A Positively Poetic Priest

I want you to picture in your mind our local drug dealer. Every town has one or two and by the way the local news talks about the drug crises we have more than one or two in Franklin. I want you to try to picture our local drug dealer, wandering down Buffalo Street, thinking about his business, when he stops and looks up at St. John's doors. For some reason, he decides to walk in and say a prayer. He says, Hey God, to you, I'm messed up. Forgive me, will ya? Also in the church at that time is one of our long time faithful regulars, praying. This long time member is giving thanks for something going really well in their life. Then Jesus walks in with a bunch of people and points to the two people praying. He says that the drug dealer is in better standing with God at that moment than the long time faithful member. What? Its a confusing and shocking and harsh parable. What can Jesus possibly mean? Interestingly, this parable only...

Human relationships are complicated. We can leave that statement as fact just the way it is. Most human relationships fall into one of three categories, though even these broad categories don't always catch everyone in our lives. We have acquaintances, we have friends, and we have "family". Acquaintances are those people we know through social events,  through work, through groups and we only talk to them in those contexts. We don't usually go out of our way for acquaintances the way we would for friends or family, but we could chit chat with them in some capacity. Our relationships with them are characterized by the social laws and rules of the context in which we know them. Friends are those people we spend time together with on a mutual basis. We like them, we know something more about them. We might share funny emails with them or call them occasionally, We would know if they became ill or lost their dog. Our relationships ...