There’s something magical about snow. It’s ice, frozen water, but instead of being hard and brittle, it’s soft and fluffy. It floats down gently, blown about by every gust of wind, landing softly, falling from untold heights to rest silently on the ground.

The way we approach rituals is complicated, which is to say, not uniform. There are a host of things we do in life and in the church that I would call rituals, where a ritual is something we do without thinking of why we do it. I hesitantly applaud this tendency. Sometimes we idolize intentionality, failing to recognize that our habits reveal a deep part of who we are. We do things habitually when they are a part of our very nature—revealing not just who we want to show other people, but who we are.

This week we’ve stumbled upon one of the more difficult and important teachings of Jesus. It’s deceptively simple—“If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.”

The sky is falling. So what are you going to do about it? There’s no point in making a great fuss if all you’re going to do is stand there and watch it fall. Certainly you should do something, but what? How are you going to help hold the sky up?

Paul’s ministry is difficult to document precisely from Acts and his letters. Some parts of it fit nicely, but the descriptions of events in Acts and his letters can sometimes seem at odds. Nevertheless, here is one way to understand the evidence for the latter part of Paul’s ministry.

Every language has its own characteristics, its own ways of speaking about the world, which colors the way its speakers see the world. Some languages have words that are not easily translated into other languages. You can convey the idea, but it takes an entire phrase to translate one word, and the connotation of the word often gets lost in the process.

Sometimes there are moments of clarity where our motivations are laid bare for all to see. This particular one is the nomination of a new Supreme Court Justice. In short, the 2016 Senate doesn’t have to consider a Democrat’s appointee, so they won’t. The 2020 Senate can consider a Republican’s appointee, so they will. It’s not really about democracy or integrity or “letting the people decide”—it’s about using whatever power they can to control the court system and the interpretation of the Constitution.