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Reimagining Our Faith · Faith at Work

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: A few minutes ago,
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  the puppets reminded us that when something feels unfair or
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  when something feels
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  SPEAKER_03: limited in our lives,
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  SPEAKER_03: the most sacred question that we can ask is,
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  SPEAKER_03: does it have to be this way?
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  SPEAKER_03: That question is the doorway into today's theme, which is re-imagine.
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  SPEAKER_03: Re-imagining is not wishful thinking.
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  SPEAKER_03: It is at the heart of our faith.
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  SPEAKER_03: It is at the heart of the biblical text.
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  SPEAKER_03: It's what the prophets do.
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  SPEAKER_03: It's what Jesus does.
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  SPEAKER_03: It's what the Spirit does.
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  SPEAKER_03: Working newness into old places until hope births and arise.
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  SPEAKER_03: Now, two weeks ago, we practiced a bit of reimagining together.
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  You remember,
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  instead of collecting an offering,
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  although we did that too,
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  we handed out one.
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  SPEAKER_03: Every person in the sanctuary that day received $10.
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  SPEAKER_03: It was a small manna moment placed into your hands.
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  And we asked you to imagine how that gift might be used in
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  kingdom-shaped weddings.
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  SPEAKER_03: Now, some of you took that bill home with a sense of possibility.
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  SPEAKER_03: Some tucked it away in your wallet and waited.
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  SPEAKER_03: Some felt a little nervous.
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  SPEAKER_03: What do I do with this?
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  SPEAKER_03: And instantly dropped it in a box at the back of the sanctuary.
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  SPEAKER_03: Some of you have already acted on some of that imagination.
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  SPEAKER_03: And some of you are still listening to the spirits nudge even now.
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  Today is the week all of that comes together because this is
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  the week of reimagining.
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  The week that we dare to believe that God is not finished
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  forming our money
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  SPEAKER_03: stories,
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  SPEAKER_03: our community,
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  SPEAKER_03: and our imagination.
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  SPEAKER_03: There's two scriptures that we're going to be looking at today.
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  SPEAKER_03: The first one is in Mark chapter 12.
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  SPEAKER_03: Jesus sits opposite the treasury watching people give.
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  SPEAKER_03: The wealthy drop in large sums of money.
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  SPEAKER_03: They are loud.
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  SPEAKER_03: They are impressive gifts.
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  And then small little old widow entered,
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  placing in the offering two small coins.
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  SPEAKER_03: Jesus doesn't just see the amount.
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  SPEAKER_03: He sees, as he always does, the story behind it.
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  SPEAKER_03: He sees,
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  SPEAKER_03: I think,
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  a world system where some live in abundance so deep that they
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  can give out of their
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  SPEAKER_03: overflow.
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  SPEAKER_03: And others give from their poverty because there's no earthly system.
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  that has ever ensured their provision and their only hope can
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  be that God might do something.
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  Now,
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  what we often miss in this passage is what comes right before
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  the story.
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  SPEAKER_03: Right before this story,
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  right before this moment that we see the widow give her last
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  two small coins,
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  SPEAKER_03: Jesus warns about leaders
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  SPEAKER_03: who devour widows' houses.
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  SPEAKER_03: He names the brokenness behind the widow's offering.
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  SPEAKER_03: Jesus is not romanticizing or spiritualizing the widow's desperation.
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  He is critiquing a system that left her with nothing but two
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  coins to begin with.
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  SPEAKER_03: This scene is not only about generosity, it is about imagination.
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  SPEAKER_03: It is Jesus saying, you need to look hard at this.
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  SPEAKER_03: This is not how God intended the world to work.
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  SPEAKER_03: We need to reimagine a different story.
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  walter brueggemann wrote in a book called prophetic imagination
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  he he outlines how
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  the prophetic task is to imagine the world as though god was
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  truly sovereign in it
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  that kind of imagination is what jesus is calling forth in this
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  story with his
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  SPEAKER_03: disciple before the temple
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  SPEAKER_03: Before the treasury,
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  SPEAKER_03: before Roman taxation,
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  SPEAKER_03: before the church,
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  SPEAKER_03: God commanded Israel that every 50 years they were to release debts,
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  free captive,
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  return land,
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  rebalance inequality,
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  and allow the soil itself to rest.
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  SPEAKER_03: It was called Jubilee.
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  SPEAKER_03: And Jubilee was God saying, you will not recreate Pharaoh's economy.
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  SPEAKER_03: Remember the liberation from Egypt that you had.
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  SPEAKER_03: You will not build a world where the vulnerable are forgotten.
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  SPEAKER_03: You will build a world of enough for everyone.
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  SPEAKER_03: In Leviticus,
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  God tells farmers to leave the edges of their field for the
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  poor and the immigrant.
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  Gleanings deliberately left behind so that others may live and
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  harvest with dignity
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  SPEAKER_03: for their needs.
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  The metaphorical edges of our life fields should not be
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  accidental either.
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  We should be leaving margins in our lives for the desperate
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  that are around them.
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  They should become intentional spaces of compassion and shared
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  dignity for our fellow humanity.
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  SPEAKER_03: And it's not charity.
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  SPEAKER_03: It's system-level reimagination of human equity.
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  SPEAKER_03: Wendell Berry, who was a poet, called the grace of the world.
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  SPEAKER_03: That's what he called it,
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  SPEAKER_03: the grace of the world,
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  SPEAKER_03: the grace that emerges when we trust God's abundance in the world.
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  SPEAKER_03: Every one of us has inherited a money story.
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  SPEAKER_03: That's the series that we're kind of going through right now.
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  And there's a journal back there that you can use to
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  investigate your money story
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  and investigate God's money story and investigate our community
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  money story and
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  SPEAKER_03: reimagine what it might be.
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  SPEAKER_03: And the truth of it is some of us have inherited scarcity in our life.
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  SPEAKER_03: Some have inherited shame in our life.
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  SPEAKER_03: Some have inherited anxiety.
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  SPEAKER_03: And some inherited the belief that worth and wealth are the same thing.
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  SPEAKER_03: But here is where we find freedom.
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  SPEAKER_03: Stories can be rewritten.
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  SPEAKER_03: Reimagining asks,
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  what if God's dream for me is bigger than the story that I have
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  carried in my life
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  SPEAKER_03: thus far?
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  SPEAKER_03: What if my money is not only about survival,
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  SPEAKER_03: but about connection,
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  SPEAKER_03: about compassion,
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  SPEAKER_03: about justice in the world?
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  SPEAKER_03: What if the Spirit is inviting me to participate in Jubilee?
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  SPEAKER_03: even in small ways.
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  SPEAKER_03: As I mentioned earlier,
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  SPEAKER_03: two weeks ago,
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  SPEAKER_03: when we placed that $10 bill in your hands,
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  SPEAKER_03: it wasn't about the amount.
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  SPEAKER_03: It was about imagination.
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  It was about trusting that a little can become much when held
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  in God's story.
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  It was about asking,
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  what can this become in the hands of a disciple of Jesus
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  Christ?
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  SPEAKER_03: Now, some used their $10 bill to feed somebody.
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  SPEAKER_03: Some bought supplies to bless a neighbor.
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  SPEAKER_03: Some reached out to someone who needed dignity, not charity.
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  And some used it to start something bigger than a $10 bill ever
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  could do on its own.
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  SPEAKER_03: And some of you,
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  SPEAKER_03: maybe you're still imagining,
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  SPEAKER_03: still listening,
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  SPEAKER_03: still discerning what the Spirit has to say to you as a disciple.
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  SPEAKER_03: That is holy.
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  SPEAKER_03: That is jubilee.
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  SPEAKER_03: That is the Spirit at work.
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  SPEAKER_03: This next part of the sermon is inviting your participation.
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  Because imagine growth among us as a community of believers
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  when our imagination
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  SPEAKER_03: and our stories are shared.
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  SPEAKER_03: So I want to ask you,
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  SPEAKER_03: if you have imagined a way to use your $10 bill,
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  SPEAKER_03: if you have already acted on it,
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  SPEAKER_03: or have an imagination about what you might do it,
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  would you be willing to stand and briefly tell us what you did
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  or plan to do?
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  SPEAKER_03: Just one or two sentences.
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  SPEAKER_03: It doesn't have to be an elaborate thing.
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  SPEAKER_03: No pressure.
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  SPEAKER_03: Just simply naming what the Spirit has stirred in you with that $10 bill.
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  SPEAKER_03: Anybody willing to risk sharing their imaginations
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  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
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  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
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  SPEAKER_03: We're going to need more than one mic.
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  SPEAKER_03: All right.
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  SPEAKER_03: I'm going to come on out.
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  SPEAKER_03: Can I bring a mic to you?
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  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_01: All right.
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  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
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  SPEAKER_03: A little class participation here.
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  SPEAKER_03: All right.
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  SPEAKER_03: Well, that was $10 and the poinsettias are exactly $10.
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  SPEAKER_03: So that worked out really well.
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  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
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  SPEAKER_03: Wonderful.
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  SPEAKER_03: Who's next?
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  SPEAKER_03: Hadn't planned on that one, but that's a great idea.
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  SPEAKER_03: Millard has his hand up.
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  SPEAKER_02: You may recall that about the time that the $10 bill hit plate,
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  SPEAKER_02: the mega millions had hit,
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  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what,
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  SPEAKER_02: $800 million?
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  SPEAKER_02: It was actually $898 million.
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  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
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  I actually had the thought,
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  you know,
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  maybe I should get one of those tickets.
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  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, two tickets.
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  SPEAKER_02: Turn it in.
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  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
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  SPEAKER_02: Think how I could multiply that, right?
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  SPEAKER_02: But I didn't do that.
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  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
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  SPEAKER_02: I did take a brother out to lunch,
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  and we had about an hour conversation about what God was about
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  in the world.
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  SPEAKER_02: It was a real joy to do that.
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  SPEAKER_02: It was a blessing to me, I hope, to the person I took out as well.
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  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
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  SPEAKER_03: Wonderful.
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  SPEAKER_03: So you built intimacy,
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  SPEAKER_03: you built community,
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  SPEAKER_03: you built relationship,
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  SPEAKER_03: and you deepened your spiritual journey with one another.
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  SPEAKER_03: Brenda back there?
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  SPEAKER_01: Well, I thought I'd lost it.
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  SPEAKER_01: I thought I'd put it in my folder.
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  SPEAKER_01: I thought I'd put it in my purse, could not find it.
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  But the morning of the breakfast that the youth were having for
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  a fundraiser,
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  Surprise,
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  it was in my wallet the whole time,
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  hidden away in a safe place.
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  SPEAKER_01: And so that's where the $10 went for the breakfast.
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  SPEAKER_03: All right, wonderful.
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  SPEAKER_03: Giving to our youth to go to NYC and have a wonderful,
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  SPEAKER_03: incredible,
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  SPEAKER_03: spiritual,
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  SPEAKER_03: transformational experience.
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  SPEAKER_01: I will.
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  SPEAKER_01: Anyways, I'm a teacher at Rocktown High School.
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  SPEAKER_01: Excuse me, I'm a school.
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  And my kids ask me how we celebrate Thanksgiving because they
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  don't celebrate it the same way.
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  SPEAKER_01: So I'm using my $10 to buy them turkey tomorrow.
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  SPEAKER_03: Marvelous.
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  SPEAKER_03: Building community.
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  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
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  SPEAKER_03: Anybody else?
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  so I am and for a number of years have been part of a book club
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  and we were meeting
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  later in the afternoon and it's you know it's a bunch of women
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  that I don't really
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  need to ministry minister to but one of the women had purchased
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  all this food for
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  us that was kind of theme related to the book and she kept
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  carrying stuff in and I
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  SPEAKER_03: went up to her and I was like
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  SPEAKER_03: Can I give you anything?
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  SPEAKER_03: And I mean,
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  SPEAKER_03: we met in Stewart's draft at one o'clock,
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  SPEAKER_03: so that,
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  SPEAKER_03: you know,
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  SPEAKER_03: I hadn't had that $10 long.
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  SPEAKER_03: And she said...
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  SPEAKER_03: Well, if you want to give me $10, that would be great.
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  SPEAKER_03: And it just felt so specific.
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  SPEAKER_03: It was like, there it is in my pocket.
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  SPEAKER_03: It is gone.
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  But it was an opportunity to share with the whole group how
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  that money had came.
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  And an opportunity to share some of the excitement about what
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  we've got going on here.
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  SPEAKER_03: So I wanted to share that.
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  SPEAKER_03: Wonderful.
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  SPEAKER_03: Relieving someone's burden.
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  SPEAKER_03: Jubilee is all about.
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  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't here that Sunday, but I listened to your sermon anyway.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so I took $10 and gave it to someone that I knew had needed it.
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  SPEAKER_03: Oh, wow.
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  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_03: So it sparked your imagination and your generosity just hearing about it.
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  SPEAKER_03: Very cool.
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  SPEAKER_03: David?
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  SPEAKER_02: And I was sitting there thinking,
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  SPEAKER_02: well,
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  SPEAKER_02: these waitresses always work really hard,
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  SPEAKER_02: waiters and waitresses.
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  They probably don't get paid much,
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  so I gave mine as a tip to the waitress.
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  SPEAKER_03: Very nice.
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  SPEAKER_03: Recognizing service of others was a gift.
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  SPEAKER_03: Anybody else have a heart to share?
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  SPEAKER_03: Well, I know there's more stories, so
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  SPEAKER_03: You know,
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  SPEAKER_03: if you don't want to share them in public,
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  I encourage you to share them with one another to spark
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  imagination because that is
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  SPEAKER_03: what reimagining looks like.
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  SPEAKER_03: They're not grand gestures, right?
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  SPEAKER_03: They were all just small,
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  SPEAKER_03: deliberate acts of kingdom imagination,
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  SPEAKER_03: taking kingdom opportunities in our life and the flow of it.
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  SPEAKER_03: Acts that say, this is not just money.
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  SPEAKER_03: This is manna.
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  SPEAKER_03: This is seed that we are planting.
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  SPEAKER_03: This is jubilee in the making.
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  SPEAKER_03: I'll leave you with three things that we can continue to try to work at.
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  SPEAKER_03: First, reimagining what enough means.
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  SPEAKER_03: not as a quantity,
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  but as a level of trust that we have in God and I'm saying the
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  community of
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  SPEAKER_03: believers that surrounds us.
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  We've heard a lot this morning about the support that a
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  community of believers can provide.
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  SPEAKER_03: Enough in Scripture is always tied to God, not to accumulation.
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  Second,
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  reimagining the edges of our field,
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  whether literally or figuratively.
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  SPEAKER_03: Where can we create margin in our lives?
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  Where can we intentionally leave space or edges for another
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  person's flourishing
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  SPEAKER_03: around our lives?
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  SPEAKER_03: And third, reimagining community.
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  What would Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren look like if
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  Jubilee wasn't a
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  SPEAKER_03: metaphor,
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  SPEAKER_03: but a lived reality?
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  SPEAKER_03: No one in this room had to suffer alone.
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  SPEAKER_03: I think a lot of that's going on, actually.
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  if we believe that God's abundance can flow in unexpected ways,
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  even through $10 bills.
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  SPEAKER_03: So I leave you with this morning.
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  SPEAKER_03: To those that are living in scarcity, God sees you.
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  SPEAKER_03: Your story is not defined by lack.
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  SPEAKER_03: Reimagine.
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  To those living in abundance,
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  your abundance is an invitation to be part of God's
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  imagination.
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  SPEAKER_03: Re-imagine.
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  To those who feel unsure,
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  the spirit works not through certainty,
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  but through openness.
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  SPEAKER_03: Imagine.
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  SPEAKER_03: And to our whole church, re-imagining is not naive.
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  SPEAKER_03: It is resurrection in action.
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  It is what disciples do when they believe God is still working
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  in our story.
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  SPEAKER_03: Amen.