WEBVTT
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Our text today is from our Gospel reading from Matthew five.
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Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar and there,
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remember that your brother has something against you, leave your
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offering there before the altar and go first, you reconcile to your
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brother, and then come present your offering.
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If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, throw it away from
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you.
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If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from
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you.
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For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than
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for your whole body to go into hell.
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This is our text.
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I wonder what sort of surgical procedure do you suppose Onesimus had
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to undergo before he was ready to return to Philemon?
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What did it take to get this new convert to Christianity to leave Rome
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and backtrack over his recent escape route halfway across the Empire
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to Asia Minor?
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What had to happen to Onesimus before he, a runaway slave, would
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willingly agree to this long journey back to his old master?
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It's hard to imagine that it was easy.
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How long do you think Paul waited before he sprung this idea on his
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new son
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in the faith? You know, Onesimus, the forgiveness of Jesus is a
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wonderful gift, and you have certainly got it.
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But there's also this thing Jesus said about reconciliation.
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Then again, maybe it came as no surprise.
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Onesimus had been formed by the same teaching that formed every new
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believer.
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He had learned the account of Jesus Sermon on the Mount.
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So maybe going back was even his own idea a conviction and an
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outgrowth of his new membership in the church.
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Maybe he just knew that part of being a member of this exhilarating
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community meant leaving it for the sake of something even more
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important.
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Still, what sort of remarkable, improbable change had to precede such
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a bold move by Onesimus?
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What part of the slave's old self had to be cut away and thrown out so
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that he could be set free from the temptation and trap of sin?
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And yet
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it was sin. Repugnant as the
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truth is to us today.
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Onesimus had been wrong to defy the arrangement he had with Philemon,
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Even if it was an arrangement predicated on ownership and serval
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obedience.
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It didn't matter.
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The right thing was the right thing.
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The gospel did not subvert society, at least not overtly and directly.
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No.
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Paul knew his Augsburg confession.
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The gospel does not overthrow secular government and public order, but
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intends that a person keep all this as a true order of God and
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demonstrate in these walks of life Christian love and true good works
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according to each person's calling, rights.
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But what a terrifically nasty calling Onesimus had been given slave.
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But that was the vocation he had.
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And that meant that the right thing for Onesimus was to go back to
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Philemon and make amends for the wrong he had done to his master.
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Yes, he went with a letter from Paul, a powerful and persuasive letter
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meant to call Philemon to an uncommon and graceful path of his own.
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But there were there were no guarantees.
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Onesimus was still a fugitive slave, returning to the scene of the
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crime with nothing but a letter and a repentant heart to plead his
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case.
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But that starkly
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and the character of Onesimus, the Christian catapults into the
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stratosphere. Still before he was ready for such an audacious path,
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tracing the steps of Jesus before Onesimus was ready to live in the
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reality of the gospel, something had to have been lopped off and
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thrown away, didn't it?
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After all, if Jesus meant that part about abandoning your offering at
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the altar in order to seek out and to reconcile with the brother who
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is at odds with you, did he not also mean the part about the sinful
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eye and the wicked hand?
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Did Onesimus, then returned to Philemon, missing the hand that had
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reached out to take what was not his own as he headed out the door for
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Rome. Did the slave
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go back to his master without the feet he had used to run away?
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Or was the critical removal of sinful flesh even more drastic than
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that?
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Mercifully, the Church has consistently condemned self
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mutilation, even the resolute
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sin, avoidance of the most ascetic of the monks who castrated
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themselves to be rid of temptation and to obey the sermonic command.
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Even that was never sanctioned by the church.
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Who knew better how to interpret scripture in light of scripture?
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Now we don't literally cut off the parts of our bodies that trip us
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and tumble us into the jaws of sin.
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As the old adage goes.
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If we actually embraced that course, we Christians would be nothing
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but a band of badly mutilated and grotesquely deformed monsters,
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continually inflicting on ourselves unending amputations and clumsy
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ectomies of all sorts.
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So with a huge sigh of gratitude, we gleefully label Jesus shocking
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direction about whacking off hands and gouging out eyeballs and
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flinging both away in disgust.
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We label all that as nothing but metaphor.
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Jesus didn't mean it.
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It's just a graphic image and nothing more.
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What a relief.
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And you know, if that part of Jesus sermon is just a potent metaphor,
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well, then maybe the rest of it is too.
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Maybe we don't really need to be that concerned about where our eyes
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wander or what our hands are doing, or how our lips are speaking, or
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what our mind is contemplating.
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Maybe Jesus doesn't really care when we slander our brother with our
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fast moving thumbs, or with our well trained fingers that dance across
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the keyboard skillfully, crafting, accusation, and subtle innuendo.
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Maybe Jesus doesn't really mind when we use our fingers deftly to find
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the fast track to the most vulgar, most demeaning, most vitriolic of
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links and posts and sites, or simply use them to fritter away precious
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hours while scrolling mindlessly through the inane stupidity and
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nothingness of the web.
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Nah, Jesus didn't mean it.
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It doesn't really matter what your eyes or your hands do.
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It's just a metaphor.
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Paul, though, clearly thought that Jesus did mean it.
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At least he took the part about dropping everything and doing
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whatever it took to make
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things right with a brother.
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He took that seriously enough.
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And I'm pretty sure Jesus thought that
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Paul thought that
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Jesus meant it when he told us to get rid of whatever it is that
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causes us to sin.
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Onesimus did have to cut off and cast aside something, cherished
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something, part of him, before he could take Jesus at his word and
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risk his future and his life in an effort to seek reconciliation with
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a brother who definitely had something against him.
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Much was being demanded of Onesimus.
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After all, he commanded the moral high ground.
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He had been a slave, for crying out loud.
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A slave.
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If anything, Philemon was the one who owed something to him, right?
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And yet here he was, heading off to find Philemon so that he could
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repent, make amends and offer himself as a slave all over again.
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You see, it was not a hand or an eye that Onesimus needed to throw
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away.
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No, it was something even more precious.
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He had to cut off and throw away his pride, his self esteem, his newly
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discovered sense of self worth.
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He had to throw away his human dignity to follow in the path
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prescribed by Jesus.
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He had to slice out all of that and toss it away forever.
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Onesimus had to undergo the most radical surgery of all.
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Not the removal of an eye or a hand or a foot.
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No, what he needed was a cardioectomy.
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It was his own heart that had to go.
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That's a grim operation.
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It has an exceedingly high mortality rate.
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Indeed, no one ever survives a cardioectomy.
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But that was the required procedure.
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Onesimus had to die.
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Reconciliation is serious business.
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Jesus means it.
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Paul believed it.
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So did Onesimus. Do you?
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If you start lopping off the parts that make you sin, it's not long
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before you have to figure out what you're going to do with the real
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problem.
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Your own sinful heart.
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Your heart is always the real problem and the single greatest
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obstacle
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to reconciliation. Your heart harbors your worst stumbling blocks your
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pride, your rights, your dignity, your hurt feelings, your justified
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moral indignation, your conviction about what is only right, your
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certainty about what is true.
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There's only one solution.
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It's far more drastic than amputation.
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Your self consumed, contemptuous, covetous, conceited, craven,
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complacent, and corrupt heart is the problem.
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It's got to be removed.
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The necessary procedure for an Onesimus was a cardioectomy, and the
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same operation was required of Philemon and Paul and you.
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The good news is that you have got the best doctor to do the
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operation.
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He knows what he's doing.
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With infinite wisdom, patience, and love, the Holy Spirit does his
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work.
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He cuts out your wretched, rotting, ruined heart and replaces it with
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a new one, replaces it with the heart of Christ.
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The Holy Spirit cuts out Jesus
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restores. In place of your self righteousness.
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You get Jesus righteousness. In place of your pride.
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You get his humility. In place of your vengeance.
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You get his grace. In place of your condescension.
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You get his compassion. In place of your moral outrage.
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You get his long suffering and love.
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Jesus gives you a new heart, and then he sends you to live a life of
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reconciliation.
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He sends you back to make things right with the friend you
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disappointed.
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He sends you back to make the first move and apologize to your spouse
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for what you sure was not wrong.
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He sends you back to repent, to the brother you shredded with cruel
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but oh so clever words of criticism.
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He sends you back into unfair circumstances when you were the one who
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was hurt.
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He sends you back into unfair arrangements that will probably never
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get better.
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He sends you back into impossible situations with people who will not
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change.
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He sends you back into battles with sin and temptation and evil that
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will not fade away, and that will
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not get any better with time.
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He sends you back into his world to live his humble, graceful,
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compassionate and loving truth in every situation and in every
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relationship.
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Are you going?
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Are you going to go back and do the hard work of reconciliation?
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Who is it that needs you to find them and make things right?
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What journey do you need to make to find a brother who has something
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against you?
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What number do you need to dial?
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Whose ears need to hear your confession?
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Whose face needs to see your remorse?
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Are you going?
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It should be noted that you are not being called to the altar to
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surrender your heart in an emotional catharsis.
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Quite the opposite.
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You are being called to make a sober choice and then to go.
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Yes, come first to the table.
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Come to the altar and receive here God's grace.
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Receive again the new heart of Christ.
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But then and go.
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You don't walk away from here mutilated, mangled and broken, but whole
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and complete, the way God always intended you to be, with the heart of
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Jesus beating in you and driving you to do his work of reconciliation.
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His grace is surging through your limbs and your life.
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So go.
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Go back to those who are distant and hurt and alienated from you and
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take care of what needs to be done.
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Go where Jesus leads.
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Go back into all those hard places where he wants you to be.
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Go back and enter into new relationships with those around you.
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Go back into true fellowship with your brothers and sisters, back into
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the perfect joy of fellowship with your Father.
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There is nothing metaphorical going on here.
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There's just the real flesh and blood work of Jesus to give you a very
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real, new heart and a very real, new life lived in his very real grace
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forever.
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Amen.