“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
– Philo of Alexandria
“For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity
to be transformed?”
– Gloria Jean Watkins (aka bell hooks)
It is so cliché and yet so unavoidably true: sometimes the easiest parts of the bible to understand are the hardest parts to put into practice. In Ephesians, the apostle Paul directs us to Be Kind and Forgive one another – so much easier said than done and yet, we all feel in our souls that these are the right things to do.
This week we head into the fourth week of our sermon series unpacking the “one another” statements of scripture. It is striking to me, and I believe it will be striking to you as well, how applicable the ancient words of scripture (written 2000 years ago and 6,000 miles away) are to the day-to-day world that we face in 2022 here in North America.
Join us this week as we do the hard work of peering deep in the mirror and asking what it might look like for us to truly live lives modeled after Jesus – lives that are marked by limitless kindness and a blank check of forgiveness in an unkind and unforgiving world.
As Blake mentioned, check out "The Lost Commandment" by Dave Greber. https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Commandment-Missed-Jesus-Really/dp/0825429358
