Jay: Talking about darkness and light, as we did last week, leads us to consider what we can see and what we can’t see. It leads us to think about discernment, visual and intellectual. Darkness and our inability to discern things in it leaves us feeling vulnerable; light gives us confidence by giving us the…

Jay: Is darkness, is blindness, beneficial to understanding who God is? Does it help our spiritual growth and our relationship with God over time? Do we need darkness? Can we know light without dark, sight without blindness? Several scriptural passages might help: I am the Lord, I have called You in righteousness, I will also…

As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him. And two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” The crowd sternly told them to be quiet, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on…

Don: Jesus told the disciples that in his kingdom, the great are those willing to be servants,… “…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) He had made a similar point earlier: They came to Capernaum; and…

Don: In the early Christian church, harmony reigned—as long as there was no diversity. Its members were all Jews, who shared the same racial, cultural, and religious backgrounds. It was a pseudo community, as can be deduced from the fact that as soon as diversity was added (as soon as uncircumcised Gentiles were admitted) it…

Don: The ministry of Jesus is remarkable for its relationship to hospitality; in particular, eating. The gospel message—the good news about God—is bound up in the common, mundane practice of offering/taking food. The methods of Jesus, and the scathing rebukes of his contemporary critics, are often related to it. Jesus ate with tax collectors and…