Do you want to be right, or do you want to have Right relationship? In the reading from Corinthians, Paul seems to suggest that relationships trump everything. This theme continues in the gospel. The laws prohibiting work on the sabbath carry deep meaning for many people of faith, and yet on this sabbath Jesus rebukes an unclean spirit and heals a man. Jesus chooses to care for the man and to free him, rather than worry over the details of the law. To this day people continue to place barriers and restrictions on faith and often worry more about what is “right” than they do relationships. Congregations do this in intentional ways, for example, by setting a minimum age for receiving holy communion. What are some of the ways people might be kept from a relationship with Jesus by the barriers we create? And do those barriers heal or harm?
Join us this Sunday as Pastor Armin helps us explore Jesus and his authority, relationships, and healing.
image: Jesus Christ the Teacher by Agnaz Spöttl (1834–1892), Cathedral of the Assumption, Rožňava, Slovakia. Photo copyright © josef sedmak/Getty Images Plus via Getty Images. Used by permission.