Actions Speak Louder -- 26th Sunday 2026
(86) 26th Sunday 2026 Our Question: What is a central “cross” in my life? A cross that I bear. Online research says: The Talmud features a famous passage stating that Ezekiel "annulled" a harsh decree made by Moses. Moses stated in Exodus that God "visits the sins of the fathers upon the children." The Talmud explains that Ezekiel came along and declared a more merciful standard: "The soul that sins, it [alone] shall die." Quoted here. what is the “one thing” that Paul is talking about? “Throughout the biblical story, from Genesis to Revelation, every radical challenge from the biblical God is both asserted and then subverted by its receiving communities—be they earliest Israelites or latest Christians. That pattern of assertion-and-subversion, that rhythm of expansion-and-contraction, is like the systole-and-diastole cycle of the human heart. In other words, the heartbeat of the Christian Bible is a recurrent cardiac cycle in which the asserted radicality of God’s nonviolent distributive justice is subverted by the normalcy of civilization’s violent retributive justice. And, of course, the most profound annulment is that both assertion and subversion are attributed to the same God or the same Christ. Think of this example. In the Bible, prophet sare those who speak for God. On one hand, the prophets Isaiah and Micah agree on this as God’s vision: “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, / and their spears into pruning hooks; / nation shall not lift up sword against nation, / neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa. 2:4 = Mic. 4:3). On the other hand, the prophet Joel suggests the opposite vision: “Beat your plowshares into swords, / and your pruning hooks into spears; / let the weakling say, ‘I am a warrior’” (3:10). Is this simply an example of assertion-and-subversion between prophets, or between God’s radicality and civilization’s normalcy? That proposal might also answer how, as noted in Chapter 1, Jesus the Christ of the Sermon on the Mount preferred loving enemies and praying for persecutors while Jesus the Christ of the book of Revelation preferred killing enemies and slaughtering persecutors. It is not that Jesus the Christ changed his mind, but that in standard biblical assertion-and-subversion strategy, Christianity changed its Jesus.” ― John Dominic Crossan, How toRead the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Struggling with Divine Violence fromGenesis Through Revelation Deconstructing Christianity Facebook Page Dignity USA Sunday Readings Thank you for listening! You're invited to join our FB community at https://www.facebook.com/laughingmystics/ Need more poetry in your life? Visit Marci's blog and/or subscribe to Laura's new substack and receive one of her fresh poems delivered to you periodically. Questions? Comments? Bring your voice to the conversation. We'd like to SHARE THE MIC with you! Send an audio or video from your phone with a question, reflection, or comment to [email protected] We now have an easier way for you to leave a review or rating, using this link! RateThisPodcast.com/thelaughingmystics Please follow us to be alerted for new episodes. We hope you'll share this passion project with others, write a review, or rate/like our podcast on your favorite platform! pod.link/1799776273 New episodes now released on Thursday mornings! For more on Marci Madary visit https://www.insideoutspirituality.com/ For more on Laura Lewis-Barr visit https://psychescinema.com/ (0ur show notes are always filled with many links. If your platform doesn't show them, visit the "episode webpage" or our Spotify page.) Music licensed from Artlist #jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #richardrohr #progressivechristianity #jungianwisdom #mysticalchristianity #religioustext #transpersonalpsychology
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