In chapter 8, we had our last fireside with the people in Babylon. In chapter 9, after an interlude of about 200 years, Gladding brings us into the gathering of another community — a house church hosted by a woman who, as a young girl, had witnessed Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. She begins to tell the Story that formed her ecclesia (congregation) to her guest, a local merchant, as others listen and sometimes contribute. Strange new things are happening, difficult to understand — God now seems to be three instead of One, and He is faithful to the covenant, even in temptation, where Israel was not. Jesus embodied God’s love and fidelity.

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