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This morning Parishioner John Ott challenges our assumptions around the idea of obedience; recognizing that obedience is fundamental to the Christian path, but, it is more about the location of it in the sense that obedience is located in-between the practice of remembrance and God’s abundance.  Obedience is therefore not a formulaic and shamed based response, but rather something we do out of overflow in our remembrance of God’s faithfulness in the past and our hope in God’s presence in the future.

This past Sunday, Jordan took us through the Exodus story, noting that God hears the cries of trying times and He responds. In our own stories, we often want instant gratification, immediate transformation, a quick solution, but God has a purpose and plan, seeking our patience, cooperation and discernment to understand what He is up to.

Welcome to The Parish. This morning‘s gathering is a bit different, as we explore a pattern we all tend to experience in our spiritual journeys: seasons of orientation, disorientation, and re-orientation. To make room to enter these three realities, we broke this morning's gathering up into three separate movements. On the podcast today, you’ll hear elements of each movement, one right after each other. It may be a bit choppy, but you’ll get the idea. We hope you’ll notice God coming to you and whichever stage of the spiritual journey you find yourself.

This morning Jordan spoke of sin’s impact on our identity and the fractures that become the false self.

We continue in the Genesis story this week, and we're reminded that Sin grows systemically: beginning with one person, then a couple, a family, generations, communities, society, and ultimately the entire system. The cycle of sin and myth of redemptive violence is present in our story, but we believe Christ calls us to reverse the cycle through forgiveness.