Faith in Jesus doesn’t wash away being a Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, but it does remind us that we are more than those things. There is more to us than the categories the world gives, for as Paul says, “all of you are one in Christ Jesus…you belong to Christ [and are] heirs according to the promise.” What does our society say about you? What molds are they trying to fit you into in order to be respected, seen, or given worth? And how does that shape what you

For Christians throughout the centuries, the mystery of the Trinity is not to be explained away, but rather it is something to be invited into. It leads us deeper into the nature of God, who is so Wholly Other. We cannot—and we dare not—explain away the glory and majesty and wonder of God, who created all things, sustains all things, and, as the Bible says, shrouds himself in thick darkness and inaccessible light.

In this teaching, Jesus reframes Hanukkah — this festival remembering the Temple’s renewal and rededication — and through the lens of faith, we discover that Jesus is not only the new Temple, the very place God’s glory resides, but he is renewing and reconsecrating the people of God to be his flock. Those with ears to hear are called to listen and believe the shepherd’s voice. Unbeknownst to the crowd, Jesus was offering a wholesale reconsecration not of a Temple or any build

Though our scars don’t ultimately define us, Jesus’ scars do. By his bruises, we have been healed—once and for all. We can look at his scars for our hope in the troubling moments of our life, while also recognizing that our mission is to go towards the broken and scarred places in our world. Nothing is outside of God’s redemptive power.

What makes Christianity unique is that Jesus is the one God who actually comes out of the pages of mythology. He comes out of the legends of bygone tales, and is born in a time and place we know, while Caesar Augustus reigned, and while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and Herod ruled Judea. Jesus lived, died, and was resurrected within history. The other gods can’t do that, they are bound in the books in which they reside. They are prisoners of ink and paper.