Into The Gray

Matthew 22:34-46 (NIV)
The Greatest Commandment
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Whose Son Is the Messiah?
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied.
43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,
44  “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’
45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

My Email: ben@benjaminrcremer.com
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Recommended Resources:
-Kids In Need Of Defense. This organization helps raise funds and provides resources for migrant children's legal defense. It is especially helpful since the current administration has cut funding for the legal defense of unaccompanied migrant children.
​-Unaccompanied Children Program. The Acacia center for justice has some incredible resources as well as critical updates and information on how to get engaged in helping migrant children as well as so many other immigrant needs.
​-Administer Justice. This organization helps resource churches to help provide tangible help for immigrants and their families.
​-Evangelical Immigration Table. I have signed up for this organization's newsletter and have found them to be very dedicated to the rights and needs of our immigrant community. They have many other resources on their website as well.
Solace: The Birth of Hope in a Time of Longing , a daily Advent devotional by Ben Cremer.
My Email: ben@benjaminrcremer.com
For a written version of today's episode: tap here.
If you'd like to support my work, you can do so here.
Thank you so much for listening!

“As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” -Ezekiel 33:11
Solace: The Birth of Hope in a Time of Longing a daily Advent devotional by Ben Cremer.
Recommended Resources:
​-A Statement of Conscience: People of Faith Reject the Livestreaming of an Execution​ This is an online petition by Change.org for people of faith to sign and share opposing the livestreaming of an execution.
​-We the People: Cruel and Unusual Punishment​ by Throughline. This podcast is one of my favorite history podcasts, as you may know. This particular episode tracks to the development of the eighth amendment and handling of the death penalty in the United States.
​-Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us​ by Shane Claiborne. I have long admired my friend Shane Claiborne and his advocacy in this area. If you haven't yet been able to read his book on this topic, I encourage you to do so.
​-The Executed God: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America​ By ​Mark Lewis Taylor​ I discovered this book while preparing for this newsletter and I can't wait to read it. I thought I would share it here for you as well.
​-The Cross and the Lynching Tree​ by James H. Cone. As always, this book was the most transformative work for me in not only illuminating the theology of Black Christians in American history, but giving me a whole new respect and appreciation for the cross of Jesus.
My Email: ben@benjaminrcremer.com
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Matthew 21:33-46
“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

My Email: ben@benjaminrcremer.com
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Jeremiah 12:1-2: "You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit."
Job 21:7: "Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?"
Psalm 73:3: "For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked."

My Email: ben@benjaminrcremer.com
For a written version of today's episode: ⁠⁠⁠tap here.⁠⁠⁠
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