Matthew 5:3, Luke 6:20 — They had not chosen to live in “intentional community.”  Their survival demanded community.  Community was their life.  The gospel was their language.  No wonder Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God.”

Matthew 5:44 — … the more passionately we love our enemies, the more evil wi9ll diminish.

Matthew 23:9; Mark 10:28-31 — … the omission of fathers is consistent with Christ’s teaching in Matthew that we should call no one father but God (23:9). In an age in which fathers were seen as the lifeline of the family, the seemingly indispensable authority and provident centerpiece, this statement id God’s final triumph over patriarchy.

Mark 10:25 — That doesn’t mean rich people are excluded or not welcome. It means that it is nearly impossible for them to catch the vision of interdependent community, dependent on God and one another.

Luke 11:5-8 — … the disciple is caught between two friends.  One is a traveler who has arrived, apparently unexpectedly, late at night.  The other is a neighbor who is already asleep, with the door locked, in bed with his family.  One has no bread and is counting on the disciple’s hospitality.  The other has bread, but the disciple must abuse his hospitality in order to get it for his friend.
…
… Jesus tells the disciples that they are Friend B (the one who received unexpected company), it is equally clear that God is Friend C (the one who gets out of bed because Friend B brings his need to him).  But note that Friend B does not go to C to ask for bread for himself, and he does not ask C to get out of bed because of a personal whim.  He dares to go to C, and even disturb him in the middle of the night, because he needs bread for Friend A.
When you look at it this way, the parable does not say, as we often think, that if we want something badly enough and keep asking God for it, God will give it.

Luke 10:42 — What we do to listen to God will not be “taken away,” because it is upon such observations and attention that God desires to build the world to come.

John 11:35 —Upon seeing his friends grieving [Jesus] weeps.
Why? If he has the power to resurrect, why does he not wave a “magic wand” and solve the problem right away? Why does he “waste time” and weep?
Let your tears lead to your small resurrections.

1 Corinthians 3:10-15 — Our choice seems to be in getting to the desired pyre: the pyre of life underneath the surface or the pyre of death and destruction.

Acts 15:28-29, 1 Corinthians 10:25-26 — In setting forth how faith in Christ should be practiced by Gentile believers, the Council of Jerusalem around the year AD 50 sent a letter saying, “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28). The letter then goes on to set forth some orthopraxy guidelines for the Gentile believers, including a prohibition against eating blood and meat sacrificed to idols. This is an example of guidelines that are in flux and may change over time. The prohibition of eating meat sacrificed to idols may have seemed reasonable and workable in Jerusalem, but once Paul got into the Gentile world, he found it was not as simple as James and the Jerusalem elders had imagined. Paul later wrote to the Gentile believers in Corinth saying, “Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience, for ‘the earth and its fullness are the Lord’s’” (1 Cor. 10:25-26).

Exodus 3:1-6 — “The Opening of Eyes”
It is Moses in the desert
fallen to his knees before the lit bush.
It is the man throwing away his shoes
as if to enter heaven
and finding himself astonished,
opened at last,
fallen in love with solid ground.

John 1:10-18 — YouTube video of Sermon, January 2, 2022, Northminster Presbyterian Church, Salinas