Reckless Love

This week we close our post-Easter series Reckless Love with a look at what it means to follow Jesus’ example with our whole lives. In John 13, Jesus kneels before his disciples and washes their feet. In Matthew 25, he identifies himself with the hungry, the stranger, the sick, and the imprisoned. This week, we consider these core questions that undergird the entire series: whose examples are we following, and what does it look like to follow them with our…

As we near the end of our post-Easter series Reckless Love, we arrive at a question that has been building for weeks: what do we do with the people we’d rather avoid? This week, we are called to go further, toward the people our communities have written off. What happens when Jesus goes to the person everyone else has given up on raises questions about who we consider worth our time, our attention, and our love. Discover what it means…

As we continue our post-Easter series Reckless Love, we turn to John 4, where Jesus walks his disciples straight through Samaria and sits down at a well with a woman no one expected him to speak to. This week explores what it means to go where your assumptions tell you not to go, and to stay long enough to be changed. Discover what openhearted love looks like when reconciliation moves from theology to practice. Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:18-21; John 4:4-30,…

As we continue our post-Easter series Reckless Love, we turn to what Psalm 103 and Jesus have to say about generosity. The psalmist remembers a God who forgives, heals, redeems, and crowns with steadfast love. Jesus tells his disciples to love their enemies, give without expecting anything back, and be merciful as God is merciful. This goes well past the point where most of us would stop. Bishop Tom Berlin calls it “lavish love,” and this week we ask what…

As we continue our post-Easter series Reckless Love, we turn to a question Jesus keeps raising: who exactly is our neighbor? We follow Jesus from the shores of Gennesaret to the home of a tax collector, and the pattern of who he chooses to spend time with raises an uncomfortable question. What does it look like to follow Jesus into relationship with people we would not have chosen? What does it require, and what does it make possible? Scripture: Luke…

As we begin our post-Easter series Reckless Love, we open with a question at the heart of the Judeo-Christian faith: of all the commandments, which one comes first? This week explores what it means to take Jesus’ answer seriously — loving God and loving your neighbor as inseparable practices. Reading from Mark 12 and Galatians 5, we consider what changes when we choose to begin every day, every conversation, and every decision with love. Scripture: Mark 12:28-34, Galatians 5:16-26 (NRSVUE)