is to say, by religion.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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879c75e
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Of course if no one had ever been exposed to dangerous ideas from scandalous women, Christianity itself would not have had its unique beginning nor its glorious history, but whatever.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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fdd9b2a
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Good Friday is a stark and unapologetic display of remorse. Remorse for the way in which humanity kills ourselves and the creation and love and God him/herself.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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eac3753
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Religion can be a way to hide, numb, or even entertain ourselves like a spiritual Candy Crush, either through the comforting blandness and predictability of mainline Protestantism or through the temporary lifting of our spirits and hands in Evangelical worship. Of course, there are many ways of pretending shit ain't broke in ourselves and in the world, but escapist religion is a classic option, and churches have seemed to turn into places w..
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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7463be3
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Sometimes I wonder if that is what faith is: risking an openness to something bigger than ourselves -- something from which we are made and yet without which we are not complete, our origin and our completion.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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8c123c9
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What they don't tell you when you get sober is that if you manage to stay that way, you will bury your friends.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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I don't think her image is everywhere because she is a reminder to be obedient, and I don't think it has to do with social revolution. Images of Mary remind us of God's favor. Mary is what it looks like to believe that we already are who God says we are.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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f19110a
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Trying to prove scientifically the historical accuracy of events in the Bible is to faith what having your spouse under twenty-four-hour video surveillance is to marital trust.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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And then he went from Saul to Paul, from being the best at being a Jew to being the best at being a Christian. Only, at some point he realized that no one could really pull that off. That's when Paul finally understood grace.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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7f5e680
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But no matter how much we strive for purity in our minds, bodies, spirits, or ideologies, purity is not the same as holiness. It's just easier to define what is pure than what is holy, so we pretend they are interchangeable.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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f8847a0
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the resurrected Christ does such an unbearably loving and merciful thing. He does not rebuke Peter for failing him in his time of need. Instead he gives Peter breakfast, and then he gives Peter three chances to proclaim his love, one for each of his denials. "Do you love me, Peter?"
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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83c5bb0
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The crucifixion portrayed on our show was undertaken by the son of God, a trained professional. Do not try to crucify yourself at home.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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60b37f8
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Standing in a large Minnesotan church hall I tried to muster up the interest and stamina it takes to greet each person with the honor he or she deserves. This always feels like a battle between my misanthropic personality (I don't actually care about you) and my values (you are a beloved child of God who deserves to be heard) and it's exhausting.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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f1e57c3
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But at the time I didn't know that it would take more to escape black-and-white thinking than just no longer attending your parents' church. The church had provided me a sorting system, which was now ingrained. It had containers into which every person and idea and event was to be placed.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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7493ea0
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People don't talk enough about what the freedom of a Christian looks like.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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It felt like a gift that had been caretaken by generations of the faithful and handed to us to live out and caretake and hand off. Like a stream that has flowed long before us and will continue long after us.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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e509232
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the only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with God and each other when we are uncool, lame, blind, poor, and crippled. And as uncomfortable as I am, as you are, to be seen in such a stark and uncompromising light, there is much relief
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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While we as people of God are certainly called to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, that whole "we're blessed to be a blessing" thing can still be kind of dangerous. It can be dangerous when we self-importantly place ourselves above the world, waiting to descend on those below so we can be the "blessing" they've been waiting for, like it or not. Plus, seeing myself as the blessing can pretty easily obscure the way in which I am actuall..
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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8c6e180
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God forcing God's people to see themselves as God sees them, to do stuff they know they are incapable of doing, so that God might make use of them, and make them to be both humble recipients and generous givers of grace, so that they may be part of God's big project on earth, so that they themselves might find unexpected joy through surprising situations.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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82961a0
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Shit," I thought to myself, "I'm going to be late to New Testament class."
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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The fact is, we are all, at once, bearers of the gospel and receivers of it. We meet the needs of others and have our needs met. And the strangeness of the good news is that, like those in Matthew 25 who sat before the throne and said Huh? When did we ever feed you, Lord?, we never know when we experience Jesus in all of this. All that we have is a promise, a promise that our needs are holy to God. A promise that Jesus is present in the mee..
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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Everything else is temptation.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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c4b25d5
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when Jesus again and again says things like the last shall be first, and the first shall be last, and the poor are blessed, and the rich are cursed, and that prostitutes make great dinner guests, it makes me wonder if our need for pure black-and-white categories is not true religion but maybe actually a sin. Knowing what category to place hemlock in might help us know whether it's safe to drink, but knowing what category to place ourselves ..
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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like.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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It's my practice to welcome new people to the church by making sure they know that House for All Sinners and Saints will, at some point, let them down. That I will say or do something stupid and disappoint them. And then I encourage them to decide before that happens if they will stick around after it happens. If they leave, I tell them, they will miss the way that God's grace comes in and fills in the cracks left behind by our brokenness. ..
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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08f71f0
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wish I could show them how their loyalty to a doctrine or an interpretation of a few Bible verses has created harm in the bodies and spirits of the people in my care.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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4d238c7
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Our purity systems, even those established with the best of intentions, do not make us holy.*4 They only create insiders and outsiders.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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f82ae4b
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Purity most often leads to pride or to despair, not to holiness. Because holiness is about union with, and purity is about separation from.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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8111039
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The testimony is followed by another montage of Team Impact feats of strength. "Ladies and Gentlemen," an amped up announcer voice a la Monster Truck Rally proclaims, "We are Team Impaaaaact. Standing on faith tonight let's give it up for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the one, the only, the Risen Warrioooooor!" Are they talking about Jesus? Is he a cage fighter or the Lamb of God? If ever there was a cross-denying tribute to a theolo..
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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0489e1e
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there is a king in that text, but it's Herod: a scheming, frightened, insecure troglodyte who puts a hit out on a toddler.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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0b0b706
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Repentance, "thinking differently afterward," is what happens to me when the truth of who I am and the truth of who God is scatter the darkness of competing ideas."
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |
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e7b043f
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I may feel used to the idea that if I live a certain kind of life, I can make myself worthy of God. But what if God's Word is so much more powerful than our ability to become worthy of God? I mean, not for nothing, but if God can create the universe by speaking it into existence, then I think God can make us into God's beloved by simply saying it is so.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber |