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Big Idea: In an economy of grace, the medium of exchange is not obligation or debt, but mercy and compassion. This is the way people relate to each other in the Kingdom of Heaven. "Being merciful" is the center of the list of the nine beatitudes. It marks a turning point in the list, the point at which a community realizes its turn toward God.

Big Idea: In Matthew's beatitudes, Jesus proclaims that the hungry will be filled. But what will they be filled with? Is Jesus talking about a spiritual or metaphorical hunger? Matthew's beatitudes are often read as a more spiritualized list of blessings, compared to their Lukan counterparts, but a closer reading shows Jesus' literal and practical meaning. The Kingdom of God is defined by actions of literal feeding, eating, and rejoicing. Thanks be to God!

Big Idea: Jesus tells the crowd that mourning is the first step in making a connection to God who does indeed hear our cries. The people who were enslaved in Egypt cried out to God, "this is not right!" If we are to be blessed, our mourning will be the first evidence that God is intervening to comfort us.

Big Idea: What is your category of 'poverty?' Are you poor in money or resources? Poor in imagination or influence? In health or hope? Whatever your category of poverty, Jesus reminds you that you are blessed. Not that you feel blessed--but that you ARE blessed.

Big Idea: If we think we have to get it all together before we show up to pray, we are missing the point. Anne Lamont says that possibly the best conditions under which we pray are when we are bitter or insane or broken. The Psalmists took that chance. They used language speaking to and with God, that relied, against all odds, on a cry of "help!" in order to spark our own healing relationship with God.

Big Idea: It's almost impossible for us to grasp the power and scope of what Jesus has done for us. Over two millenia, Christians have struggled to understand and then explain what the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus means. The good news--the "Gospel"--hardly makes sense. It seems like a lie, and yet those who grasp the amazing paradox of life from death are able to do and accomplish extra-ordinary things, fulfilling the destiny God has called humanity for.