Today's scriptures carry warnings that Christians of the 21st century really need to listen to. It is never easy to listen to a prophet; they say such troubling things. They provoke dis-ease in the darkest places of our souls. They make the comfortable tremble like the volcanoes Jeremiah talks about. This week, the words of Jesus, which some think ought to always be comforting, are intended to be unsettling, to set the world on its head. Like the Pharisees, we are too often found where we are the most comfortable -- with our crowd, those who are like us, who fear the same things we fear.
