Quick Summary:

Themes of vulnerability sound in the stories from Scripture today. There’s something here about bringing our fragile selves into the service of God’s kingdom as disciples of Jesus. On the heels of this rejection in his hometown, Jesus sends his disciples out on a mission, and he invites them to choose vulnerability.

As we’ve marked our nation’s independence this weekend, concerns about fires have tempered our celebrations. Lives lost to senseless violence linger on our consciences. Reports of failing economies and expanding war zones overseas and soaring housing costs here at home pick away at our collective psyche. Even we who know where our next meal is coming from are feeling a bit vulnerable.

The world’s solution to vulnerability is to put its confidence in more sophisticated firewalls as a means of protecting and saving itself. But we who are apprenticed to Jesus are commanded to follow a different path.