Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song And Praise

I am sure all of you know what a cliché is.  Clichés are phrases that, upon their inception, were striking and thought-provoking.   However, as they started to catch on, people began overusing them, making them seem trite, and turning them into what we now know as clichés.  Well, as we look at today’s gospel reading, we come across a verse that has truly become a cliché.  It is probably the best-known Bible verse ever.  While many people may know very little of scripture, they know John 3:16.  And, quite honestly, this verse is often misunderstood.  I love what Lutheran Pastor, Nadia Bolz Weber, says regarding most Christians’ insight into this Scripture passage.  Giving a brief, snarky synopsis of people’s early Sunday School understanding of this passage, she writes: Basically, God created us and all that is, but because the first woman ate something she shouldn’t have we are basically screwed for all of time. And since we are all so terrible at following rules God needs to punish us. But here’s where Jesus