Hello, my friend Dr. Brad Miller here with the Daily Bible Refresh.

This is your daily reading of the Bible from a progressive point of view.

In a bit I will read the New Testament lessons selected from the Revised Common Lectionary for this very day.

The reading is understandable.

I use the message version relatable.

Please listen to the points to ponder and applicable with action steps you can take.

We pray and are done in less than 10 minutes.

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Here's today's reading and we're reading from.

The gospel of Matthew 8:28 34 from the Message this is called the Madman and the Pigs.

They landed in the country of the gardenias and were met by two madmen, victims of demons, coming out of the cemetery.

The men had terrorized the region for so long that no one considered it safe to walk down that stretch of road anymore.

Seeing Jesus, the madman screamed out, what business do you have giving us a hard time?

You're the son of God.

You weren't supposed to show up here yet.

And off in the distance, a herd of pigs was grazing and rooting, and the evil spirits begged jesus, if you kick us out of these men, let us live in the pigs.

Jesus said, go ahead, but get out of here.

Crazed, the pigs stampeded over the hill, over a cliff, into the sea and drowned.

Scared to death, the swineherds bolted.

They told everyone back in the town what had happened to the madman and the pigs.

Those who heard about it were angry about the drowned pigs.

A mob formed and demanded that Jesus get out and not come back.

That ends the reading.

A very interesting one here.

It's a wild story about what and who a community values.

Let's get into some points to ponder.

Jesus crosses boundaries to restore People.

Understand that we're here in this passage here we're in gentile territory.

It's a cemetery road, a place folks avoided.

And Jesus goes there on purpose and a progressive faith follows him across lines towards the stigmatized.

This unsafe stretch of road, the places culture neglects, healing isn't tidy or centralized.

It's incarnational and proximate.

That is, it's real and it's close.

We don't wait for People in pain to come to us.

We go to them with non judgmental presence, practical help and advocacy.

Another point to ponder is to confront harm without devaluing people.

The text names demons demons.

But notice Jesus doesn't shame the men involved here, he confronts what's harming them.

And today a progressive reading of this passage recognizes both personal struggles, mental health for instance, and trauma and systemic forces such as poverty and racism and criminalization of illness.

We hold a trauma informed ethic.

People are never the problem.

The problem is what wounds isolates or dehumanizes them.

Healing means new community patterns.

Care over control, treatment over punishment, belonging over banishment.

Another point to ponder is healing disrupts economies.

And that's the point the town grieves.

Did you get this part?

The town grieves the pigs more than it celebrates the men, the madmen who were set free.

And that's a mirror for us.

When mercy costs money, time or reputation, do we still choose people?

And progressive discipleship measures success by reduced suffering, not preserved profits.

If a community prefers its herd of pigs to its neighbors, liberation, something's off there.

Following Jesus will sometimes unsettle business as usual so that vulnerable people can thrive.

Let's talk about an action step.

Choose people over convenience.

Identify, quote, some stretch of road in your life that you maybe usually avoid or that somehow is stigmatized.

Could be an actual stretch of road.

It could be people or situations or places of need or maybe a tough conversation and do some concrete act of care.

Do something real.

Have that conversation.

Offer a ride to someone who needs a ride to the doctor.

Deliver a meal.

Give some money or your time or your service to a food bank or some other mutual aid or mental health nonprofit.

Or invite somebody just to have a conversation or walk in the park and listen without fixing.

If you're a person with some influence in your church or workplace or a civic organization.

Get involved with a policy or budget choice that prioritizes care over profit, such as funding counseling and community health and crisis response over putting people in jail.

Just automatically small steady choices.

RA retrain our communities to value people First.

We're going to come back and have a prayer here in just a second.

I want you to know we've got a resource that's going to help you with your at home Bible study practices.

It's called the ABC 1, 2, 3 Bible Study Method.

Love for you to head over to our website voiceofgoddaily.com that's where you can get that resource.

Let's pray.

Jesus who crosses hard roads.

Thank you for moving toward the places we avoid.

Cemetery paths, hospital corridors, anxious midnights move us from fear to compassion.

Teach us to confront what harms without condemning those who hurt.

When mercy costs us reputation, money or comfort, give us courage to choose people anyway.

Bless caregivers and patients, the lonely and the overwhelmed.

Meet us on wooded trails and in waiting rooms, in family group texts and in laughter, even at groans of bad jokes.

Keep our hearts soft and our spines strong so our neighbors become neighborhoods, become safer, kinder and more just.

And when we ask to leave you because change feels costly, stay with us and change us.

Amen.

My friend, I am delighted you chose to join me for today's reading.

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Thanks much.

My name is Dr. Brad Miller and I'll be right here tomorrow with your Daily Bible Refresh.

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Remember, God's loyal love doesn't run out.

His merciful love hasn't dried up, it's created new every morning.