Black and white thinking gets a bad rap.  From academic papers to internet blogs we’re counseled that black and white thinking is primitive, that it’s led to our current divisiveness, that it perpetuates oppressive dualisms and unleashes irrational emotion.

In Sunday’s scripture lessons we see black and white thinking.  In the Luke lesson Jesus is tested by the devil –black and white characters engaged in a black and white battle of ultimate loyalty.  In our Galatians lesson Paul redraws the line between black and white in an entirely new way.

Is there a place for black and white thinking in our morally complex world?  Can we learn from the way Jesus and Paul divide the world into black and white?

This week, as we begin our Lenten sermon series, “Followship,”  we’ll follow Jesus and Paul into their black and white worlds.