July 1, 2012 Pentecost 5, Proper 8 Mark 5:21-43 Just before the power went out on Friday, Holden and I watched a movie called “Our Idiot Brother.” In it, Paul Rudd plays this character whose life philosophy is to always be kind and honest, always assume the best about people, always trust, in the assumption that people will rise to their better natures. He ends up wrecking havoc in the lives of everyone he meets, but at the end, he inspires them all to live more honestly and openly too. It was a decent movie – good character development, funny. But at the end I was left thinking about how unrealistic it was. It’s such a rosy idea to be so idealistic and assume the best about everyone, but it real life that guy would probably be dead in a back alley somewhere. It was only after I’d pretty much discounted this character as a life model that I started seeing the parallels to Jesus. Because Jesus is constantly doing just that – offering us models for livin