Meanwhile, God promises to dwell where God always has: among the people.

Solomon’s famous court case involving the two sex workers suggests connections with John 4:1-30 and 8:3-11. This year my attention is on the woman whose son died suddenly: Where is the compassion for her? What does justice (divine or royal) have to do with grief?

Solomon shows that he will be good at the “wise judgment” part, but there’s foreshadowing of the “entangled with foreign gods” and “opulence extracted from the people” aspects that will undermine the whole kingdom. Notes on 1 Kings 3:4-9 (10-15) 16-28:
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Alternatively, in which God acts out the divine desire for loyalty not sacrifice and exercises the power of the resurrection so you’ll know what it looks like later.

Their laughter discloses that faithfulness and incredulity go hand in hand.

We include Abraham’s laughter (17:17) specifically to push back on the idea that Sarah’s laughter (18:12) is unfaithful somehow. Modernity imagines faith as an intellectual assent to unsupported propositions. Sarah and Abraham’s faith is enacted, not conceptualized.

These elderly people laugh for the same reason that babies laugh: because something impossible is taking place. God interrupts an established reality with something absurd.

In the optional second part of the reading, Sarai endures an impossible situation; where do people create opportunities for faithfulness when the world denies their agency?

Any interrelated group of people can function as a “body.” What makes the #church the #BodyOfChrist is the power of the #HolySpirit to disrupt the world’s power structures.
#PeopleOfMission #NarrativeLectionary
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You need an eye for irony to interpret the #Bible. The defenders of the status quo create an uproar by falsely accusing others of being disruptive while missing the way they’re actually turning the world upside down.

#PeopleOfMission #NarrativeLectionary
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#Freedom in the #Bible is not about turning prisoners into runaways so much as turning jailers into hosts. (I do wish the Bible were more explicit about what it means for enslaved girls after their exorcisms.)

#PeopleOfMission #NarrativeLectionary
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