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Transcript

When Love Goes Looking · Faith at Work

• 0:07
  What kind of love crosses boundaries,
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  endures rejection,
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  and keeps searching anyways?
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  What kind of love calls out,
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  here I am,
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  even to those who turn their backs on it?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, today's scriptures show us what happens when love goes looking.
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  And we will see that it is not always tidy and it is not always
• 0:49
  welcomed,
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  believe it or not.
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  SPEAKER_00: But it is always powerful and
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  This is the love that shows up in tombs and in wastelands and
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  in graveyards that
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  SPEAKER_00: searches out the forgotten that will not stop calling until we are found.
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  SPEAKER_00: God speaks to a people who weren't even seeking him in Isaiah.
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  SPEAKER_00: He says, I was ready to be found, but...
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  SPEAKER_00: You weren't even looking.
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  SPEAKER_00: And still, God keeps reaching out.
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  SPEAKER_00: Hands stretched out.
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  SPEAKER_00: Love extended to eternity.
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  SPEAKER_00: Even to those who were walking away, the Israelites at that time.
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  SPEAKER_00: We see in Isaiah a God that is not distant,
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  SPEAKER_00: that is not walking away and is not indifferent to us.
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  This is a love that doesn't wait for us to get it all together
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  or even to return to it.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is a love that shows up first.
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  SPEAKER_00: That seeks out.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the business world, in the hotel industry, we called it customer care.
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  SPEAKER_00: Right?
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  SPEAKER_00: We called it anticipating the guest's needs.
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  SPEAKER_00: Right?
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  SPEAKER_00: But in scripture, it is more than just simple service.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is love.
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  SPEAKER_00: Deep, profound, transformational love that initiates love.
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  SPEAKER_00: despite rejection.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament scripture,
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus crosses a lake into Gentile territory,
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  SPEAKER_00: a place that he,
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  SPEAKER_00: according to the other rabbis and even the Israelite scriptures,
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  SPEAKER_00: he should not have gone.
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  And he walks into another place that he should not have gone,
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  into a graveyard.
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  SPEAKER_00: into fear, into uncleanliness.
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  SPEAKER_00: And who does that?
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  SPEAKER_00: Who goes looking for a man that even his community has given up on?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, we see in the scripture that Jesus does.
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  SPEAKER_00: This time and many, many times.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because that is what love does.
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  You know,
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  I think as people,
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  we typically want a gospel that is just neat and tidy.
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  We want a predictable Savior that's going to do the things that
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  we know that that
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  SPEAKER_00: Savior,
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  SPEAKER_00: that Messiah,
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  SPEAKER_00: that Jesus is going to do.
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  SPEAKER_00: But love will always take us to uncomfortable places.
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  SPEAKER_00: I will say it again.
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  SPEAKER_00: Love always takes us into uncomfortable places.
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  SPEAKER_00: Love never plays it safe.
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  SPEAKER_00: I recall a similar moment,
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  or at least I kind of thought about it as I was reflecting on
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  this scripture when
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  SPEAKER_00: my wife and I and our children were in Sicily.
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  SPEAKER_00: Beth and I met a young woman.
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  SPEAKER_00: We'll call her Anna.
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  She was an American mother of twins who was being abused and
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  held captive,
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  literally,
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  SPEAKER_00: out in the Campania, we called it, held captive by her Sicilian husband.
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  SPEAKER_00: She was alone, she was terrified, and she was far from home.
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  SPEAKER_00: And helping her was not easy, and it was actually not even safe.
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  We helped her replace her passport,
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  and we helped her escape the country with her children.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was the right thing to do, but it came with a cost.
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  Death threats from her Sicilian family to the point that Beth
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  and the children had
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  SPEAKER_00: to fly to southern Italy off the island for a period of time.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, we did not go looking for this situation, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: I did not want to be in the situation,
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  SPEAKER_00: and I struggled,
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  SPEAKER_00: honestly,
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  SPEAKER_00: whether we should do anything,
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  SPEAKER_00: whether we should help.
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  SPEAKER_00: What is the right thing?
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  SPEAKER_00: The question, what does love do in these kinds of situations?
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  SPEAKER_00: What does a Christian do in these kind of situations?
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  SPEAKER_00: What does a foreigner do?
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  living in a foreign country without any legal rights do in this
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  kind of situation,
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  SPEAKER_00: because that's what I was,
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  SPEAKER_00: living in Sicily with the permission of the government,
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  SPEAKER_00: but not a citizen there.
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  SPEAKER_00: I didn't go looking for this situation, but it seemed like God did.
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  SPEAKER_00: God put us there,
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  SPEAKER_00: put us in that place,
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  SPEAKER_00: made us aware of this situation,
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  SPEAKER_00: and we chose to follow it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because we believed deeply that love crosses borders of geography,
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  SPEAKER_00: of safety,
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  SPEAKER_00: of comfort for ourselves.
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  SPEAKER_00: It goes where others won't go.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that is the kind of love that we see in Jesus.
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  And that is the kind of love that I believe we are called to
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  live into and out of
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  SPEAKER_00: because of Jesus.
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  SPEAKER_00: In this story, we find a man who is chained up.
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  SPEAKER_00: He is naked.
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  SPEAKER_00: He is screaming naked.
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  ostracized by his community but by the end of the story he's
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  clothed he's calm he's
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  at peace he is sitting at Jesus's feet Jesus didn't just cast
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  out the demons from
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  SPEAKER_00: him he restored the man's dignity
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  He gave him back his name,
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  his story,
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  his future,
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  and his place in the community.
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  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah says God won't destroy everything,
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  SPEAKER_00: but that there is a blessing in the cluster of grapes.
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  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
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  There's a blessing in the cluster of grapes,
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  the scripture in Isaiah says.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that is, I believe, what Jesus sees in this man, a cluster of grapes.
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  SPEAKER_00: A small little cluster of worth that the world,
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  SPEAKER_00: that his community,
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  that his friends and his family have overlooked and ended up
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  chaining him in a
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  SPEAKER_00: graveyard.
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  SPEAKER_00: Just take a moment and think for a moment.
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  SPEAKER_00: It may be uncomfortable, but how many people in our lives do we chain up
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  Figuratively,
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  we probably don't do it literally,
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  but emotionally,
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  spiritually,
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  relationally.
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  How many people do we chain up because it's just too much for
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  us to bear their pain?
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  SPEAKER_00: Just too hard for us to see it and to deal with it.
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  SPEAKER_00: But love does not fear brokenness.
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  SPEAKER_00: Love enters into it and then love restores.
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  Interestingly in this story,
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  there's a twist,
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  as there seems to always be.
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  SPEAKER_00: When the crowd,
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  SPEAKER_00: the man's community,
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  SPEAKER_00: sees the man healed,
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  SPEAKER_00: instead of rejoicing and being excited,
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  SPEAKER_00: the scripture says that they are afraid.
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  SPEAKER_00: And they ask Jesus to leave.
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  We see what you've done,
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  and we would just like if you would just sort of head on down
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  the road.
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  SPEAKER_00: Why?
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  SPEAKER_00: Why?
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  SPEAKER_00: Because this kind of love,
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  the kind of love that I am talking about that enters into
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  brokenness and then
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  SPEAKER_00: restores,
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  SPEAKER_00: disrupts.
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  SPEAKER_00: This kind of love overturns what is comfortable in our world.
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  SPEAKER_00: It changes the power dynamics in our community.
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  SPEAKER_00: It shifts priorities.
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  SPEAKER_00: In Isaiah, the people rejected God while they were claiming holiness.
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  SPEAKER_00: In Luke, they reject healing itself.
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  Because it came in a way and from someone who they did not
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  expect or respect,
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  really.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that happens today, too.
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  SPEAKER_00: This July,
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm quite excited,
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  I will be attending the Church of the Brethren Annual
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  Conference in Greensboro for
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  SPEAKER_00: the first time as a Church of the Brethren pastor.
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  SPEAKER_00: which is kind of cool.
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  SPEAKER_00: I've gone before, but never as a Church of the Brethren pastor.
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  SPEAKER_00: So I'm very excited about this.
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  SPEAKER_00: And one of the key witness efforts,
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  SPEAKER_00: if you don't know the Church of the Brethren,
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  SPEAKER_00: wherever they go,
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  SPEAKER_00: they try to do good,
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  SPEAKER_00: be a good witness,
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  SPEAKER_00: show love for the community that they're going towards too.
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  And so this year,
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  the key witness effort is to focus on gun violence prevention.
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  SPEAKER_00: So attendees of the conference are being asked to wear orange.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I see some orange here today.
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  SPEAKER_00: You probably didn't wear it for an alliance to,
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  SPEAKER_00: you know,
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  SPEAKER_00: aligning yourself with victims of gun violence.
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  SPEAKER_00: But nonetheless, I wore orange in June, which was actually the month.
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  SPEAKER_00: But we're going to be doing it, remembering it again in July.
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  So people are encouraged to wear orange as a way of showing
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  that they are standing
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  SPEAKER_00: with victims and the families of victims of gun violence.
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  There will be what's called a Be Smart equipping session on
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  safe gun storage.
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  SPEAKER_00: There's going to be a prayer vigil,
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  and there's going to be a breakfast as well for conversation on
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  how our beloved
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  SPEAKER_00: community can respond to the gun violence that's happening in our world.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is a public witness of love.
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  SPEAKER_00: At least that's how it's being understood by the church of the brethren.
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  SPEAKER_00: But we need to be honest with ourselves.
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  SPEAKER_00: Even this kind of public witness of love can make people uncomfortable.
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  Some may and probably will say,
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  why bring politics into the church,
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  right?
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  SPEAKER_00: But I don't see it that way.
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  SPEAKER_00: I don't see that we are bringing politics into the church.
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  SPEAKER_00: Instead,
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  I see that this is a public witness of what love looks like in
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  the public forum,
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  SPEAKER_00: in front of people,
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  SPEAKER_00: a love that mourns for those who are mourning.
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  SPEAKER_00: A love that protects those who need protection.
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  SPEAKER_00: A love that risks being misunderstood to say, you matter.
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  SPEAKER_00: Your pain matters.
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  SPEAKER_00: You are not forgotten in this situation.
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  SPEAKER_00: And just like in Isaiah and in Luke,
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  SPEAKER_00: that kind of love can make people want to turn away and push away.
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  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus teaches us to show up because that is what love does.
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  SPEAKER_00: Back to the literal man that we were talking about in Luke,
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  SPEAKER_00: the demonized man that Jesus liberates.
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  SPEAKER_00: The man...
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  SPEAKER_00: wants to stay with Jesus.
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  SPEAKER_00: And of course he does, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
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  if you were in that situation and a guy comes along and puts
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  your whole life
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  SPEAKER_00: together,
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  SPEAKER_00: what do you want to do?
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  SPEAKER_00: I want to hang out with that guy, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says, no, go home.
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  SPEAKER_00: Go home and tell your story.
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  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the most important thing that I'm going to say this morning,
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't just save us.
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  SPEAKER_00: He sends us.
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  SPEAKER_00: When love goes looking for us,
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  SPEAKER_00: when love goes looking for you,
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  SPEAKER_00: it also sends us looking for others.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is what the Church of the Brethren is doing,
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  SPEAKER_00: I believe,
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  SPEAKER_00: wearing orange,
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  SPEAKER_00: praying with our feet,
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  SPEAKER_00: building peace where the world sees division.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's love, and I believe that is our calling.
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  SPEAKER_00: So today, maybe you feel far off.
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  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you feel like that man in the tombs, forgotten, overwhelmed.
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  Maybe you feel like the crowd,
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  afraid of what real love might change or ask of you.
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  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're being called like the healed man to go and tell.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wherever you are, hear this.
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  SPEAKER_00: God is still saying, here I am.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is still crossing seas.
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  SPEAKER_00: Love is still looking.
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  And it is looking for you,
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  your family,
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  your friends,
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  your neighbors,
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  and our enemies.