As you look back, for what are you most grateful today? As you look around, for what are you most grateful today? As you look forward, for what are you most grateful today?

When I encounter a Bible passage that is unclear to me—or indeed, a passage that is too clear to me!—do I feel the freedom to enter into the Bible’s divine dialogue? And do we feel the freedom to do this as a community? When I encounter people (including leaders!) whose interpretations are not the same as mine, am I able to give and receive ideas freely? What stops me? What would help me go deeper in my conversations with them? Can the church play a role in providing context, safety, and ultimately reconciliation?

When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

What is powerful to me about the encounter between Jesus and Bartimaeus? How does Love show up in this story? Who expresses Love and how to do they express it? Who gives? Who receives? What do they give and what do they receive? How have I advocated for myself or for another person? How am I feeling led to grow in my advocacy for myself or others?

Lenny is the author of United States of Grace: A Memoir of Homelessness, Addiction, Incarceration, and Hope and Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the U.S. He is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. He is an instructor at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and doctoral student at the Graduate Theological Union (both in Berkeley, CA). He is the co-creator and co-host of the Blackberry Jams Podcast, which looks at the intersection of jam band culture (e.g., Phish) and Black liberation.