Counting the Cost

September 7, 2025

Luke 14:25-33

            I moved to New Jersey from Ohio in the summer after my freshman year in high school.  I was a fairly good trombone player when I was in high school and it wasn’t long before my new friends in the band were asking me to join a drum and bugle corps in Eatontown called the Royales.  I didn’t even know what a drum and bugle corps was, and I had zero interest in joining it.  But, one day, a group of my friends from band knocked on the door at my house and asked me to come with them to a Royales practice, just to see what it was all about.  I went with them, and once I got there, I was told that if I wanted a ride home, I had to join; so I was basically kidnapped.  But joining that corps was, and remains, one of my life’s best decisions.  Not only did I meet my wife there, but the lessons that I learned about teamwork and about the depth of commitment required to become as good at something as you can possibly be are lessons that have served me well for a lifetime.  I marched in that corps from age 15 to age 18… just 3 seasons, but the impact that that experience had on my life is far out of proportion to the amount of time that I spent doing it.

            By the time I was in my senior year, I was practicing either my trombone or my bugle 6 hours a day and I was an all-state trombone player.  In college I had the privilege of playing professionally as a studio musician, but there is no doubt in my mind that if it weren’t for my experience in that drum corps I never would have become the musician that I became.  Why?  Because being a part of that organization taught me how to prioritize; how to make music the one thing that I worked on to the exclusion of the everyday distractions that most teens face.  Anybody remember that great teen club that was in Shrewsbury in the early 70’s?  I became a member and really enjoyed going there, but after I joined the corps, I never went there again.  I ran track, but I quit the track team, I didn’t really have a social life outside of the corps, and I even got into trouble a few times for ditching school events in favor of a corps contest or exhibition. 

            We were a mediocre corps when I joined.  Three years later, with a corps full of committed, hardworking kids, and great adult leadership, we took 2^nd place in the World Open Class B contest and finished 3^rd in the NJ State Chapionships, beating some pretty good corps.  During those three years a lot of kids joined and then quit.  Practices were often marathon affairs, marching in the EAI parking lot long after dark with car headlights lighting the way so we could see where we were marching… kind of.  The ones who weren’t committed didn’t stay.  The ones who were, did, with the end result that we became a pretty good corps.  It was one of the best experiences of my life.

            So, why am I telling you all this story today?  I’m telling you this because today’s lesson is all about commitment.  Our story tells us that Jesus had a large group accompanying Him.  And it’s interesting that Luke chooses to use the Greek word Συνεπορεύοντο (sin-ee-poor-you-ontoe), and that he used this instead of the Greek word, Δεῦτε (Deu-tuh).  Every time in the Bible that Jesus says to someone “Follow me” the Greek word that He uses is Δεῦτε.  The root of Δεῦτε is “duo” and the word describes two people doing something together, or two people working towards a common purpose.  But Συνεπορεύοντο means simply to accompany someone or to travel with someone.  Can we see the difference? 

            Those of us who are following the TV show “The Chosen” have seen what happens when Jesus bids someone to follow Him.  Andrew, Peter, Simon the Zealot, and Matthew all dropped their lives right on the spot, walked away from what they were doing, and pretty much instantly became disciples.  It was a sudden and monumental change in each of their lives.  And so it’s important for us to see the distinction between following someone and just accompanying them.  And this is especially important as it relates to following Jesus.

            At some point in our story, I guess Jesus turned around and saw this huge crowd behind Him, but the thing is, Jesus knew their hearts… every single one of them.  He knew who was accompanying Him just in hopes of seeing a miracle.  He knew who was accompanying Him in hopes of being healed.  He knew who was accompanying Him in hopes of watching Him overthrow the Romans and establishing Israel as prominent among the nations.  And so, Jesus stopped, and He gave all of those who were accompanying Him a reality check.

            “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”  Something tells me that this would not be a very effective approach in a door-to-door evangelism drive.  It also seems incongruous that the One who admonishes us to love our enemies would be asking us to hate those closest to us.  But we need to understand that Jesus is using an ancient Hebrew idiom that was not talking about hate as an emotion but rather was using the word “hate” comparatively.  Brown tells us that, “In Genesis 29:30-31, we hear that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah and that Leah was “hated” by Jacob. A similar use of [this] Hebrew word for “hate” occurs in Deuteronomy 21:15-17 where [discussing inheritances] it is also clear that the issue is one of preference or allegiance.  This coheres with what we have seen in Luke and Matthew. Jesus is not calling his followers to hate their families in terms of emotional response; instead, he is calling for undivided loyalty to himself, even above family loyalties” [1]

            And this isn’t the first time that Jesus has said something that caused those accompanying (not following) to walk away.  Jesus was not interested in the quantity of His followers, But He was deeply interested in changing the lives of His followers, and that is not something that Jesus could accomplish without the active participation of those following Him.  And so, here Jesus tells two parables that are designed to ask those who are accompanying Him to consider the true cost of following Him and whether or not they are willing to pay that cost. 

            Several years ago, a company petitioned the city of Asbury Park to allow them to take over part of a city street and to build a building where that street had been.  I don’t really know the particulars of that endeavor, but I do know that this project, called the Esperanza, was half built before it ended up being abandoned by the builder, blocking off a city street for years.  Does anybody remember that building? In the middle of the road?  According to the builders, construction was halted due to a dip in the housing market, but one can’t help but compare the Esperanza with Jesus’ first parable today where Jesus tells us that one needs to count the cost before beginning any project.  Our story tells us that Jesus said, “When he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him.” And I would imagine that that half-built building in Asbury Park was a major embarrassment to the builder for quite a few years.

            In the 2^nd parable today, Jesus talks about a king trying to determine whether he has the wherewithal to defeat a superior force that is coming against him.  These two parables appear to be somewhat alike, but Morris tells us that there is a critical difference between the two.  “The two parables are similar, but they make slightly different points.” Morris says, “The builder of the tower is free to build or not as he chooses, but the king is being invaded.  He must do something.  In the first parable Jesus says, ‘sit down and reckon whether you can afford to follow me’.  In the second He says ‘sit down and reckon whether you can afford to refuse my demands’.  Both ways of looking at it are important”.  [2]

            And so it is that Jesus speaks to the crowd that accompanies Him and speaks to us as well.  Are we willing to do more than just accompany Him?  Are we willing to sit down and consider the cost of following Him, AND are we willing to sit down and consider the cost of not following Him?  Garland tells us that, “What the text does not spell out is that one will lose everything anyway whatever one’s choice.”  You can’t take it with you, right?  “The only question is whether one will lose all as a follower of Jesus and for the sake of God’s reign, or as one who refuses to follow and obey.  Which, in other words, is the more promising course of action?” [3]

            We, as Christians, are called to discipleship.  We are called to make God’s kingdom our priority, called to make the spreading of the Gospel and the sharing of God’s love our highest motivation in life.  Often in this world people will ask the question, “What’s in it for me?”  But when it comes to faith, when it comes to Jesus, that’s not at all the right question to be asking, because what we do for Jesus isn’t done out of a desire for personal gain, it’s done out of a response to what God, through Jesus, has already done for us.  And when we make this choice, we are called to be all in.  We give up the worldly, in order to gain the heavenly.  Cousar, Gaventa, McCann, and Newsome tell us that, “Material possessions have a seductive appeal that can turn them quickly from being servants to being masters.  They become excess baggage that make the journey with Jesus difficult to negotiate.  Thus, at the outset, choices need to be made.  ‘You cannot serve God and wealth’”. [4] 

            I spoke about my experience with the Royales today because, when it came to the Royales, I really was all in.  I, and my friends in the corps, had each made personal choices to commit ourselves to making that corps to be as good as we could possibly make it.  And each of us learned the lessons about the importance of giving your best effort when others are relying on you to do so.  This kind of all in commitment is exactly what Jesus is talking about in today’s lesson. While we certainly aren’t actually going to be hating anyone!  We will each be called to be all in with our choice to commit ourselves to the spreading of the Gospel and to the living of our lives in a way that glorifies God.  In exchange for our commitment, we receive a promise that is almost impossible to comprehend.  A promise to be loved and cared for by the creator of the universe.  A promise that we will become part of a society of love and compassion and caring.  A promise that we will become the person that God has always intended for us to be.  And so, our question today is, are we accompanying, or are we following?

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[1] Jeannine K. Brown, WorkingPreacher.org,. Commentary on Luke 1425-33

[2] Leon Morris, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Luke, Pg, 259

[3] David E. Garland, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Pg. 607

[4] Charles B. Cousar, Beverly R. Gaventa, J. Clinton McCann, & James D. Newsome, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV-Year C, Pg. 505

Those Who Exalt Themselves Will Be Humbled

August 31, 2025

Luke 14:1, 7-14

            There was a Roman Governor named Pliny the Younger.  Pliny ruled Bithynia during the early second century, at a time when Christians were being actively persecuted by the Roman Empire.  Pliny was disturbed by the number of Christians who were being brought before him to be examined.  Apparently, some Roman citizens were taking an active part in turning in their neighbors as accused Christians.  Pliny would interrogate these suspects and demand that they renounce Christ.  If they refused, they would be executed.  Because Pliny was concerned about the number of these cases, he wanted to make sure that he was doing the right thing.  And so, Pliny took it upon himself, first to investigate this Christian “superstition” (his words) and second, inquired of his friend, the Emperor Trajan, as to whether he was proceeding appropriately.  During Pliny’s investigation he interrogated (well, tortured, really) two women who were authorities in the church… deaconesses, and he was shocked to discover the fact that they were both slaves.  The idea that a slave could be in a position of authority was unthinkable to Pliny, and indeed to the entire Roman mindset.

            You see, Roman society was heavily built on patronage.  Status was extremely important to the Romans, and the more important people that you had who were in debt to you the greater your status would be.  Taylor explains, “The foundation of Roman class structure was Patronage, an intricate system of benefactors and their clients. Favors were the currency of this system, and the more favors that were owed to you as a benefactor, the higher you could rank in society.” [1]  One of the ways that one could indebt people to themselves was to invite people to elaborate banquets.  These banquets were very popular in Greco-Roman society, and they all revolved around the idea that those whom you invited would be in your debt.  And so, guest lists would be carefully curated so that you would invite some people slightly above you in status, so you gained more status by having them in your debt, and some people slightly lower than you in status so you would be able to benefit when they repaid your favors.

            In a society in which status and social standing played such an important role, the idea of a slave being in charge of ANYTHING in which they held authority over someone of much higher social status was unfathomable… and the reason why Pliny was so astonished at his discovery of the Deaconess slaves.  But for first century Christians, this was not at all unusual.  Because in the church of the first century, true equality among believers was just how things worked.  Acts 4 describes the first century church, saying, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.” 

The believers shared their resources with those who were in need, seeing to it that there was no one among them who had less than what they required.  And in the first century church, the Roman preoccupation with status and social standing was replaced with a genuine care for other followers of “The Way” and a way of living that saw each and every person as a beloved child of God.  From the very important patricians to the slaves, all followers of Jesus recognized the inherent equality of those who bore God’s image.

And it is to this idea that today’s lesson directs itself.  Jesus attends a banquet given by a Pharisee.  It is evident from our reading that this Roman obsession with status had crept its way into the temple and was influencing the Jewish leaders.  And as we shall soon see, this banquet seems to share that decidedly Roman proclivity for status seeking.  Our text tells us that Jesus is being watched carefully, probably to see if, for the third time, he heals someone on the Sabbath, in the presence of the Jewish authorities.  The giver of the banquet purposely seats Jesus next to a man who has dropsy.  Now, dropsy is a condition caused by edema, a collection of fluids in the body that causes swelling, and in the first century Greco-Roman world, dropsy was a disease that was thought to be divine punishment for sexual immorality.  You can bet every penny in your wallet that none of the Pharisees would have situated themselves at the table anywhere near this unclean person, but they placed him next to Jesus.

Jesus, knowing that this was a trap, first asked the accumulated crowd of Jewish authorities whether or not it was OK to heal on the Sabbath.  When they failed to answer Him, He turned to the man and healed him.  But unlike the previous two healings that Jesus had performed on the Sabbath, this time Jesus touched the man when He healed him, making it completely obvious that he had just done “work” on the Sabbath to heal this man.  The Pharisees, however, still said nothing.

After the healing, Jesus sent the man on his way, but Jesus was far from done.  Noticing how the guests were jockeying for position, each trying to select a seat that would enhance their status with this group, Jesus made the observation that it’s better to seek a seat with lower status and be asked to move up to a higher status seat than it is to seek a seat with higher status and be asked to move down to a seat with lower status.  And while, on the surface, this seems like simply some good advice to avoid the embarrassment of being moved to a lower status seat, what Jesus is trying to teach here is actually much deeper… Jesus is actually teaching us a lesson revealing one of the great truths of the Kingdom of God.

“Those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted” is not just instructions on how to choose a seat at the banquet.  It is a revealing of the upside-down nature of God’s kingdom.  At Mr. Pharisee’s little banquet here, even those who follow Jesus’ advice and choose the lowliest seat are doing so deviously, showing a false humility in order to prompt the host into moving them up and exalting them before all of the other guests.  This contrived humility is about as far from what Jesus is trying to teach as it gets.  What is it that Micah said the Lord requires of us?  “To love mercy, live justly, and walk humbly with our God”.  Jesus is advocating a true humility that isn’t seeking status at all; a humility that isn’t expecting to be moved up.  A purposeful taking of the lowest place, that is motivated by a heart that recognizes the value of every single one of God’s beloved children and is willing to take that last seat because of its love for others… a love that honors and lifts up others with the full realization that lifting up others in no way reduces one’s own worth… and in fact raises one’s own worth in the kingdom, because they have chosen to live and act in a manner that is Christ-like. 

So often now you have heard me say that Christianity is not about what we do, it’s about who we are, or more accurately, who we are in Christ.  This choosing of the lowest seat isn’t done out of a desire to manipulate; it is simply done out of love… It’s done because the willingness to take the lowest seat is simply who we are.

But Jesus doesn’t stop here.  He continues His discussion of the upside-down kingdom of God by advising the giver of the banquet who they should invite.  “Don’t invite the people who have the ability to repay you for your hospitality.  Invite those who lack the ability to repay you for your hospitality.  When the Pharisees invited this unclean man with dropsy to their banquet, they had absolutely no intention of sitting anywhere near this man.  He was being used by the Pharisees to try to trap Jesus into doing or saying something that could get Him into trouble.  And Jesus turned this completely around on them and declared that this unclean man with dropsy is exactly the one who SHOULD be invited to the banquet, and not only invited, but embraced and loved by the banquet’s hosts.  This human tendency to look at other people with the intent of evaluating whether or not they belong with your group; whether or not they are worthy of being in your company, is no less prevalent today than it was in first century Rome.  And if Jesus were here today, He would still be talking about it.  And He would still be calling out the attitudes that lead us to think that there are those who belong at our table and there are those who don’t. 

I will be the first to admit that I am guilty of this.  It is as common a human condition as there is.  But as disciples of Jesus Christ, our call IS to love absolutely everyone, because absolutely everyone has been made in the image and likeness of God.  My friends, it is completely impossible to love God, if we don’t love those who are made in His image.

And this is where the Gospel comes in.  Because God doesn’t just forgive us for the times that we fail to be Christ-like.  God DELIGHTS in forgiving us when we turn to Him for forgiveness.  Do we remember Jesus’ story about the one lost sheep among the 99?  What did Jesus say?  He said that “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”  I personally think that God throws a huge party in heaven every time a sinner turns to Him in repentance. 

I had a good friend who once had a job doing telephone sales.  He was in a room with 20 or so other salespeople and every time someone in that room made a sale over the phone, they would walk up to the front of the room and ring a little gong.  For that company, each sale represented an achievement worth celebrating.  Just imagine how much greater the celebration must be over the repentance of just one person. 

In today’s story we get to see a little bit of how the Gospel works.  We get to see how the believer is called to love without an agenda, recognizing the belovedness in others and recognizing the belovedness in oneself.  Knowing that there is no need to seek status that exalts one over another but rather knows that God holds each and every one of us in an esteem and a love that is fully beyond our capacity to understand. 

We get to see how God eagerly and graciously calls us to forgiveness and rejoices over all who turn to Him.  And we get to see how inclusive the kingdom of God is, embracing the poor, the sick, the outcast, and the repentant sinner.

In today’s lesson, Jesus shows us how great are the demands of Christ-likeness, but at the same time shows us the love and the grace that, though it accepts us for who we are, is never willing to leave us the same but seeks always to build within us a love that is gracious and compassionate and extravagant.  A love that looks just like the love that God has for us.

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[1] Jo Anne Taylor, PastorSings.com, Where will you sit?

You Must Be Ready

August 10, 2025

Luke 12:32-40

            There is something remarkable in today’s lesson, and it’s possible that you might have missed it.  I have to be honest, in spite of my having read this passage many, many times over the years, it’s something that I never grasped until this week.  But before I tell you about it, there are some things that would be helpful for us to understand about some of the first century cultural issues that relate to this passage.  Jewish weddings in ancient times were very different from what weddings are now.  The process began with a betrothal.  Essentially, this was an agreement between the two future fathers-in-law that stipulated the terms of the marriage.  After the betrothal would come the wedding, and following that, the wedding feast.  Now, first century wedding feasts typically lasted for days, with seven days being the traditional standard, but it wasn’t at all unusual for the celebrations to last even longer.

            Now, if the groom was from a middle to upper class family, he would have had servants.  And it would have been the job of the servants to maintain the household during the time that the groom was away.  The servants would also have had the responsibility of preparing the house to receive the new member of the family, the bride.  And so, they have all of this work to do, with no clue as to when the groom is coming home.  All of this work must be done, and everything must be maintained in perfect order continually in anticipation of the couple’s arrival.  The work has to be done, the lamps have to be kept burning all night long, every night, a meal should be ready to be prepared at a moment’s notice, and so, the servants need to be in a constant state of readiness because they have no idea what time of day or night the couple will arrive.  And if the couple should arrive with the work not all done or the house not ready, you can bet that someone is going to be in a lot of trouble.  So, the good servants will be diligent in making sure that everything is perfect for their master’s return, no matter what time he comes home.

            One thing about weddings that hasn’t changed is the fact that, during the wedding and the celebration afterwards, the bride and groom are the stars of the show.  It makes me think about that old TV program, “Queen for a Day”.  Anyone else old enough to remember?  Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask for a show of hands.  But, during this celebration, the bride and groom are literally the kings and queens of the event.  They are pampered, showered with attention and love, and provided with everything they need to make this event memorable and special.  Bearing all of this in mind, let’s take a look at today’s story.

            Starting in the middle of the story, which I will explain why later, Jesus tells us that we should be in a constant state of readiness, just like the servants who are waiting for their master’s return.  And like the servants, we must be prepared, at any time of day or night, for that return to happen.  But here is where the story gets really crazy, and this is the thing that I missed.

            Let’s think about this for a second.  The groom, the king of the recent wedding celebration, the man who has been pampered and fawned over all week long, finally comes home.  And what would we expect that he would do when he comes home?  Is it likely that he would want to sit down with his bride, enjoy a meal or maybe a late night snack, and then retire for the night?  Of course that’s what we would expect, but that is not what happens here.  Instead, the master, upon his return, finds the servants to be alert and attentive and finds that they have done their job well, and so, the groom takes off his wedding clothes, dresses himself in servant’s clothing, has his servants recline at the table, and he serves them a banquet! 

            The implications of this are almost beyond belief.  We, the humble servants, the imperfect sinners, not only will be welcomed at Jesus’ table, but will be honored guests, with Jesus Himself serving. 

            In our story today, Jesus has used the imagery of a wedding feast to teach us about His relationship with His church.  We are His servants, given the responsibility of preparing and maintaining His house.  And what IS His house that we are called to maintain?  This world!  The maintenance of this world, the caring for God’s creation, the looking after of God’s beloved children, the stewardship of our resources and our talents and our gifts, these are the things that we, as God’s servants, are called to maintain in perfect order according to the gifts and abilities that God has so graciously bestowed upon us.  These are the things that we are to maintain in perfect order continually in anticipation of Christ’s return.  Like the groom’s servants, we do not know the day and time of our Lord’s arrival, so, as good servants we live in a state of constant preparedness.

            I’m doing things a little backwards today because this part of our story came at the end of today’s reading, but we needed to understand this last part in order to have the first part make sense.  The first part of today’s story actually began with a continuation of last week’s lesson.  Last week we spent time talking about a wealthy farmer who had a very successful crop but who was intent on keeping it all for himself.  Jesus called him a fool because the farmer was rich in this life but was not rich towards God.  The farmer’s stinginess precluded any thought of using his new found wealth to help others, instead planning to build bigger barns to store all of his bounty,  Of course we learned that the farmer’s life was given up that very night and that he stood before God empty handed because everything that he had worked for in this life was left overflowing from his too small barns. 

            And it’s here that I really want to focus today.  Jesus begins today’s remarks by telling us not to be afraid.  And the Greek wording here is emphatic.  What Jesus is saying is something closer to “Hey!  You’re afraid, stop it.  Stop worrying.”  We’re not supposed to worry about what we’ll eat or where we’ll live, but you know, this whole Christian thing about not worrying about these things is SO hard to internalize.  We all know how hard it is to get by and the call to give away everything really doesn’t seem to make much sense.  The only upside to this call to give away everything that we can think of, is the thought that it is somehow a prerequisite to admittance to heaven.  But I really think that we are wrong to view this call in a transactional sense.  Meaning in the sense that we think that IF we give everything away, THEN God will let us into heaven.  And the fact is, this is not what our text is telling us.

            Luke 12:32…  “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”  What God gives us He delights in giving us.  God has no desire to see us become destitute.  Just as God has no desire to see ANYONE be destitute.  (And as Christians, we should really let that thought sink in!)  God delights in providing for us and delights in providing for our needs.  So, in light of this, what is it that our text IS telling us?

            Well, as a contrast, let’s return to the story of the rich farmer that Jesus juxtaposes with the call to be rich towards God.  That to which we are called is not a life that focuses inwardly.  We are not to live a life that seeks personal comfort to the exclusion of others, we are called to live a life that embraces others, a life that is willing to share with others from the bounty that God has willingly and joyfully showered upon us. 

            Marsh tells us that, “I want us to be careful that we don’t literalize the text. Jesus is using metaphor, calling us into a new way of seeing and living. I am not suggesting we all need to be poor, go without, or be lacking. And I don’t think Jesus is saying we shouldn’t own or have anything. In and of itself there is nothing virtuous about poverty, lack, or insufficiency. The world does not need more poor people. What the world needs is people who are not possessed by their possessions, people who live a non-possessive life, kingdom people. Jesus is offering another vision of life, a kingdom vision. He is calling into question a possessive way of life. The kingdom is not a different place, a reward, or a thing to be had. It is a different way of being, living, and relating. The kingdom is not a “where” or a “what” but a “how.” [1]

            This section of Luke is referred to by theologians as “The hard sayings of Jesus”.  There are four of them.  And the truth is, I really struggled with the message this week.  I always want to be sure that my sermons are theologically sound, but I also want them to be practical.  I really want to make sure that I am giving practical information that helps us to live as productive members of the kingdom.  And so, after much prayerful consideration, I am not here to say that we have to give everything away.  What I am here to say is not to let our connection to our possessions interfere with the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

            The simple truth is, ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit that is going to answer this question for us.  Are we going to be asked to give everything away?  Probably not.  But are we going to be asked to be willing to give everything away?  And as hard as this answer is, the answer is absolutely “yes”.  To understand how this works we need look no farther than the story of Abraham and Isaac.  Was Abraham willing to sacrifice his son?  Yes.  Was Abraham called to sacrifice his son?  No.  While this story presents its own set of challenges, the fact is that Abraham was faithful, even in the face of doing something unthinkable.  And the fact also is that God did not require, nor desire, that Abraham do the unthinkable.  And so, it will likely be with us as well.  We are called to be faithful even in the face of the unthinkable, and yet we trust in God to shelter us from those kind of things and we take great comfort in the knowledge of God’s deep love for us and the fact that we know that God delights in giving us the kingdom.

            You’ve often heard me say that Christianity isn’t about what we do, it’s about who we are; or more accurately, who we are in Christ.  The actions of believers spring from  hearts that are aligned with God’s heart.  And like the servants in today’s parable, we seek to give our best in response to the master who completely unexpectedly chooses to wear a servant’s clothes and to serve… us.

            Let us trust in the God who loves us beyond our capacity to understand and let us place our entire lives; our everything, in His loving hands.

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[1] Michael K. Marsh, InterruptingTheSilence.com, A non-possessive life, a sermon on Luke 1232-40

Made in the Shade

Luke 12:13-21

August 3, 2025

            Up until this harvest, his barns had always been big enough.  He was a successful businessman.  Year in and year out his fields had produced their grain.  He sold some according to what the market had to offer, he retained that which he needed for himself, and he kept the rest stored up to prepare for a comfortable future.  But then this harvest happened, and all of a sudden, his barns weren’t big enough anymore.  So huge was this year’s crop that the expense of tearing down all of his barns and building bigger ones was actually going to be cost effective, given the amount of grain that he now had to store.  And that comfortable future for which he had been saving was now beginning to look like it was going to be just a bit more opulent.

            But I have a question this morning.  Why?  Why did our farmer friend suddenly have a bumper crop?  Did he discover a new fertilizer or figure out a way to more effectively irrigate his crops?  Probably not, he was a first-century farmer and it’s unlikely in the extreme that he had the expertise to accomplish things of that nature.  No, the abundance of his crop was almost certainly related to fortuitous weather, timely rain, and plenty of sunshine. 

            So, tell me, given the fact that his barns were always plenty big enough until this harvest, might it be fair to think that the abundance of this particular harvest was a gift from God?  For whatever reason, God choose to bless our farmer friend lavishly, and yet the farmer’s response to this bonanza is entirely selfish.  Somehow our farmer friend failed to recognize the depth of the blessing that had just been showered upon him; failed even to understand the fact that this harvest WAS a blessing and not just something that was born of his own efforts.

            So much of our world today lives under this same assumption that those who work the hardest are the ones who succeed and are the ones who earn more or accumulate more.  But let’s take this story one step further.  Given the fact that any harvest is just one late frost, one drought, or one pestilence away from failing, couldn’t we fairly think that EVERY harvest is a gift from God?

            It’s not really a popular thought in our twenty-first century world, you know – This idea that we read in Psalm 24 that the earth and all that is in it belongs to God.  Try telling that to the folks who are amassing fortunes in real estate or business or healthcare.  They scoff at the idea that what they possess doesn’t belong to them, and I suspect that some even scoff at the idea that that which they don’t possess doesn’t belong to them as well.  This whole idea that we are somehow masters of our own fate, that if we just work hard enough and long enough that we will find wealth, completely turns our backs on the idea that the abundance of the earth was created by God.  And He created that abundance for a reason, with that reason being that there would be enough for everyone. 

            And this is the whole point that Jesus is making in this parable today, to show us the blindness of this man to the fact that God has just blessed him abundantly.  Can we see this?  Can we see how his sudden need for new and bigger barns speaks to the extraordinary nature of this blessing?  But instead of gratitude, what is it that our farmer friend expresses?  Well, what did he say?  “I know what I will do.  I will pull down my barns.  I will build larger barns.  I will store my stuff in my new barns. I will relax. I will eat. I will drink. I will be merry.”

            In one short statement, I counted the words “I” or “my” twelve times.  At no point did his statement reference gratitude for God’s abundant blessing.  At no point did his statement reference gratitude to his workers for all the extra work they had to do to harvest and prepare this huge crop.  At no point did his statement indicate any intention or desire to share his bounty with his staff, who worked so hard to help him to accumulate this newfound wealth.  And at no point did his statement indicate any response to this blessing that would have entailed sharing it with those in need.  Because… why would he ever give up the fruits of all of his own hard work to others? 

Hmm… we’ve just kind of established that this bumper crop had little to do with the man’s efforts and everything to do with God’s supervision of the circumstances that produced that bumper crop.  But one has no need for gratitude when one believes that their success is a result of their own efforts.  Our farmer friend would not allow himself to consider the fact that this harvest wasn’t entirely HIS reward for HIS own hard work.  And what did Jesus have to say about this attitude?  Jesus said that he was a fool.

In one short night, all of his plans for the future were going to come to a crashing halt.  In one short night our farmer friend would forfeit his life and stand before God empty handed.  Empty handed, with nothing to show for his life, because all of his efforts were left behind overflowing from his too small barns.

            A lot of times when we study the Bible, I think it’s easy to dismiss the actions of those who are, shall we say, the poor examples… the actions that we think that we would never do ourselves.  And yet, how good are we at recognizing the blessings that are showered upon our lives?  How often do we attribute our successes not to our own skill or to our hard work but simply to the fact that God, in His great love for us, has chosen to bless us?

            When you get right down to it, today’s teaching embodies exactly what is meant when the Bible tells us that the wisdom of God is foolishness to this world.  Our farmer friend today represents the best of worldly wisdom.  Work hard at your job, take advantage of every opportunity to maximize your income, save what you can, and plan for the future.  And yet, the funny thing about all of this is, not only do these priorities fit perfectly into the world’s wisdom but that they fit perfectly into God’s wisdom also, with only one major difference.  The worldly version of these priorities is to do all of this for self.  No concern for others, just for self.  The kingdom version of these priorities is to do all of this for God’s glory.  Of course, the world will tell us that doing this for God’s glory means to totally give up any possibility of us having a comfortable life.  But how many times does the Bible tell us that God delights in providing for His beloved children?  We’re worth way more than sparrows He says, more important than the flowers of the field He says, worth enough for Him to have sent His only Son… for us!

            And so, the Christian rightly eschews the worldly wisdom that says “This is all for you”, and realizes that the call to love God means also to love those made in His image, and to truly love those made in His image means that for another of any of God’s beloved children to have less than what we have, is unacceptable.  And so, as Christians, we also work hard, we also take advantage of opportunities to maximize our incomes, we also save what we can, and we also plan for the future.  But we view our future not as our farmer friend did, expecting a long, prosperous, and comfortable life. But as those who realize that our future extends infinitely beyond this life, and that the planning that WE do for our future is about laying up treasures in heaven rather than laying up our treasures in incrementally bigger barns. 

And this philosophy of storing our treasure in heaven is one that is scoffed at by the secular world.  WHY?  Simply put, because for the secular world, God isn’t their God.  Oh, they may claim that He is, but in their acts of denying others to serve themselves they are showing the world that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is clearly far lower on their list of priorities than is their desire for comfortable living.  Now, don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with living comfortably, but for the Christian, comfortable living must be thoroughly balanced with seeing to the needs of those who God puts in our path.  When we are faithful, God will see to it that we are given opportunities to help others in need.  When our barns are full, it’s not time to build bigger barns, it’s time to build bigger communities of people who are fed, housed, clothed, educated, and have the healthcare that they need.  And each of us is capable of playing a small role in this kingdom construction project.  Each of us is capable of helping those one or two beloved children of God that He is going to put in our path and ask us to help.

God created a world of plenty.  Poverty, homelessness, hunger, preventable disease, these things are not the result of a lack of resources, they are the result of a lack of distribution.  Now, God is not asking you personally to solve the world’s problems.  What God is asking you personally to do is to be aware of those in your path who are in need and to help them according to your abilities and your resources. God will never ask any of us to give more than we are able, but to give what we ARE able is a big part of what it means to be faithful.  That’s what it means to store up treasures in heaven.  And when we do this, and we stand before God ourselves, we won’t be standing there empty handed.  Because, unlike the treasures that are stored in barns, this treasure will go with us, forever.

Last Sunday we sang a wonderful Stuart Townend song. It fit the week’s liturgy perfectly, which is why I chose it for last week.  But I almost wanted to sing the song two weeks in a row because there is one line from that song that fits today’s lesson perfectly as well.  And I would like to close with that line from the song: “Though riches come and riches go, don’t set your heart upon them.  The fields of hope in which I sow, are harvested in heaven”.  [1]

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[1] Psalm 62, Stuart Townend & Aaron Keys, Copyright © 2007 Thank You Music

Ask, Seek, Knock

July 27, 2025

Luke 11:1-13

            Way back when I was a member of the Methodist church in Eatontown, I was on the Administrative Council (That’s Session to Presbyterians).  We had a new pastor, and this new pastor decided to replace the traditional language of the Lord’s Prayer with a new ecumenical translation.  The reaction to this was seismic, and not in a good way.  Much of the congregation was up in arms over the change, and the matter ended up before the Administrative Council.  I had a dear friend in that church and he was on the Administrative Council also, and during the meeting, as the pastor was explaining his choice to use the modern translation, this gentleman stood up and said, “If the words were good enough for Jesus, they are good enough for me”.  I was sitting next to him and as he sat down, I whispered to him, “You know, Jesus spoke Aramaic”.  He just looked at me as if I had two heads.  I don’t know if the thought didn’t occur to him that Jesus never spoke English, or if he thought that somehow the traditional version was a word for word perfect translation, but clearly, he, and quite a few others, were under the impression that the traditional translation was somehow sacred.

            I loved this man, I sat next to him in choir for several years and he was a wonderful and faithful man.  But I still love to tell this story, not to disrespect him, but simply because I’ve always found the story to be funny.  But there is a truth in his outburst that needs to be understood.  As a general rule, humans like to keep things simple.  And this is something that we see over and over again in the actions of the Pharisees and truthfully, something that we see over and over again in the actions of the church, namely, that following a routine often seems to be much easier than forging a new path. 

As complicated as the first century Jewish religion seems with its myriad of rules and regulations, the first century Jews really did have a pretty complete roadmap for their faith: if such and such happens, always do this.  These rules that they followed were the exact reason that they ran into so much trouble with Jesus.  They had taken a faith with infinite shades of grey and tried to make every single bit of it black and white.  No, you can’t heal someone on the sabbath, it’s against the rules.  No, you can’t have dinner with a gentile, it’s against the rules.  No, you can’t pick grain on the sabbath, it’s against the rules.

            And we, in the 21^st century read these stories, and we think to ourselves, “Well, that’s a little silly, isn’t it? We know better than that”.  But do we?  When all is said and done, we are more like our first century counterparts than we are different from them, and we still tend to like to keep things simple.  And so, my friend’s tenacious grip on the specific wording of the Lord’s Prayer is indicative of this desire to have a roadmap, to have things planned out for us so that we don’t have to be forging a new path every time we do something… or every time we pray.

            In today’s reading, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, and He obliges, giving us the words of the Lord’s prayer, but wait just a minute…  The story of the giving of the Lord’s prayer isn’t unique to the book of Luke because Matthew tells the same story, but guess what?  In Luke, the wording of the Lord’s Prayer is different from the wording of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew.  Why do we think that is?  There are some theologians who postulate that Luke and Matthew are reporting on different times that Jesus taught on the subject.  Or perhaps Luke and Matthew reconstructed their notes from the event and remembered things differently.  OR, perhaps Jesus never intended for the Lord’s Prayer to be memorized and repeated verbatim but instead intended it to be an outline for how we are to approach God in prayer.

            When we look closely at this prayer we find that it contains a remarkable opening and then five petitions.  Let’s take a look at these things one by one.

First, the opening.  Jewish prayer pretty much always begins with “Blessed are you Lord God, King of the universe”, but Jesus began His prayer by saying, “Daddy”.  James Laurence tells us that, “Jesus teaches us that when we pray, we can turn to God as any child would to a loving parent. God wants to hear from us, wants to be in a relationship with us, wants to help us live our lives. But God also does not want to interfere without our wanting Him to. He loves us too much to help us against our will. So, he waits for us to ask. And the way that we ask is through prayer.”  [1]  So, our remarkable opening is the revealing of the fact that God is every bit as approachable as a loving parent, probably even more. 

The first two petitions are directed towards God.  The first one being, “Hallowed be Thy name”.  In ancient times, names had an impact that was different from what they have now.  To know someone’s name then was to know a person completely, to know not just the person but to know their character; to know who they were on a deeply personal level.  To be “Hallowed” is to be made holy or to be reverenced.  And so, our first petition is, therefore, a request that we can be led to comprehend the majesty and the glory of God and to interact with Him accordingly.

The second petition says, “Thy Kingdom come”.  Which of us doesn’t deeply long for the day when evil is overthrown on earth and God’s kingdom of peace and love and compassion becomes our present and eternal reality?  Two weeks ago, I said, “When we abandon our prejudices and choose to be a neighbor to others, then the Kingdom of God is in our midst.”  Our desire, our request to God is not only that His kingdom will become a reality on earth, just as it is a reality in heaven, but that we will realize that His kingdom needs to become a reality in our hearts before it can become a reality on earth. 

The next three petitions are requests for us.  The first of these is to be given our daily bread.  Actually, in the original Greek, the word ἐπιούσιον (Epi-you-see-oon) means not daily bread but essential bread.  The request being such that God will provide for our essential needs.  Warren Wiersbe, in his own inimitable style, says, “We ask [God] to provide our needs, not our greeds, for today”.  [2]  While God certainly desires our happiness, and loves to fill us with good things, it’s also critical to realize that the real purpose of prayer is not to amass pleasures for ourselves, but rather to live to seek God’s glory.  My Army Chaplain friend Greg Monroe used to say, “Prayer is not us asking God to do our will, prayer is us asking God to incorporate us into His will”. 

The second personal petition is to be forgiven our sins, or debts, as we forgive the sins, or debts, of others.  Garland tells us that, “The Lord’s Prayer is to affect the distinctive way that disciples live and not just the distinctive way they pray.  It has an ethical thrust; we ought not to expect to receive from God what we are not prepared to bestow on others”. [3]  Forgiveness of our sins is essential, but here, Jesus tells us that for us to forgive others is essential also.  It’s not that God will refuse to forgive us, it’s just that an unforgiving heart will be equally unable to receive forgiveness.  In short, it’s not possible for us to be loving when our heart is burdened with animosity towards others.

The final petition is to be delivered from temptation…  Human free will is a cornerstone of God’s plan.  C. S. Lewis said, “If a thing is free to be good it’s also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible.  Why, then, did God give them free will?  Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.”  [4]  God, even with all of His power cannot create love.  Love must be given of one’s free will, and so, God gave humans the freedom to choose Him or to reject Him in order that those who do choose Him do so out of love and not out of fear or out of obligation.  Unfortunately, this has created a situation where, even those who have given their hearts to God are still capable of making wrong choices and indeed do so all the time.  Our prayer then, is that God steers us away from those temptations that may cause us to make those wrong choices or may cause us to harm our relationships with God, or with others.  We ask to be protected from the temptation of the evil one in order that we may enjoy uninterrupted fellowship with our God.

Luke follows this part of his story with Jesus telling two parables encouraging the disciples to pray.  The first parable Jesus tells depicts a person knocking on a friend’s door at midnight asking for some bread to feed an unexpected guest who had just arrived.  This parable is difficult for us to understand because our culture doesn’t share the first century deep obligation for hospitality, so please allow me to modernize this parable.  Your wife goes into labor and your car won’t start.  You knock on your neighbor’s door, desperately asking if you can borrow their car.  The point of this parable isn’t the audacity of the man waking his neighbor at midnight, the point is that the man doesn’t hesitate to ask his friend for help.  And so, neither should we hesitate to ask God for our needs.  We don’t need to convince God to help us, that is His desire right from the start, but God does ask us to make our needs known to Him. 

The parable about the father not giving his children bad things when they ask for good things is in the same vein.  If even a sinful human will give their child good things when they ask their father, then how much more will God joyfully give to His beloved children when they ask Him?

Luke concludes today’s story by telling us to ask, to seek, and to knock.  Leon Morris tells us that, “Jesus does not say, and does not mean that, if we pray, we will always get exactly what we ask for.  After all, “no” is just as definite an answer as “yes”.  He is saying that true prayer is neither unheard nor unheeded.  It is always answered in the way God sees is best”.  [5]  Luke teaches us that Jesus calls us to be faithful and persistent in prayer, with the ultimate result of our faithful prayers being that we are given the Holy Spirit, who leads us in our journey towards Christ-Likeness.

Michael K. Marsh said, “Here’s what strikes me about how Jesus teaches us to pray. It’s not about asking God to do or give particular things in specific circumstances. It’s bigger than that. It is about the future and our responsibility for bringing about that future.”  [6]  And so, I encourage us all to look beyond the familiar words of the Lord’s Prayer and instead, always, always pray what is in our hearts, because that is what God desires to hear.

At the risk of upsetting any for whom the words to the Lord’s Prayer are thought to be sacred, I’d like to give us all a little food for thought in reading Pastor Marsh’s translation of the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father in heaven, regardless of what has and has not happened, through our words and actions we bless, hallow, and make holy your name before others.

We claim your ways, concerns, and desires as our own.

Each day give us bread for the day to nourish and strengthen us in body and soul for whatever lies ahead.

Free us from the past and forgive us our sins in the same way and to the same extent as we forgive others.

Save us from the temptation of turning away from ourselves, one another, and you.

To all these things we say yes, yes, amen.

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[1] James Laurence, WorkingPreacher.org, Commentary on Luke -111-13-5

[2] Warren Wiersbe, Be Compassionate, Pg. 147

[3] David E. Garland, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Pg. 464

[4] C. S. Lewis, The Case for Christianity

[5] Leon Morris, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Luke, Pg. 214

[6] Michael K. Marsh, InterruptingTheSilence.com, “Can I Get an Amen?” Sermon on Luke 11:1-13

The Days are Coming

July 20, 2025

Amos 8:1-12

            I love Amos!  It is absolutely one of my favorite books of the Bible, not only because Amos’ message really resonates with me, but because Amos was a man of extraordinary courage.  And what is even more remarkable is the fact that this courage came from a place of deep humility.  So, before we talk about Amos’ message, let’s talk for a little bit about Amos himself.  Amos did not come from a priestly family.  He wasn’t a priest or a scribe or a teacher of the law.  Amos was, by his own admission, a shepherd.  Now, we’ve talked about shepherds before, and we have recognized the fact that there wasn’t a job of lower status in all of ancient Israel.  The shepherd, by the nature of their job, was continually ritually unclean and so was excluded from temple worship.  Since much of Israel’s social structure was built around the temple community, shepherds were outcasts.  Also, shepherds shared a terrible reputation; so much so that shepherds were not permitted to testify in a court of law.  When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me that if I didn’t apply myself in school I would end up digging a ditch.  I actually ended up a musician, which is a story for another time.  But I would imagine that ancient Israelite mothers told their children that if they didn’t apply themselves that they would end up being shepherds.  And so, the first thing that we know about Amos is the fact that he didn’t exactly have a desirable job.

            During Amos’ time in the late 700’s BCE Israel and Judah were quite affluent.  When we look at a map we see that Israel is situated in a direct line between Egypt in the South and Assyria and Babylon to the North, and so Israel lay right in the middle of the trade routes, and trade routes have a way of making merchants extremely wealthy, so, at the times that Israel was not occupied by other nations, Israel flourished economically.  And this was one of those times.  But that flourishing took place mostly among the economic elite, and so, as a shepherd, Amos would have been pretty far from benefiting from the economic bonanza that was enriching Israel’s upper class.  Bearing in mind the extremely low social status that Amos bore, we can see a few things right away.  First, is the fact that this common shepherd nobody… stood up to kings and priests with a force that was unexpectedly fierce.  And second, we can imagine that Amos’ message about how the wealthy exploit the poor was probably deeply personal.

            With this in mind, let’s take a look at Amos’ message.  Prior to today’s reading, God had given Amos three visions.  In each vision God shows Amos something then asks Amos what he sees and after Amos replies, God explains the vision.  In each of the three instances God declared judgment on Israel for their sins.  And in each of these three instances, Amos intercedes for Israel so compassionately that God relents and tells Amos that the prophesied judgments will not take place.  Today’s reading starts out in the same way, with God showing Amos a basket of summer fruit.  After Amos correctly identifies the vision, God, in a play on words in the original Hebrew, declares Israel to be ripe for judgment.  In the Hebrew, the word for “summer fruit” is qayits, while the term for “end” is qets so, here God is telling Amos that the time for judgment is here and will no longer be delayed.  And this time, Amos does not intercede.

            The next part of this passage can be a little hard to read.  Amos’ prophesy essentially says that the nation of Assyria will soon conquer Israel.  For an archaeology nut such as myself, I’ve seen pictures of the reliefs on the walls of Ashurbanipal’s palace.  The Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal reigned during the time of the siege of Jerusalem and the carrying off of the people of Israel into captivity.  These reliefs depict in gruesome detail the horrific things done by the Assyrian armies to the people of Israel.  Suffice it to say that the Assyrian armies were among the most heartless and vicious armies that have ever existed on this planet.  Our text today tells us that the songs in the temple will turn to wailing and that dead bodies will be flung everywhere.  The results of this war will be catastrophic to the Israelites. 

            And it’s here that we run into the age-old question of how can a God of love allow this kind of violence to happen?  Well, Amos spends most of today’s reading, and indeed most of this book. explaining what the sins are, that have led to this impending judgment.  You see, the wealthy of Israel have become obsessed with their wealth.  They just can’t wait for the sabbath or the religious festival to be over so they can get back to making money.  These religious observances, intended to bring people closer to God are instead viewed as an inconvenience to their money-making enterprises. 

And it’s not enough that these merchants are obsessed with money, they are devising all manner of ways to increase their profits, most of which are contrary to the law.  Leviticus 19:35-36 says: “Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity.  Use honest scales and honest weights.”  In spite of this clear command to use honest weights and measures, the merchants boast about “skimping on the measure”.  Deuteronomy 25:13-16 says: “Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy [and] one light.  You must have accurate and honest weights and measures.  For the Lord your God detests anyone who deals dishonestly.” And yet again, the merchants boast about “cheating with dishonest scales”. 

I love ice cream and I have always been loyal to a particular brand that I particularly like.  This ice cream used to come in half-gallon cartons.  One day, I wrote a letter to this company to complain when I noticed that the cartons were no longer a half-gallon but had become one and three quarters quarts.  I had one half-cup less ice cream, but I paid the same amount.  Now, I personally would have preferred to continue to get my full half-gallon of my favorite ice cream and wouldn’t have minded a price increase… it happens.  But it seemed to me that the diminishing of the quantity was underhanded.  The manufacturer never responded to the letter.  I guess they just don’t care if people know that they are being cheated.  And for those who are paying attention, their cartons are now one and a half quarts.  These Jewish merchants would measure out their grain in containers that didn’t hold quite as much as they were supposed to.  And the merchants were also including the inedible husks along with the grain that was being purchased, giving you even less for your money.  And then to top it all off, when you paid in silver, the scale measuring the weight of the silver said you were giving them less than you actually were.

Stan Mast tells us that, “The effect of this widespread deceit, says God, is that the poor and needy end up falling further and further behind, until they need a loan just to make it day to day.  They end up being a slave to a lender, even to the point of having to use their shabby sandals as pledge on the loan.  So, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The bottom line for Israel was that making money was more important than caring for neighbor.  The God of the prophets had been replaced by the god of profit.” [1]

One cannot read the Bible without coming to an understanding of the fact that the poor and the marginalized hold a place near to God’s heart.  Three times in the Book of Amos God declared judgment on Israel for the exploitation of His beloved children, and three times He relented, out of His great love even for those whose actions were hurting others.  God is patient, but God’s patience is not limitless, and in this, the fourth vision, God declares Israel to be ripe for judgment.

This question about God’s judgment has been a subject of difficulty and a stumbling block to potential believers for millennia.  How often do we hear (or ask) the question, “How could a loving God allow this to happen?”  Well, I would like to share a  quote from the Canadian theologian and pastor, Tim Challies, who explains this better than anyone I have ever heard. 

“Scripture says that God is love and that he has wrath. This means that love lies deeper than wrath in the character of God. Love is his essential perfection, without which he would not be who he is. Wrath is love’s response to sin. It is God’s voluntary gag reflex at anything that destroys his good creation. God is against sin because he is for us, and he will vent his fury on everything that damages us.”

“Love is at God’s very core. 1 John 4:8 says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Through all of eternity, God has been love; he has existed in a state of love of Father to Son, Son to Spirit, Spirit to Father. There has never been a time that God has not been expressing love; nor will there ever be. But God’s wrath is far different. God has not always been wrathful. He has not always had to express anger. His anger is a reaction to a lack of love–a lack of love for him or a lack of love [for] others. Wrath is a response to sin. Thus, wrath did not exist until sin existed. And as sin came to be, God had to respond to it in a way befitting his holy character. God’s response to sin is wrath. How could it be otherwise? Sin is cosmic treason against the Creator of the universe. He must respond.” [2]

Amos, the shepherd, who lived in the southern kingdom of Judah had come to the northern kingdom of Israel to prophesy because God had sent him there with a message.  When Amos declared judgment on Israel, on the high priest Amaziah, and on the king Jeroboam, Amaziah heard Amos’ oracle and reported back to Jeroboam.  Jeroboam commanded Amaziah to return to Amos and tell him “Go back to Judah”.  But Amos would not be intimidated, nor would he be silent.  Neither the high priest nor the king were willing to listen to Amos or to repent.  But within a short time, everything Amos prophesied happened.  Amaziah was assassinated.  Jeroboam’s children were all murdered, Jeroboam was carried off into captivity along with most of the inhabitants of Israel, leaving his wife behind, unsupported, to become a prostitute, and Jeroboam died in a foreign country.

Today our text tells us that, as difficulties began to overrun Israel and they turned to the Lord for answers, the word of the Lord was nowhere to be found.  There was a famine of God’s word, exactly as Amos had prophesied.  If one refuses to listen to God, there will come a time when God will no longer speak to that person.

And so, how are we to understand all of this?  Where do we find God’s grace in this story?  That is the big question for today, don’t you think?  We see God’s grace in the three times that He relented from bringing judgment.  In what is rapidly becoming one of my most quoted Bible verses, 2^nd Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  And I think that the key word here is absolutely “repentance”. 

These Israelite merchants undoubtedly were faithful attendees at the temple, as was made clear back in chapter 5.  But their worship and songs were mere lip service.  The fact that their hearts were not inclined towards God was painfully evident in the lack of empathy expressed to the poor who they were exploiting.  In chapter 5, verse 4 God says directly to these merchants “Seek me and live”. 

That “Seek me and live” is an open invitation from the creator of the universe, issued to every single one of His beloved children that will hear Him and respond to His love.  God’s grace is showered upon the repentant heart.  But in the hearts of those who serve other gods like money or power there is no room for God Himself. 

God’s gift of forgiveness is free, but it is not a gift that comes without strings attached.  And those strings are found in God’s call to live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.  And what does it mean to live justly?  Well, justice is what happens when love is put into action.

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[1] Stan Mast, CEPreaching.org, Amos 81-12-2

[2] Tim Challies, Challies.com, Wrath is Love’s Response to Sin

WHO Is My Neighbor

Luke 10:25-37

July 13, 2025

            OK, so, by a show of hands, how many folks have heard of the story of the Good Samaritan?  I thought so.  According to BibleSociety.org, it’s the third best known Bible story after the Birth of Jesus and Noah’s Ark.  And so, this parable of the Good Samaritan is a story that is widely known, not only by Christians, but by a significant secular audience as well.  And there is a problem with this.  The problem being that the entire impact of the parable’s original intent has been lost.  What do we think of when I say the phrase “Good Samaritan”?  Do we think of the Good Sam Club and all of the do-gooders that belong to it?  Do we think of a person who does the right thing, even when others don’t?  Is our focus on the parable the idea of someone doing good or doing the right thing?  If so, then we have missed Jesus’ point entirely.

            There is a series of 12 ancient books which are purportedly the testaments of the 12 sons of Jacob.  In reality, these books probably date to the Maccabean period from somewhere between 167 and 63 BCE some 1700 years after the time of the guys who supposedly wrote them.  But we do know that these books date to at least a hundred years or so before the time of Jesus, because several of these books are included among the Dead Sea Scrolls.  In the Testament of Levi… and understanding that Shechem was the capital of Samaria, Chapter 7 verse 2 says, “For from this day forward, Shechem shall be called “City of the Senseless,” because as one might scoff at a fool, so we scoffed at them”.

            You see, the Jews despised the Samaritans and among the Samaritans, the feeling was mutual.  Without getting into a big, long, history lesson (and y’all know how much I love history) Many Israelites had been unhappy with King Solomon’s reign because of oppressive taxes and also because some of Solomon’s many wives were not Jewish and Solomon joined in the worship of their foreign gods.  And so, when Solomon’s servant Jeroboam rebelled against Soloman many Israelites followed him, and this support intensified after Solomon’s death when his son Rehoboam ascended the throne.  As a result of this rebellion, Isreal ended up splitting into two nations.  The southern nation of Judah with their two tribes was ruled from Jerusalem by the rightful king Rehoboam, and the northern kingdom with their 10 tribes, retained the name Israel, and was ruled by Jeroboam… and his capital city was, you guessed it, Shechem; the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel, which would eventually become known as Samaria.

            The northern kingdom was defeated in a war with Assyria.  The Assyrians, in a brilliant strategy designed to prevent insurrection, forcibly relocated most of the inhabitants of Israel to locations throughout the Assyrian kingdom and forcibly relocated other conquered peoples to Israel.  When you hear the term “Diaspora” it is to this relocation that it refers.  When you hear about the ten lost tribes of Israel, that refers to those who were relocated.  After about 150 or so years of intermarrying, the original Jewish people who had remained in Israel were no longer really Jewish, even though there remained a Jewish styled worship at the temple on Mount Gerizim.  The Jews living in the southern kingdom of Judah considered these people to be Gentiles, to be unclean, and further, the Jews regarded their worship as being blasphemous. 

            Still trying to keep this very long story short, about 150 years after the fall of the northern kingdom, the southern kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonian empire and the inhabitants of Judah were also carried off into captivity, but 70 years later, Babylon was in turn defeated by the Persians and their very enlightened king Cyrus.  Cyrus had great tolerance for the customs and religions of the people that he had conquered, and it was Cyrus who not only permitted the exiled people of Judah to return to Jerusalem, but he actually funded the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls and the rebuilding of the temple.

After all of this, the people of the northern kingdom, with their temple in Shechem, and the Jews, with their temple in Jerusalem, both considered themselves to be the true people of Yahweh, and each considered the other to be interlopers.  And so, the two groups were constantly at odds with one another with the end result that there was great animosity between the two nations, and this animosity had been brewing for almost 600 years by the time that Jesus came along.  There was a deep-seated bigotry felt by both the Samaritans and the Jews and there was a tenacious refusal to even accept one another on a human level.

            And it is with this in mind that we enter into today’s story.  A Teacher of the Law asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life”?  Jesus asked him “What does the Law say”? and the scribe answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Jesus replied that he had answered correctly, but the scribe wasn’t done yet.  Our text tells us that the scribe “wanted to justify himself” and so he asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor”?

            He should have quit while he was ahead!  And so, Jesus tells the famous parable where the Jewish Rabbi and the Jewish Scribe pass an injured Jewish man lying in the road without helping him.  Cousar, Gaventa, McCann, and Newsome tell us that, “Their decision to pass by on the other side would not have been a surprise to, nor would it likely have been condemned by, Jesus’ hearers.” [1]  In the context of the time, it’s important to remember that the injured man was probably beaten and bloodied and if either of those two touched the man it would have made them ritually unclean, excluding them from their temple duties.  So, they both had their reasons for not stopping.  2000 some years later it may be difficult for us to comprehend a mindset that would prefer ritual cleanliness to compassionate help for someone in need, but to the priest and to the scribe it made perfectly good sense.  But for Jesus, the mere fact that this made sense to them was a big problem.  And so, Jesus picked the most hated person that anyone at that time could possibly have imagined and made that person the hero of His story.  It was a despised Samaritan who had compassion, bandaging the man’s wounds, placing the man on his own donkey, taking him to an inn, and paying the innkeeper out of his own pocket to ensure that the man would be cared for. 

            Even with the little history lesson that I just bored you with today, I think it is still difficult for us to realize just how repugnant this story would have appeared to a first century Jew.  But I think I might be able to help us to understand.  Because I have a modern… and true Good Samaritan story to tell that may help us to imagine just how shocking Jesus’ story was to His original audience.

            In 1996 the Ku Klux Klan held a rally in Michigan.  They chose Ann Arbor as the site for the rally, which was a curious choice, because Ann Arbor was known to be a very progressive and multi-cultural town.  A large crowd of counter-protestors was gathered to protest the rally, but the police were doing a great job of keeping the opposing crowds on opposite sides of a specially built barrier.  Then, a man wearing a confederate flag themed shirt with a visible Nazi SS tattoo entered the crowd on the counter-protestor side of the barrier.  People began to chase the man, at first just to try to get him to leave, but then some people started shouting “kill the Nazi”.  The man tried to run away, but he was soon knocked to the ground and people began hitting and kicking him.  Keshia Thomas, an 18 year old, black, female, high school senior, saw this and fell on top of the man, shielding him from the attack and very likely saving his life.

            This is a modern-day Good Samaritan story where Ms. Thomas risked her life and her personal safety for someone who probably never would have done the same for her and was in fact, there basically protesting against her and her people.  And if we can imagine the mindset of the average white supremacist, how do we think they would have responded if Jesus told THEM the story where the hero, saving the life of a fellow white supremacist, was an18 year old, black, female, high school senior?

            When the Jewish Teacher of the Law asked Jesus “Who is my neighbor” our text tells us that he was attempting to justify himself, and indeed, Jewish Scholars had debated for centuries the question of “Who is my neighbor”.  Jewish interpretations varied with “neighbor” meaning anything from all who had Jewish blood to only faithful Jews.  Gentiles were rarely, if ever, included in the “neighbor” category.  And it is here where we find the true point of this story.  Garland comments, “The [Scribe’s] question itself implies that there is such a thing as a non-neighbor.  The parable says there is no such thing”. [2]

            You have heard me speak from time to time about the Imago Dei, the image of God that dwells in each and every one of God’s beloved children.  The simple truth is, it is completely impossible to love God if you don’t love those who bear His image.  Among Christians, there is no such thing as a non-neighbor.  Miller expands on this idea when he says, “If I am to manifest God in my dealings with my neighbor, I must first determine who my neighbor is.  The lawyer thus suggests limits to love.  There must be those to whom the obligation to love does not apply.  This was an effort to evade the real issue by theoretical discussion.  Furthermore, it focused attention on the worthiness of the object of love rather than on the condition of the heart [of those] who [are] to do the loving” [3]

            The REAL message of the story of the Good Samaritan is that there is not one person on this planet from whom God exempts us of our responsibility to love.  There is not one person on this planet who is not our neighbor.  They don’t look like us?  Still our neighbor.  They don’t speak our language?  Still our neighbor.  They’re our political opposite?  Still our neighbor.  They don’t love like we do?  Still our neighbor.  They don’t believe what we believe or worship the way we worship, or they don’t worship at all?  Still our neighbor.  Because every single one of these people bears the Imago Dei, the image of the living God, it is our responsibility to love them.  Not to judge them, not to tell them how to live their lives, not to expect them to adapt to our culture or our customs or our beliefs, or our morality, but just to be a neighbor to them, just to love them.

            For the man in the confederate flag shirt at that KKK rally, Ms. Thomas was a neighbor.  At the time she didn’t see his politics or think about his motive for being at the rally.  The only thing she saw was a person in trouble and in need of help.  Asked about the incident later, Ms. Thomas said, “When people are in a crowd, they are more likely to do things they would never do as an individual. Someone had to step out of the pack and say, ‘This isn’t right.”  And so, Ms. Thomas did exactly that, she decided to be a neighbor.  Turning to Garland again, “When Samaritans help Jews, and Jews abandon their prejudice and embrace their enemies, the Kingdom of God is in their midst.” [4]  And when we abandon our prejudices and choose to be a neighbor to others, then the Kingdom of God is in our midst also.

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[1] Cousar, Gaventa, McCann, & Newsome, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV – Year C, Pg. 427

[2] David E. Garland, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Pg. 448

[3] Donald G. Miller, The Layman’s Bible Commentary: Luke, Pg. 104

[4] David E. Garland, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Pg. 449

The Harvest

July 6, 2025

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

            You are not going to believe what’s about to happen!  I was just talking to Jesus and do you remember about a month ago when Jesus sent the 12 out to preach the Good News and He gave them the power to heal the sick and to cast out demons?  Well, now He’s going to send US!  All 72 of us, can you believe it?  We’re going to go out into the towns and villages and preach the word that the Kingdom of God is at hand.  We’ll probably get to heal the sick and cast out demons too!  How cool is that?  Jesus said that we are going to have a meeting early tomorrow morning when He will give us all the details.  I can’t wait!

            The next morning we were up at first light and went to the meeting place.  Jesus was already up, as usual.  Every day He gets up while it is still dark and finds a quiet place to pray.  The meeting started and after praying and the usual greetings, Jesus got right down to business.  I’m sending you out in groups of two to all of the towns and villages that I will soon be visiting.  “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” He said.  Always speaking in parables, you know?  But the parables are good because they make things easier to understand.  He said that we should pray that the Father sends more workers.  I suppose He’s hoping that some of the folks to whom we preach will join us and help us to spread the word.

            Then He told us that He is sending us out like lambs among the wolves.  And boy, do I ever believe that!  Because we are on our way to Jerusalem and we’re going straight through Samaria.  I would have assumed that we would go around Samaria like the normal people do, but if there is one thing about Jesus that is predictable, it’s the fact that He is never predictable.  So, Samaria it is.  I’m really glad that we are going to be going in pairs though.  I would hate to have to visit a Samaritan town on my own.  I suspect it will be hard enough with the two of us.

            And speaking of unpredictable, I can’t believe what I just heard Jesus say.  He just told us that we are to make this trip with just the clothes on our back.  Seriously Jesus?  Not even an extra shirt?  “Nope” Jesus said, no change of clothes, no purse, no bag, no extra pair of sandals, not even any money!  I mean, I know this is how He does things all the time, but most of us aren’t accustomed to such an austere lifestyle.  But you know what, if He asks us, we will do it.  I mean, who else can we follow?  There’s nobody else that has the words of life like He does. 

            I find it interesting that He has asked us not to greet anyone on the road.  Personally, I have never been a big fan of the Jewish customs with the elaborate rigmarole that you’re supposed to go through when you greet someone.  It’s time consuming, and, to tell you the truth, I find it a bit annoying.  Jesus says that our work is the priority and that we have so much to do that we really need to be focused on the task at hand.  He did say that we can be friendly, but friendly without getting mired in meaningless greeting traditions.  Fine by me!

            So, here’s how He says this is going to work.  When we enter a town or village, we go up to a house and greet the owner, saying shalom, shalom.  If they accept our offer of peace, we stay there.  If not, we simply move on to the next house until we find someone who will offer us hospitality.  I do have to say that there is one thing about all this that concerns me though.  We going to be in Samaria for at least part of the time; among Gentiles, and Jesus is telling us to eat and drink whatever they give us.  What if they serve swine?  Yuck!  But Jesus said that we need to be gracious guests and that means gratefully accepting the gift of their hospitality, no matter what they’re serving for dinner.  Jesus also said that, as workers, we are worth our wage, and He reminded us not to be self-conscious about the support that folks give us while we are on our mission.  That’s not going to be an easy one for me, but I’ll do my best.  I am also glad that Jesus told us to stay at only one house.  I won’t mention any names, but I suspect that there are a few among us who would shop around for the best accommodations; you know what I mean?  But part of being gracious guests is to be satisfied with our accommodations, no matter how elegant or how sparse.

            Now comes the good part!  Jesus said that we are to preach that the Kingdom of God is among us.  It was a little confusing at first the way He explained that.  But I think that I get it now.  He said that the Kingdom of God is not something that is just in our future, it’s also something that’s present now in His words and actions, and in the words and actions of His followers.  He said that when a person repents and believes, not only do they become a part of the kingdom right here and right now, but they become ambassadors of the kingdom, spreading the Good News of God’s salvation.  Hey!  That’s us!  That’s what WE’RE going to be doing!  This is so exciting!

            I think that Jesus is just about ready to wrap things up now.  But first He wants to talk to us about what happens if our witness is rejected.  Ooh, I didn’t even think of that.  He is telling us to follow the old Jewish custom of shaking the dust off of our feet when we leave the town.  For generations, Jew’s have shaken the dust off of their feet when they leave Gentile territory.  It’s a symbolic gesture that indicates the fact that we don’t want to carry even a trace of their land or their customs on our journey home. 

Since Jesus said that whoever listens to us listens to Him and that whoever listens to Him listens to the Father, I would imagine that shaking the dust off of our feet now is probably going to be more than just a tradition that expresses our desire to disassociate ourselves from the unclean, it’s probably also going to represent a judgment against them, don’t you think?  We’re going to have to try really hard to make sure that they are all hearing and understanding us.  I’m going to feel really bad for anyone who rejects our message.  Have you read what the Bible says about the judgment?  Phew!  I have, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, not even my worst enemy.  Hey, do you think that might be part of what Jesus is talking about when He tells us that we should love our enemies?  Saving them from the judgment is just about the most loving thing I think that I could do for them,

                        I hope you don’t mind my having taken a few liberties with today’s sermon.  I thought that it might be fun to shake things up a bit.  But there is something that I discovered in my studies this week that I would really like to share with you. 

            Last week we talked about how Jesus’ response to being rejected by the Samaritan village was just to move on.  “They went to a different village” Luke told us.  I quoted Chelsea Brooke-Yarborough who told us that allowing others the freedom to make their own choices, even if we disagree with them, is a loving act.  I was struck by the similarity of thought between the continuing on to another village is last week’s story and the shaking of the dust from your feet in this week’s story.  In both instances, we are validating another person’s right to make their own choices, but unlike last week, to reject Jesus in this week’s story has the potential to lead one to judgment.  And it’s here where we find a really valuable lesson.  As I said last week, it isn’t our place to judge.  It isn’t our place to call down fire from heaven on those who refuse to hear the Good News.  But what IS our responsibility is to recognize the importance of being a faithful witness; to understand how critically important our role is in sharing the Gospel -with a world that is in desperate need of hearing that Gospel.  And we need to understand what my fictional disciple this morning discovered.  That to save another from judgment is just about the most loving thing that we can do for them.  But this saving always must be done with compassion and grace, and forgiveness, and love in our hearts.  Otherwise, we run the risk of being dismissed as “just another one of those judgmental Christians”.

            St. Teresa of Avila was a Carmelite Nun who lived in the 1500’s.  She was the driving force behind a reform of the Carmelite order, advocating for deeper spiritual commitments from the nuns.  She is one of only four women in all of history who the Catholic church has declared to be a Doctor of the Church, the highest honor the church will give to an individual.  Today I share one of her best-known quotes:

“Christ has no body on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ looks out to the world.
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless others.”

            Jesus is sending us out just as surely as He sent the 72 disciples.  He calls us to bring the Good News that the Kingdom of God is at hand.  He calls us to bring the Good News that there is unending grace and forgiveness of sins for those whose hearts belong to God.  He calls us to share in the love that He has for each and every one of His beloved children.  And He calls us to reach out to them and let them see for themselves the love of God, reflected in us.  Today, let us echo the words of Isaiah who said, “Here I am Lord, send me”.

Follow Me, No, Really, Follow Me

June 29, 2025

Luke 9:51-62

            Josephus was the preeminent Jewish historian of the first century.  In his book Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus tells the story of how badly the Samaritans treated Galilean Jews who were traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem.  In Josephus’ account, so great was the animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans that not only were the Samaritans willing to accost and beat Jewish travelers on the road, but sometimes they would kill them.  As a result of the dangers of this trip, most Jews traveled around Samaria, more than doubling the time of the trip from 3 days to 7 days.  My guess would be that the hatred of these two groups of people towards each other is probably mirrored in the troubles that plague the Middle East today; a hatred that even 2,000 years ago was 1,000 years old. 

            And it is into this powder keg of hatred and bigotry that Jesus sends His disciples, asking them to arrange accommodations for Him and for His disciples as they travel through Samaria from Galilee to Jerusalem.  Luke describes the result of this endeavor as the Samaritans “not receiving them”.  That is probably a gross understatement, as I can’t imagine that the Disciples were not treated with derision and disrespect at best, and more likely with downright hostility.  The Disciples return to Jesus to report on their experience, and James and John ask Jesus if He wants them to call down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritan village that had just rejected them.

            Now, let’s think about this, just for a minute.  In the beginning of this chapter of Luke, Jesus sent the disciples out on their own where the disciples were given the power not just to preach, but to perform miraculous healings.  They had witnessed the miraculous feeding of the 5,000.  James and John were on the mountain with Jesus during the Transfiguration, where they had seen the glorified Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah.  It had been quite a week or so, don’t you think?  And so, having personally witnessed the power of God working through Jesus and working through THEM, I don’t find it at all surprising that James and John believed that they could use God’s power to smite the offending village.  Add to this the fact that James and John would have been aware off the fact that they were standing very near the site where Elijah had called down fire from heaven to incinerate not one, but two contingents of soldiers sent to him by the unfaithful king Ahaziah.

            But I guess this fire from heaven idea from the disciples comes under the heading of “it seemed like a good idea at the time”.  Luke doesn’t give any details at all, he simply reports to us that Jesus rebuked the brothers who made the offer.  And in this rebuke, sparse though it may be, is a lesson that speaks to us today with every bit as much relevance as it did when Jesus spoke it to James and John, because at the core of the disciples’ attitudes lies a deep misunderstanding about the way that God has chosen to work through Jesus.  A misunderstanding that is still very much in play today.

            Maybe the disciples temporarily forgot about the woman at the well.  Do we remember the story?  Jesus comes to a well, in Samaria, and asks a Samaritan woman to draw some water for him to drink.  This is a story that is confounding in several ways.  The woman at the well was there in the heat of the day, women typically came in the morning before it became hot, but this woman came later because she was shunned by the community and wasn’t welcomed by the other women.  Second, men did not just randomly speak to women that they did not know, and third, a Jew would not speak with, or even have any dealings with a Samaritan, but Jesus used this opportunity to identify Himself to the woman as the Messiah, and she became the first Samaritan evangelist.  (And did anyone happen to notice that she was a woman?  The modern church’s occasional reticence to place women in positions of authority didn’t come from Jesus.  He was just fine with it.  The church should be too!)

            Or possibly the disciples also forgot about the parable Jesus told where the hero of the story wasn’t a Jewish priest or a Jewish Levite, but rather a despised Samaritan.  If the disciples had taken the time to consider how Jesus had interacted with the Samaritans, they would have realized that, not only did Jesus not share their disdain for the Samaritans, but that Jesus was actively seeking to reach the Samaritans with the Good News that they also were loved by God. 

Anyabwile tells us that, “In sinful, fallen anger the disciples want to call down judgment on people who have refused Jesus. That is not the Christian spirit.  If people in the community reject Christ and us, we should not call for judgment.  Judgment will come soon enough [and] that will be a great and terrible day.  While it’s still day, our job is to announce the good news:  There is a way to escape the coming judgment through repentance and faith in Christ.  If they will not hear the good news, then in mercy we simply keep moving.  Luke says, ‘They went to another Village’.  They didn’t argue with the Samaritans.  They didn’t look to destroy them.  They left town.  That was the merciful thing to do.” [1]

            And so, here we have a cosmic shift in a very worldly attitude.  Justice is an important part of who God is.  And since we are made in God’s image, justice is an integral part of who we are as well.  Humans, for the most part, long for justice.  But as Jesus’ rebuke makes it clear, our vision of what constitutes justice doesn’t always necessarily align with God’s vision.  In other words we need to understand and share God’s priorities, and foremost among those priorities is for mercy always to temper justice.  Even though the Samaritans were spiteful and unwelcoming, they are STILL God’s beloved children, and it is still God’s desire to reconcile as many of them as will receive Him to Himself. 

            Unfortunately, we don’t have to look very far today to see the church of Jesus Christ calling down fire from heaven.  We see it in the treatment of those who think differently.  We see it in the treatment of those who worship differently.  We see it in the treatment of those who love differently, or who behave differently, or who respond to personal difficulties in ways with which we don’t agree.  And while it takes a little honesty on our parts, it doesn’t take much effort to see how those upon whom the fire is being called down can be easily hurt by it.

            And I believe that this is the essence of Jesus’ rebuke.  If the disciples had been permitted to destroy the village as they asked, the resulting fire would not just have consumed those who had been inhospitable, it would have affected the entire village, women, children, and even those who may have made the choice to BE hospitable had they been given the opportunity.  And worst of all, after Pentecost, when the gospel spread through Samaria like, well… wildfire, those who had perished would never have had the opportunity to hear the Gospel.  Priorities.

            Chelsea Harmon tells us, “Being Jesus’s disciple isn’t about the power you get to wield over people, it’s about having the powerful presence of Christ within you, empowering you to be more and more like him. With Jesus’s face set toward Jerusalem, the disciples will soon see—even without fully understanding—how Jesus uses his power and how he treats those who reject him.”  [2]

            Today’s Gospel lesson is a call to be merciful.  Today’s Gospel lesson is a call to be Christ-like; to follow His example and to adopt His priorities.  It’s a call to understand that judgement is not our job.  John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to”… What?  “To CONDEMN the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 

            If our calling as Christians is to be Christ-like, then we also have not been sent into the world to condemn the world.  We are here to bear witness to the one through whom the world will be saved.  Chelsea Yarborough tells us that, “Jesus reminds us that allowing [others the freedom to choose] is a crucial practice of love. [Jesus] wanted to [stay in that Samaritan town], and yet [the choice of the Samaritans] was honored and respected. ?What was not celebrated and seen as a good choice? The choice to punish, to harm, to destroy in the name of Jesus because the disciples were inconvenienced or thought another choice should have been made. Jesus shows us that allowing space for another to have [the freedom to choose] is crucial to a life of love.” [3]  My dear friends, we are not called to judge, we are called to love.

            Whenever we feel like we want to be calling down that fire we need to be asking ourselves “what will be the result of our actions?”  Our Epistle lesson today introduces us to the fruits of The Spirit.  Paul tells us that when we are being faithful our actions will result in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  These are the attributes around which God’s kingdom is built.  Someday judgment will come, we all know that.  But we also know that God, and God alone is able to judge rightly.  So, let’s leave that job to Him.

            Our text today ends with three short vignettes. In each one, someone professes their interest in following Jesus, and yet to each one Jesus calls out their reservation about following Him and is bluntly honest about what the call to discipleship means. 

            When I was a kid, growing up in Ohio, my family belonged to a pool club.  I was there pretty much every day that it didn’t rain and I loved the place.  They had a great concession stand, they had tennis courts and a miniature golf course, but probably the best feature was a huge slide that would send you skidding across the water.  And I mean, this slide was epic!  Can we show a picture of the slide?

            But there was one thing about this slide… once you took that first step up the ladder, that was it, there was no going back.  There was a long line to use that thing, so with every step you took there was another person getting on the ladder behind you, and they weren’t going to let you go back down, so once you start climbing, that’s it you’re going to go down that slide whether you want to or not.  And yes, for those who are wondering, I went down it A LOT.

            In the 2^nd half of our reading today we find Jesus telling His prospective disciples that once you truly choose to follow Him, you are committed.  No excuses, no trying to climb back down that ladder.  When we choose to follow Jesus our lives are filled with new meaning.  No longer are we only about ourselves.  We are now about bringing to others that which has been given to us.  The joy, the peace, the fellowship, the fulfillment of knowing that we are loved by God.  These are the things that we are called to share with the world.  THIS is our calling!  Not to bring judgment, not to be calling down fire, but to bring grace, healing, forgiveness, and yes, love.

            For those who share the heart of Jesus, for those for whom the Sprit has made us one with God, in Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit, there is no room for calling down fire from heaven.  There is no fruit of the Spirit that will result from that fire.  There is no heart that is likely to be turned towards God from that fire.  But do you know what will be heard?  Love.

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[1] Thabiti Anyabwile, Exalting Jesus in Luke, Pg. 171

[2] Chelsea Harmon, https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2025-06-23/luke-951-62-4/

[3] Chelsea Brooke Yarborough, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-13-3/commentary-on-luke-951-62-10

How Things Work

June 22, 2025

Ocean Grove

            I believe that there is this common idea that God is playing a big, cosmic game of Whack-a-Mole.  He’s standing there with this big mallet just waiting for one of those little sinners to pop his head up so He can give them a good whack.  But nothing could be further from the truth.  The Bible tells us, more than once, that God’s wish… His fondest desire… is that none of His beloved children should be lost, but that all of them should be saved.  God’s goal, God’s plan is to reconcile as many of His beloved children to Himself as He possibly can.

            You see, contrary to popular belief, God did not turn us away.  God has absolutely not rejected us.  But here is what happened.  God has a very specific way in which He wants us to live, and it is a way that He knows works.  It is a way that people would be able to live together without conflict, without hate, without hunger or homelessness, without people being disadvantaged, being marginalized, being neglected; It is a way of living that is based on the radical idea of loving each other. 

But unfortunately, humanity doesn’t like being told what to do, am I right?  We don’t want anyone to tell us what we can or can’t do, or how we should do things, or when we can do things.  And so, humanity rejected God’s plan for us.  That plan for living lives of compassion and grace and love? We passed on that.  And then instead we chose a path whereby we could do what we want, when we want, and in the way we want.  The only problem with this is, take a look around.  It doesn’t work.

This path that humanity has chosen, a path whereby each person seeks to do things as they choose, has, as one of its salient features, a capacity to create problems.  Hunger, homelessness, preventable illness, marginalization and exploitation of people, all of these things are a direct result of the self-centered nature of human behavior.  And while alleviating these things would be a great thing, and indeed, there are any number of human initiatives designed to remediate these issues, the biggest issue of all is the fact that our choice to go our own way has separated us from God.  C. S. Lewis says, “What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’ – could set up on their own as if they had created themselves – be their own masters – invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God.  And out of that hopeless attempt has come all that we call human history – money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery – the long terrible story of [humans] trying to find something other than God which will make [them] happy.” [1]  Not everyone sees it, but this turning from God is the one great tragedy of the human story.

The traditional evangelist will speak of how sin has separated us from God, and they are correct, but…  In our 21^st century world, there is a gross misunderstanding about the nature of Biblical sin.  We all tend to define sin as someone doing something terrible or evil, but the most commonly used Greek word in the Bible that we translate into the word “sin” is ἁμαρτία, and ἁμαρτία is a word that an archer would use if they shot their arrow and hit the target but missed the bullseye.  It is a word that literally means a missing of the mark or a failure to achieve a set standard.  And it is a word that could appropriately be translated as “imperfection”.  And it is this imperfection, this failure to live as God has called us to live that is the source of all of humanity’s problems, and the source of our estrangement from God.

Now, if I walk up to someone on the street and say to them “you’re a sinner” that will probably not go over too well, right?   But if I say, “nobody’s perfect”, I probably won’t get much of an argument.  And as we discuss this fact of sin separating us from God, it is not evil acts that we are talking about, we are simply referring to our choice to do things our own way, to the exclusion of the way that God has planned.  And so, our separation from God is not of God’s doing, but of our own doing.  God’s plan and purpose is not to bash those little sinners with His big mallet; His plan and purpose is to reconcile His beloved children to Himself.  The fact is, we do not serve a God of retribution, we serve a God of reconciliation. 

And there is one other misunderstanding today also. There is a broad conception that faith is about our behavior, about us “being good”, but that is incorrect also.  Faith, at least Christian faith, is about allowing God to restore the relationship with Him that we were intended to have from the very creation of the universe.  But as we permit God to heal our relationship with Him, as we commit ourselves to knowing God, through the witness of the Bible and through the witness of other believers, what happens is, God begins to change our hearts.  And because of this change, we begin to see the world differently. 

We begin to understand how God’s plan of living lives of grace and compassion and kindness and love really IS the best way to live; the right way to live.  And so, as God’s love fills the heart of the believer, hopefully, the believer will begin to reflect some of God’s love to the world.  The interesting part of this is the counterintuitive fact that goodness is not the goal.  A restored and right relationship with God is the goal.  Goodness is a by-product of the goal.  Quoting C. S. Lewis again, “The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” [2]

My dear sisters and brothers, God is not silent.  He is actively pursuing a restored relationship with every single one of us.  He calls to us through the words of the Bible and through the witness of the faithful.  He calls to us through acts of selfless love, through kindness, through grace and compassion, through inclusivity and acceptance.  He calls to us through the beauty of music and art and nature, through the joy of relationship and humor, and even through the majesty and power of these waves that are crashing just behind me.  He calls us to listen for His still, small, voice that begs us to taste and see that the Lord is good. 

And for those of us who have already embarked on that journey of allowing God to restore our relationship, then WE are called to be the ones exhibiting that selfless love, that kindness and grace and compassion, that inclusivity and acceptance.  For those of us who have already embarked on that journey of allowing God to restore our relationship, we need to always remember that our lives may be the only Bible that some folks may ever read.  Let us make every effort to make sure that the love of God shines through our lives for all of them to see.

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[1] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 2 Section 3: The Shocking Alternative, Pg. 48-49

[2] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 2 Section 5: The Practical Conclusion, Pg. 59