{"id":430,"date":"2026-09-21T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/?p=430"},"modified":"2026-09-04T21:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T21:09:09","slug":"first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/first\/","title":{"rendered":"First"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"887\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2026\/09\/26-09-21-PICT0162-byCherylBrumbaugh-Cayford-1200px-887x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-431\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2026\/09\/26-09-21-PICT0162-byCherylBrumbaugh-Cayford-1200px-887x1024.jpg 887w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2026\/09\/26-09-21-PICT0162-byCherylBrumbaugh-Cayford-1200px-260x300.jpg 260w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2026\/09\/26-09-21-PICT0162-byCherylBrumbaugh-Cayford-1200px-768x886.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2026\/09\/26-09-21-PICT0162-byCherylBrumbaugh-Cayford-1200px-560x646.jpg 560w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2026\/09\/26-09-21-PICT0162-byCherylBrumbaugh-Cayford-1200px.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 887px) 100vw, 887px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cSo the last will be first, and the first will be last.\u201d<\/em><br>&#8212; Matthew 20:16 (NRSVue)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><br>Activity:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Sept. 21 is the annual International Day of Peace. How often is peace marred by the human tendency to seek first place? Or to try to force others into last place? Consider what would change if we took Jesus\u2019 words to heart: that those in first place actually will come last, and those who are last are really at the head of the line. Or maybe he\u2019s saying that first and last place have no meaning in the Kingdom of God, where the needs of all will be met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Read the story from which this saying of Jesus is taken, in Matthew 20:1-16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cSo the last will be first, and the first will be last.\u201d&#8212; Matthew 20:16 (NRSVue) Activity: Sept. 21 is the annual International Day of Peace. How often is peace marred by the human tendency to seek first place? Or to try to force others into last place? Consider what would change if we took Jesus\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5,6],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-tiny-retreat","tag-tiny-retreats"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}