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Please pray with me with me. Loving spirit, loving spirit. In this time when so many who felt vulnerable, feel more vulnerable and we're in so many of us who felt relatively safe, suddenly feel

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unsafe. Bring us the comfort, enjoys the comfort of your love and open us your spirit. Our men comments. Mhm. As many of you know , for me, a manual Livanos is the most

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significant philosopher of the 20th century. Lebanon says all his philosophy, responded to the holocaust. His two brothers, his mother and father and his wife's mother were all murdered by the Nazis. Lebanon's was an

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officer in France's 10th Army. He was captured on June 18, When General Rommel's forces overwhelmed the 10th army. He spent the next five years in captivity , five years of hard labor in an SS camp

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. We're in the yellow star at the start of the war. Lebanon's was a secular intellectual, but as he lived the horror suffering and uncertainty of a Nazi clamp. Lebanon's was seized by the face of

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God sees so powerfully that he would later write those who reject God because of the shoah, are finishing the job of Hitler's National Socialists. Something clever noses too pessimistic. But there is nothing more optimistic than

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faith born amidst horror. No, faith is more resilient than faith Born amidst horror. More realistic than faith born amidst horror. This can sound odd for modernity has seen suffering and evil as obstacles to faith

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as reasons not to believe in God. But in fact, we are never more sure of the reality of what is good and loving than when we are confronted with the most horrendous evils. The truth lies

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not in the evil, but in that which seizes us. It energizes our response what empowers our condemnation and horror, that, by virtue of which we name evil as evil. This is why Judaism rose

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from the horror of slavery in Egypt and from utter defeat in exile in babylonia. Why faith that rose from the chaos and suffering. Why faith rose from the chaos and suffering of the axial age. Why

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Christianity rose amidst the colonial domination. The crosses and persecutions of the roman empire. Why Islam rules out of the side. Oh, chaos of 7th century Arabia. This is why all the world's great faiths

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trace their sources two times of horror. Because for us, the reality of a gap is never more certain then where is empowering our screams of No about the violation of faces. Even many supposed atheists reject

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religion with exactly this passionate moral faithful. No, because they are seized by the reality of agape. What they are really rejecting is not faith in the God who is love, but distortions of the world's

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faith traditions, Livanos remembering those he saw tortured or killed in the camps speaks of being taken hostage by the face of the other. The face which cries out, do not kill me, Livanos is noticing

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that in such context, quite apart from any desire or decision on our part, we are taken hostage by concern for others. Even when we might prefer to look away and ignore the suffering and death,

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we find ourselves taken hostage by the faces crying out to us. To be precise, we are not seized by the face of the other. We are seized by love for the face of the other.

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This love is not a product of any desire or decision of mine. It is passionate concern, not from me that has me for others, this is a perfect description of what christians call a gap they

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love, not from me that seizes me four others , and also in my having seized a love that holds me insofar as God is Love in a way affirmed variously by Judaism, Christianity, and all the

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rest of the world's historic faith traditions, insofar as God is, love to say, I am seized by love for every face seized by a gap, for every face is to say, I am directly

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seized by God, for every face am directly seized by the Spirit of God who is love for every face. This is the reality the love that seized one and asked beyond any question or doubt amidst the

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horrors of the shore. This is the light, the light of a gap that has awakened and shines through those who surrender to having been seized by a gap by God in context of wonder and beauty and

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delight. This is the love that energizes our joy . It is the same of the same reality that in wondrous times fuels our joy, and in horrendous times fuels are horror and moves us to resist and

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render aid. We are free to harden our hearts . Indeed, we can harden our hearts so consistently and thoroughly that over time we become dead, dead . To the reality of a gap, dead to

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all the suffering, pleading faces, dead to joy and communion with others. This is the living death paul mourns. Wake up! He cries, awakened to the spirit of God to the light and joy

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and koinonia of a gap. Lebanon's is jewish, but he frequently cites jesus's parable of the sheep and the goats. What distinguishes the sheep from the goats ? What distinguishes true Children of God in jesus parable

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. Not any belief, not any doctrine, not ethnic or national identity, but just this God says , when I was hungry, you gave me food when I was naked, You clothed me sick.

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You comforted me, imprisoned. You visited me. The sheep are surprised and say, when did we feed or clothe or visit or care for you? And God says, whenever you did such for the

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weakest and neediest among you, you did it from me. The only distinction is between those who do and do not surrender to having been seized by a cop, a by God. For every face,

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love of God is living out, surrender to having been seized by love for every face. Love of neighbour is love of God. According to jesus parable of the good samaritan surrendered having been seized by love

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for every face describes the essence of the law. Here again, Jesus says that loving our neighbor with all our heart, soul and strength as a samaritan did is loving God with all our heart, mind

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, soul and strength and is also surrendered to transcending gracious love for we ourselves. What distinguishes the samaritan who proves neighbor? The samaritan is the one who surrenders to having been seized by love for the man

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in the ditch. If there is any weakness to jesus, brilliant parable of the good samaritan, it is that the samaritan appears to be relatively wealthy and secure. We know in theory that the robbers might

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come back at any moment, but we know the story too well. We do not seriously fear for the Samaritans life as he takes so much time helping the man than putting him on his donkey. So

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the samaritan is more vulnerable to attack and slow to a walking escape the sheep and the samaritan all seem to make out okay. But when we think of so many heroes of the faith, of the martyrdom

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of Stephen, peter and paul martin Luther King and Oscar Romero and so many others of the prophets and martyrs of all times, and all faith traditions who died, because in the face of those who were

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dangerously spiritually dead heart of heart, who were determined to use any means necessary to exploit and oppress in the face of those who would indeed imprison and persecute and even kill them, they remained faithful to having

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been seized by love for all faces. There is nothing wrong with security and happiness. But when push comes to shove, what was ultimate for these heroes of all faiths was fidelity to a gap, not

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survival, not self interest, not prosperity. Fidelity to a gap. So there are two realities in which we can be utterly sure. First, we can be sure of the reality of a gap.

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And if the law of fueling the No, we scream in the face of pain, exploitation and affliction . Second, we can be sure that not even the faith of saints and prophets bring any special protection

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from the suffering vulnerabilities and deadly powers and diseases of this world. Now, I might say it would add clarity if Jesus had told a good samaritan story where the robbers came back and beat up or even

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killed the samaritan. But of course this is lit , Which is about exactly the story of one who remained faithful, who persevered and living, surrendered to having been seized by love for every face and whose

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fidelity led directly to being beaten and killed. We know from the sweat and tears at Yosemite that Jesus knew the terror of persecution, new the terror of living under a real threat of being killed. But

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in the end Jesus remained true to the passion of a gap even unto death on a cross. Mm We all thanks to feminist and woman ist theologians for saying clearly and precisely that God takes no delight in

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the blood and suffering of the cross across itself is not what God wills, not the will of God , to which Jesus remains faithful at Yosemite. What delights God is the passion? The faith, the

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surrender gap which remains true even unto death on a cross. Now I have to cross itself, but the triumph of fidelity to agape even unto death. The cross was a roman mechanism of terror reserved for

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dissidents and meant to subdue exploited masses. The cross was a horror. Of course, I got bases only horror and torture, Blood and broken bones agape seems nothing good in the cross itself, nothing to

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be tempting to redemptive about suffering for the sake of suffering the cross itself, the suffering of the cross itself does not undo or make up for any evil . The Cross only compounds the evil. The Cross

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does not delight God. The Passion of jesus, which delights God, is the Passion of a gap . Jesus steadfast surrendered to a gap even under the cross, Jesus steadfast surrendered, having been seized by

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all the suffering exploited faces, even when it became clear that fidelity to a gap was going to spur the forces of mammon to conspire to kill him. The Passion of Passion Week then, is the Passion

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of a Gap. The Passion of jesus faithful surrender to a gap even under the cross. This is the faith of jesus, the faith of the samaritan , the faith of sheep, of all traditions through

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all time, who have remained steadfast in their surrender to having been seized by love by Gap for God . Their love for God, for every face, even in face of horror, to believe in jesus

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, then to have faith in jesus is to share in the faith of jesus, to share in the passion of jesus, the passion of surrender, to having been seized by love by a Gap for every

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face including our own let names those seasons, when it becomes clear that we face the starkest choice between God and Mammon, when it becomes clear that we remain faithful to adopt a even when we fear for

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our very lives. At the same time, we find right in the cross in the horror ground for easter hope. Because the power and intensity of our screen, No, at the evil, our stents

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for the reality and power of a gap which is not defeated, only heightened in the face of the most horrendous evils. There's a reason for hope and even conviction that somehow the Yes and the gap is

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the final word for us all. Of course we live on this side of easter sometimes less so sometimes like now more. We live under the threat of the powers of this world. We live linton lives

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. There may not be happiness in lit, but there is joy, joy and surrender to a gap . Joy in the normal koinonia of the community. We're all live surrender to having been seized by one

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another's faces. All this means, by the way that giving up something for lent should never be about suffering for the sake of suffering. I should not give up coffee just because I love coffee. Gab

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takes no delight and suffering for the sake of suffering . To give up something for lynch should always be giving up something and to surrender to love for other faces. So we should give extra time money or

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energy advocating for the poor Doing work for Texas impact for the Micah six project or for refugees right now in so far as we and people in the world are isolated in place or giving extra support to workers

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were serving the sick out of love for those faces even as we and they are fearful for themselves and our families insofar as this is done out of love . Even in the face of death, we are

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living in a world wide season of lent insofar as we live out our surrender to being seized by love for all faces. We and our surrender ourselves taken up and embraced by this gracious love. This is

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the way in which works of love work stemming from surrender to love become means of grace, sources of joy. This is the way leading Lenten lives can join us together in a cornea of love. This

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is how surrendered to love states, and how acts of love, save how faith saves us by taking us up into her transcending, transcending love so powerful that even as we live in real fear of death

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, we can be confident that neither death nor life , things present nor things to come or anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God, and we can live confident that somehow the

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yes of a gap ultimately triumphs over every now on