Inappropriate Conversations

“People who wish to be offended will always find some occasion for taking offense.”
John Wesley

John 20:19-31 (the demand of Thomas for proof and evidence gives us the name Doubting Thomas, along with the meme “He’s right behind me, isn’t he?”!)

"I remember the time that you told me, you said, 'Love is touching souls.' Well, surely you touched mine because part of you pours out of me in these lines from time to time."
Joni Mitchell

John 4:1-30 (despite what most evangelicals today would describe as “living in sin” when she met Jesus at a well, He sent this Samaritan woman off to share the Gospel, telling people in her town Whom she had just met … and He didn’t order her first to move out of her living arrangement or “sin no more”)

"Old James Dean Monroe hands out flowers at the Shop-N-Go, hopes for money but all he gets is fear. And the wind blows up his coat, and this he scribbles on a perfume note: 'If I'm not here, then you're not here.'"
Sheryl Crow

Matthew 28:11-15 (the right amount of bribery can hide/ignore almost anything)

"I rope-a-dope with righteous bobbin' and weavin', and let the good get even."
Chuck D. (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour)

Mark 15:16-20 (abuses of power included assault, spitting, mocking, and more)

"But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald] brought in upon a platter, I am no prophet -- and here's no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, and I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, and in short, I was afraid."
T.S. Eliot

Matthew 14:1-14 (it’s shocking that the execution of a prophet as a prize for an impromptu dance at a birthday isn’t the most offensive thing about the fate of John the Baptist, whose head was “served” on a platter before party guests)

"Sometimes shalom is disruptive. Sometimes peace making makes people uncomfortable. Sometimes these are conversations we'd rather not have or truth we would rather not acknowledge. Speaking truth to power is rarely comfortable for anyone."
Sarah Bessey

Matthew 12:1-14 (whether by healing people or picking grain, Jesus broke the law constantly in the eyes of his legalistic critics)

"Far from saying in defeat that we should not worry about the poor, since they will always be among us, Jesus is pointing the church to her true identity—she is to live close to those who suffer."
Shane Claiborne

Matthew 26:6-13 (while arguing over the cost of perfume, the disciples seemed to miss Jesus predicting his imminent funeral)