Before we begin, I want to share a poem by Mary Oliver called “The Summer Day.” Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean— the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down— who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings...

In our gospel today, Peter comes to Jesus with a question that sounds generous... "Lord, how many times should I forgive someone who sins against me? As many as seven times?" Seven. Peter's feeling pretty good about offering up seven. Seven is a holy number. Seven seems like it should be more than enough. And Jesus says, not seven — seventy times seven. Now, Peter's not just picking a random number out of the air, he’d giving a reference to a story in scripture. In Genesis 4, after Cain...

So today, we have come here with our backpacks, and computer bags, and special items that help us turn towards this changing of the seasons, the beginning of school and new routines. In them, we carry the practical things we may need: notebooks, pencils, water bottles. We also carry things that are harder to define or see—hope, or worry, fear or excitement. We all carry these things in some way. Teachers and students begin new rhythms. Families get back into routines. College students arrive...