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The Holy Ghost Paul valued Jesus
Christ, according to Mark, and 

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his mother and his brothers came
and standing outside, they sent 

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to him and called him, and a 
crowd was sitting around him. 

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And they say to him, your mother
and your brothers are outside 

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seeking you. 
And he answered them, Who are my

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mother and my brother? 
And looking about at those who 

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sat around him, he said, here 
are my mother and my brothers, 

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for whoever does the will of 
God, he is my brother and sister

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and mother, the gospel of the 
Lord. 

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Please pray with me, your loving
God. 

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Thank you so much for every 
single person here whom you know

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so deeply in love, so fiercely. 
I pray that you may speak today 

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to each of us. 
Your name and pray. 

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Amen. 
Please be seated. 

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Good morning. 
Please turn with me to the 

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passage today. 
Let's look at it one more time. 

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Mark 331 to 35. 
And his mother and his brothers 

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came and standing outside, they 
sent to him and called him. 

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And a crowd was sitting around 
him. 

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And they said to him, your 
mother and your brothers are 

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outside seeking you. 
And he answered, then who are my

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mother and my brothers? 
And looking about at those who 

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sat around him, he said, here 
are my mother and my brothers. 

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For whoever does the will of 
God, he is my brother and sister

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and mother. 
Today's passage reminds me of 

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that Martha and Mary's story in 
Luke 10. 

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In this story, Jesus enters a 
village and a woman named Martha

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invites him over to the home 
that she shares with her sister 

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Mary. 
And Martha busies herself by 

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serving Jesus while her sister 
Mary sits at his feet listening 

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to his teaching. 
And I identify a lot with Martha

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because I often catch myself 
doing the same thing when I 

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guess over right serving, 
tidying, busting around in the 

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kitchen, missing out on 
conversations, and being present

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with the very people I just 
invited over. 

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I actually do the same with my 
own family at home, serving, 

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tithing, bustling, when our kids
really just want me to sit down 

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and chat with them and be 
present with them. 

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And when Martha complaints to 
Jesus about it, he says this, 

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Martha, Martha, you are anxious 
and troubled about many things, 

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but only one thing is necessary.
Mary has chosen the good portion

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which will not be taken away 
from her. 

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A good friend recently blew my 
mind earlier this year when she 

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we're talking about this passage
and she told me that Mary 

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embodies A radical form of 
self-care and the best thing we 

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can do for ourselves is to just 
sit at Jesus's feet listening to

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his teachings. 
So today, let's slow down 

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together with these 5 verses 
from Mark 3 and learn from what 

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Jesus has to say. 
The passage begins. 

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And Jesus's mother and his 
brothers came, and standing 

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outside, they sent to him and 
called him. 

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You can imagine them standing 
outside the door peering in, 

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nudging folks to let hey Jesus 
know they're calling for him. 

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So word ripples through the 
crowd. 

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Hey Jesus mother and his 
siblings are here. 

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They're asking for him. 
Nudge, nudge, whisper. 

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The message passes from person 
to person until finally the 

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whole room knows right? 
Jesus family's at the door. 

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Verse 32 and a crowd was sitting
around him and they said to him,

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Jesus, your mother and your 
brothers are outside seeking 

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you. 
This moment is charged. 

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Everyone is watching. 
And that's when Jesus 

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deliberately asks the rhetorical
question, Who are my mother and 

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my brothers? 
You might be wondering if Jesus 

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is rejecting his earthly family 
in this moment. 

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I used to wonder this too. 
As in, like, those people 

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outside the door, not my family,
those sitting around me actually

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are. 
And that doesn't sit well with 

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us, right? 
Because that seems so 

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uncharacteristic of Jesus, who 
loves his family. 

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But when we examine the text, we
can see that there's something 

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far more significant going on 
here. 

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For usual Jesus is not rejecting
anyone. 

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He's using his family's arrival 
as a teachable moment. 

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Classic Jesus the teacher here. 
Even earlier in Mark, when Jesus

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calls the disciples, he does not
explicitly tell them to reject 

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or leave his family. 
He simply says follow me. 

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The emphasis is not on who they 
leave, but on who they choose to

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give their attention to and 
follow. 

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And Mark shows us this 
brilliantly through one specific

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detail about this crowd. 
Notice here that Mark specifies 

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in verse 32A crowd was sitting 
around him, around Jesus. 

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The verb he uses here for 
sitting is Kathemanoy. 

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And OK, stay with me for a 
moment. 

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This is really cool. 
In English we usually think in 

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two modes of action, right? 
Active voice, I do something, I 

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open the door. 
Passive voice, something is done

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to me, the doors open for me. 
Greek though, has another way of

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describing action. 
This is so cool, one that 

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English mostly lacks. 
It's often called the middle 

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voice. 
This describes action that 

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someone is personally engaged 
in, not just doing something and

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not just having something done 
to them, but placing themselves 

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intentionally into it. 
There's an entire voice to 

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highlight this. 
So think of it as like the 

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difference between I was seated 
at the restaurant versus I 

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seated myself. 
I chose this table, this view, 

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this spot, and the verb that 
Mark uses here works like that. 

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It doesn't picture people who 
merely ended up sitting or were 

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told to sit right there. 
Instead, it emphasizes their 

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agency and intentionality. 
The listeners have put 

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themselves there around Jesus. 
They say they're by choice and 

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they're invested in remaining, 
so they've arranged their bodies

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and thus their attention around 
Jesus. 

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So both the grammar and the 
choreography in these seemingly 

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simple verses echo the 
invitation of the story itself. 

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That's so cool. 
Faith is not only something that

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we do or something that happens 
to us. 

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Faith is a posture that we 
choose to embody. 

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And here's where Jesus redefines
what it means to be his family. 

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Verses 34 and 35 and looking 
about at those who sat around 

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him, Jesus said here are my 
mother and my brothers. 

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For whoever does the will of 
God, He is my mother and sister 

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and mother, brother, mother and 
sister and brother. 

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Jesus's point here is bigger 
than simply expanding who gets 

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included in his family. 
Jesus redefines family by how 

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people place themselves in 
relation to him. 

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And notice something crucial. 
The listeners in the story are 

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already deemed family before 
they even do anything in light 

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of his teachings, right? 
They're not. 

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They haven't even like left and 
done anything yet. 

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Just by choosing to sit down and
listen to Jesus, to receive his 

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message, they're already 
participating in God's will, 

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being in his family in this way,
sitting at his feet, arranging 

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their attention around him. 
This is doing the will of God 

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for any of you listening today 
who seeks some freedom, freedom 

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from A to do list expectations, 
pressure. 

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Tell me all of us receive this. 
You can begin with Jesus by just

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sitting at his feet, taking him 
in. 

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He invites active listening, of 
course, not mindless lounging. 

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But you can begin doing God's 
will by orienting your attention

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towards him. 
And this is counterintuitive for

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some of us, right? 
We expect that doing, doing 

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God's will means action all the 
time, right? 

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Works and accomplishment. 
We expect some kind of task 

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list. 
But here Jesus says that 

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listening itself is how we begin
that posture. 

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It's where faithfulness starts. 
Not with striving, how 

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refreshing, but with sitting. 
Not with achieving, but with 

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attending. 
The people in that room didn't 

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have to earn their place in 
Jesus's family. 

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They simply had to choose to be 
there to arrange themselves 

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around him and listen. 
And that's the invitation for 

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us, too. 
Now, it's worth acknowledging 

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that doing the will of God is 
not always easy or comfortable. 

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Many of us know that it can 
disappoint people we love in our

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lives, as Jesus likely did with 
his mother and siblings standing

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outside that door. 
And it can have some real social

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consequences for us too. 
I had a small but clarifying 

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reminder of this actually, just 
this past week. 

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God does just seem like that. 
Just putting it right there. 

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I was visiting a school where I 
used to teach, and I really love

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teaching there. 
Helping connect the visiting 

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artists to a literature class 
Amazing. 

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It was a joyful reason to 
return, and the welcome was 

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really warm. 
It felt so good to be back. 

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People hadn't seen in a while. 
Hugged me, welcomed me back 

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home, told me that they missed 
me. 

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It felt really good to be 
received back like that. 

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But there was 1 moment that 
stood out. 

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Probably because of that warm 
reception while I was catching 

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up with a former colleague when 
someone else I used to work with

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walked through the room, saw me 
clearly and just passed by 

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without acknowledging me at all.
It was noticeable, super 

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awkward, and I knew why. 
Years ago, when we were first 

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teaching together, this 
colleague and I, we had 

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connected quickly. 
We're like hindered spirits 

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immediately right over a love of
teaching. 

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But at one point, whenever 
conversation shifted to talking 

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about another colleague in a way
that made me really 

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uncomfortable, I remember 
feeling a quiet but persistent 

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nudge from Jesus to stop the 
conversation. 

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Not dramatically, you know, not 
confrontationally, but honestly.

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So I did. 
It said something like, I really

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love talking to by teaching and 
we work so well together, but I 

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really don't want this kind of 
talk about colleagues to be part

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of our relationship. 
I didn't say it perfectly, and 

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it was really awkward. 
It wasn't received very well at 

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all. 
But at the time, what I didn't 

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fully realize with how much 
gossip and trash talk, to be 

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frank, can function as social 
glue, especially among work 

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colleagues at a school. 
Ironically enough, saying no to 

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it meant that over time I would 
be edged out of some circles, 

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some social circles. 
And I was. 

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Not loudly or cruelly, but 
noticeably. 

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And that this is never really 
closed. 

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So watching her walk by like 
that last week stung because it 

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was so blatant and so obvious. 
But notably, the sting didn't 

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fester. 
And not because I handled 

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everything Florida State didn't,
but because I I really do 

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believe that that moment of 
choosing to listen to Jesus 

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mattered, even when it came with
the relational cost. 

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And I think that's where the 
passage today presses on us 

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most, honestly. 
Because Jesus here isn't just 

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offering us comfort, He's also 
offering a call to sit at his 

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feet. 
To Orient our lives around him. 

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May mean that we end up standing
inside the room while people we 

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love are left waiting outside 
that door. 

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And it may mean disappointing 
family members or close friends.

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Not because we stop loving them,
but because we're no longer 

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ranging our lives around their 
expectations. 

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And that's frightening, right? 
Many of us would rather remain 

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respectable and light and easy 
to understand, then risk the 

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kind of faithfulness that 
unsettles people. 

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Following Jesus can cost us 
approval and strain 

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relationships. 
And if we're honest, part of 

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what keeps us from fully 
listening to Him, right, is the 

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fear that we might follow Him 
where he goes, actually, and end

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up disappointing others in the 
way that maybe he disappointed 

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his own family in this moment. 
Notice, though, that Jesus 

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doesn't wallow in disappointing 
his family. 

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They'll come to understand what 
he's doing in time. 

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And we know that his mother, for
instance, is thoughtful too. 

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In Luke 219, in response to the 
mysteries around Jesus's birth, 

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which she didn't fully 
understand at the time, right? 

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Mary is recorded as quote, 
treasuring up these things, 

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pondering them in her heart. 
Maybe she's doing so now too, at

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the door. 
And since the very next chapter,

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literally after this scene that 
we're looking at today is a 

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parable of the sower, where 
Jesus highlights the value of 

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maintaining fertile soil for 
understanding his teachings. 

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There's an invitation here for 
us to practice good listening 

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skills to receive what he wants 
us to understand over time. 

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Because like most skills, 
listening improves with 

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practice. 
And so the more we place 

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ourselves near Christ, the more 
attuned we become to his voice 

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and his will, and we can hear 
him when he does speak to us. 

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So let's choose a good portion 
now. 

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Let's not wait until later in 
the week, right? 

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When things settle down, when 
we're feeling it more, etcetera,

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right, to sit at his feet. 
Let's just do it right now, like

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today, maybe you go on a walk 
later without headphones, right?

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And just like, pray go around 
the block. 

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Doesn't have to be that crazy, 
right? 

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Maybe just take 10 minutes. 
You close your eyes, maybe open 

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a journal, maybe just begin with
a moment of silence, a verse, 

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maybe a worship song, or maybe 
invite someone to pray with and 

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for you to help you listen. 
Maybe start with one of the 

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prayer ministers today on either
side during communion. 

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Or maybe just let's just do 
this. 

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You just close your eyes right 
down and you take your breath, 

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and you think, Lord, here I am 
at your feet. 

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Speak to me. 
Sitting at Jesus's feet doesn't 

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take that much to start. 
She just wants you to come 

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inside. 
He's inviting you to a place 

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near him, and He's already set 
for you to arrange your 

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attention around him. 
So let's invite his invitation 

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to sit down at his feet and 
listen, trusting that God will 

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speak to us. 
Amen.