Praise comes for change - from transformation. There has to be a before the change - something has to be missing, hurting, hard, or insufficient for us to desire it to change - and the woman wanted to be healed. Transformations are powerful for those who are hunched over in our world. For those who aren’t, the point is often missed.

I woke up this morning, and like all mornings I opened my phone and started reading social media posts and the news. There is a lot of pain in the world this day. As I paused to reflect, it welled up inside me. Then, I turned to today’s scripture and I thought, perhaps others might need easy, effortless access to these words from the Psalms.

We divide. Not the Gospel. I was feeling, at best, like I once did at 16 alone and hopeless in my bed after a revival service. How can anyone live up to the rules of righteousness or ever be good enough to hit all the necessary triggers for God’s love, acceptance, grace, and salvation?

We seem obsessed with what others are doing and how we compare. In today’s lesson, Jesus highlights three faith practices of his Jewish tradition – praying, almsgiving, and fasting. He isn’t inventing them and making them Christian practices, he is lifting them up as familiar and significant from his tradition.

Now, what does it really mean to love your enemy, forgive, turn the other cheek, give your coat, and not judge your neighbors? First, let’s set the stage that Jesus has just been telling the disciples and the crowd about the “blessed are you’s” and “woes are you.”