Jesus lived his life, died and rose so that we all would receive God’s love,

and that Jesus would be in us, in our hearts.

Jesus did what he did, so that we would know him and thereby know God.

Because when we see Jesus, we see God!

But we need to move from a pessimistic nostalgia 

To a hopeful optimism, together, for the future,

Based on the resources of the past and present.

90 years later, we no longer have a St. Matthews Brotherhood, 

or a Witness committee, 

or any group committed to evangelism, 

and this is perhaps indicative of some of our problems.

Martin Luther, from where we get the word “Lutheran” 

was a Catholic, 

both small c and capital C.

Let’s leave the debate about fact vs. fiction aside for a moment, 

say Borg and Crossan.

Perhaps there’s a third way of looking at the story:

As a parable and an overture.

“Let’s talk about sex” is great click-bait for a sermon blog!

Christ is the image of God.

We can’t see God (because God is invisible) 

but we can see Jesus…he’s a lot closer…

he was a man who walked, talked, ate, 

slept, suffered, just like us.

What would happen if we acknowledge that in some ways, from a global perspective, we the global 1%, are symbolically represented by the judge of this parable?

God thinks we are all so precious 

that it’s worth throwing a heavenly party for.

In some ways the mind-boggling theology of the Trinity, 

is as beyond human comprehension 

as the violence and destruction that causes people to flee and seek refuge in foreign countries.