Luke 14:1, 7-14

Last Friday I joined four other guys from church and headed over to Stockton, MN to help muck out houses. We worked alongside of home owners, their families, and a Mennonite group from Wisconsin ripping out soaked drywall, filling buckets and wheelbarrows with mud and sewage, pulling out ruined carpet, insulation, and furniture. There still much work to be done.

Please keep our neighbors dealing with the ravages of these floods in prayer. If you want to help call ahead and make sure that somebody there knows your coming.

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There's a rich unfolding of Jesus' plan for the kingdom of God in Luke 14:1-14. The unfolding work of God comes as Jesus gathers with others in the Pharisee's house to eat on the Sabbath.

He sees the guests come and he sees that someone else has come besides the desired guests. In Luke 14:2 the someone else in the story is a man with ὑδρωπικὸς translated by the NIV and NRSV as dropsy. The man lived with edema, with painful swelling in his body because his lymph system didn't work right. Luke says that Jesus looked at his host and the honorable guests asking them if it is right to θεραπευ̂σαι literally to offer therapy, to cure or treat this man on the Sabbath.

The host and guests gave no answer. Jesus healed the man sending him on his way.

The lectionary has left the story of the hurting man out of the reading for Sunday. Instead we focus in on Jesus' observations of the people and his vision for hospitality; but in this context we can see even better how important care for the hurting is in Jesus vision.

Jesus' parable about the wedding guests who took the higher seat, when it was not theirs to take, was bold. He spoke directly to the people in the room and called for humility. His vision of the kingdom was coming clear. The one who assumes the place of highest honor will be brought down so that the humble will be lifted up. He wasn't ambiguous or vague.

Leaving no room to doubt, Jesus gave the particulars of his vision away as he spoke to everyone there about who to invite to a banquet.

¹² Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”Luke 14:12-14 (NIV)

As Jesus moved towards Jerusalem he got bolder. He challenged a legalistic religion with a spirit of mercy. He challenged his hosts to invite those who couldn't pay him back. The same challenge exists for us. He challenges us to look around not for ways to gain advantage; but for ways to help others who are disadvantaged. The reading ends; but Luke's story leads to another parable about a great banquet.

^ When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” Luke 14:15 (NIV).

Jesus next parable of the great banquet invites us to see the generosity of God that is ready and poured out. The invitation to the banquet was rejected by the first guests on the list. They refused their invitations and in the parable the host sends out his servants looking not for the ones who rejected his generosity but for everyone, hurting or not, who hadn't been invited at all.

By only reading Luke 14:1, 7-14 we only hear Jesus' invitation to serve. By reading the whole of Luke 14:1-24 we see the magnitude of God's intended generosity. Jesus' vision of inviting the poor and hurting to a banquet is even more challenging when we think that others had rejected such invitations.

Jesus is calling for hospitality. We aren't called just to run to the poor with food; we're to welcome them in and receive them as guests; Jesus' vision is of a world turned upside down and where those who never expected the place of honor are given the highest honor.

On the Sabbath? Luke 13:10-17

First a prayer request.

Southeastern Minnesota has been deluged with rain over the past 3 days. We've got a trickle of water in our basement; but that's nothing compare to others nearby. Some are missing, some lost their lives as roads and homes were swept away by quiet streams the swelled to raging torrents. Please keep my neighbors an hour to the east, along the Root, White Water, and Zumbro River in prayer.

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On the Sabbath?

Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, and he saw a woman who was bent over; her back held in place, Luke says, by an evil spirit. Jesus called to her releasing her from her body from whatever caused such pain. She stood straight.

Jesus set her free. But the synagogue leader challenged him.

[He] was angry because Jesus healed on the Sabbath day. He said to the people, “There are six days when one has to work. So come to be healed on one of those days, and not on the Sabbath day.”

Jesus didn't run from the challenge. Instead he responded by challenging the leaders of the synagogue.

“You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you untie your work animals and lead them to drink water every day—even on the Sabbath day? This woman that I healed, a daughter of Abraham, has been held by Satan for eighteen years. Surely it is not wrong for her to be freed from her sickness on a Sabbath day!”  Luke 12:14-17 NCV

The outrage of the synagogue leader is foreign to us and our time. We have no holy day or even holy time set aside in our culture. The idea that a time would be sacred or a space reserved for reverence and for God is hard to teach to someone who has never grown up knowing examples of such respect. As parents we wrestle teaching our girls what matters most is love for God and the neighbor. We know that what matters most to us may be of little value to others.

What's the best response to the culture?
We know God's law insists on one day to be kept holy; but our culture ignores this law, or worse yet, has never known it.

A few years ago Marva Dawn and Ray Comfort wrote from very different perspectives about keeping a time for Sabbath. These could prove helpful for discussion; because the both are asking provocative questions about rest and work and faith and God. These questions are easily ignored in the rush to big box store or the football game or the side job or even the main job that we have every Sunday.

The challenge, for us in the church, is not to call for legislation banning work and commerce on Sunday. We could do much better. Sabbath is a gift to discover. There is joy and freedom to be found in a day of rest spent with God and the people we love. Only as we receive it as a gift can we tell others of the same gift.

Learning from Ricky Bobby's view of Jesus

What is your image of Jesus.
Will Ferrel's prayer as Ricky Bobby sure got me thinking.



See what you think; especially compared to the Jesus we meet in Luke 12.

Jesus came to bring fire. Luke 12:49-56

Its tempting to read Luke 12 and do anything but listen to what Jesus says to his hearers. Jesus is bold in Luke 12 and that boldness is down right frightening. Jesus point to the crowd of thousands who came to see him in the marketplace is troubling: he came for a reason, for a "baptism that he had to endure." Its tempting to find some way to avoid Jesus' point, but the growing intensity of Luke pushes us further and further towards the cross.

Jesus seems to have made a judgment about humanity ; he wants to see us on fire for the sake of the kingdom of God. He doesn't speak here about hellfire and damnation; rather he speaks of a consuming fire, a passion that doesn't leave everything settled and neat.

Jesus' bold words in Luke 12:49, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" aren't the words of a weakling. They are the words of a bold man who's mission and a vision would lead to radical transformation.

Fire was, for the ancient Greeks, an important, even basic element of creation (Bauer Greek English Lexicon). Fire was key to clearing out the old and bringing in the new. But fire was and still is beyond simple human control. We still fear it's power and teach our children to keep away from fear that it will harm us.

Jesus' wished that the fire of the Spirit that burns away the old were kindled when he walked the earth. He came, "to bring division, not peace." He came to bring fire that could consume the old and dead and make way for new life. He came not to approve of the way the world works but to see it completely transformed.

Letting the fire of the Holy Spirit loose in the church is risky. God might very well confront our sin. Letting the Word of God lose is equally risky because the God who meets us in scripture, like the fire of the Spirit, is only contained at our own peril.

Jesus came not to lull to sleep but to move us to action to see the kingdom of God not as a fairytale but as promise made by the king of kings who came to reveal it to the world. He came to set the world on fire. I pray to see the fire of the Holy Spirit at work in this age. AMEN

Don't fear--believe Luke 12:32-48

There's a real challenge for believers reading the Gospels. When we meet Jesus in Luke (or any other Gospel) we meet a man and God who acts independently of our values and philosophies.

In our age we like to imagine God as always on our side. One might imagine God as soft and compassionate. He's portrayed by some as a big cosmic Teddy Bear who accepts all. Another might imagine God as angry and vengeful ready to swoop in and spare the chosen few but unleash judgment on the rest of the world.

The real God, revealed in Jesus wasn't always cuddly nor was he always vengeful. He spoke about God's judgment and God's compassion. Jesus, in Luke 12, describes the master beating and cutting away the unfaithful and the unprepared while also speaking of the treasure that we can have stored up in heaven. Jesus spoke a word of warning to his followers that God wants us to be ready to meet him and a promise that this world isn't the end.

As a sinner I want a god who thinks like I do; as a sinner I do not want a God who would challenge me, my actions, and my values. But a living God will do exactly that. In Liberal Protestantism as well as in Fundamentalist Christianity it has become common place to assume that Jesus isn't challenging us or our thoughts. It's tempting to assume that God is always on our side. Many churches and church leaders, both on the liberal and conservative sides of the spectrum, assume that they are right with Jesus and that they are reading scripture properly and that they are right in their actions in the public square. Many, believing they have God's approval, even seek to replace Jesus' challenges to all people with political stands and ethical values as the core of the church's faith. (An interesting view of all this from the conservation side of the spectrum was written by Robert Benne in Word Alone Network News July-August 2007)

The real Jesus won't be pushed over by the right or the left. In Luke I meet Jesus who's not me, and who wants me to stop acting like I'm the one that matters. Jesus wants my ideas and values and judgments to cease. Following him means that Jesus leads so that he can work through me.

In Luke 12:32 Jesus said, "Have no fear little flock." Jesus said it for His own good reason, but it's so much easier said than done. The truth is that all of us believers live with fear and anxiety. But Jesus says don't fear, believer. Jesus' words to his followers don't provide current comfort. He was telling them, and all of us now who hear through Luke's account, about the emerging kingdom of God. Jesus was offering comfort and hope in God's love but no quick fixes to our mortality and all the problems that we have just because we're human.

2000 years ago Jesus prodded his hearers to imagine a God who could care about the whole world, not just the nation of Israel. Today we need to be prodded to see God as someone other than a wish-granting Santa Claus or loving all giving grand-father. As sinners we must repent, over and over, and let Jesus be God instead of trying to replace him with ourselves.

Sermon Pentecost 10 C August 5 2007

I appreciate all that has been said about praying for and caring for the people in Minneapolis. As a native now living 100 miles away I can sense the fear and hope that coexist for so many

this is what I am saying Sunday
where it says slides is just a reference to what is projected while I am speaking

pax

unlikely


Slide 1: What matters?

I called my folks on Wednesday night and got no answer. I called again and all the circuits into Minneapolis were full. I wasn't the only person just checking up on family and friends that night. I called my sister and told her to turn on the television. She was stunned as I was. What we saw as spectators on our television sets defied explanation. The bridge I crossed every day going to High School was gone. My sister used to cross that same bridge everyday on her way to work for 3 years. As we talked my sister said she was scanning the crowd on screen looking to see if our parents were among the on-lookers. Mom called me back at about 8:30. They were fine. They'd gone to the community council meeting; just like they do on every first Wednesday of the month.

Email's from other friends and family have carried the same news. A few close calls; but everybody is okay. Other people have told me similar stories about calling friends and family in Minneapolis. They were just calling to make sure that things were all-right. For most people everything is all-right. Most of the time, in our lives, a disaster is just somebody else's problem, not our own. We can go back to our lives and families and all our own problems and worries thankful that we weren't one of the unlucky few whose lives have been turned upside. We can do that. We can live and let the problems go by. Or we can live differently, on the edge―with people who know fear and loss and grief. You choose to look the other way and go past the problems, or you choose to step in, off the sidelines. Its easy and safe to be a spectator. But God invites you and me to live like eternity and our neighbors matter. God wants us to prioritize our lives not by an earthly standard of comfort, safety, and provision; but by a heavenly standard in which our lives aren't really our own.

Slide 2: Colossians 3:1-2
Since you were raised from the dead with Christ, aim at what is in heaven, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Think only about the things in heaven, not the things on earth.

Paul wrote to the early church that every believer was a new creation. He believed God is at work in all of our lives because we have died and risen with Jesus. It was that simple for Paul. In Jesus Paul met the one true God and that meeting left him changed. And Paul believed that every Christian was meant to have the same kind of experience. Paul's first hand experience of God's love and correction shook him to the core. He was a new man with a new life. Part of that new life meant putting aside all that he once thought mattered.

It's not easy to lay down the things that we think are important. But part of following Jesus is learning God's perspectives and living out God's values. We have all sorts of important things in our lives. I know that I have all kinds of things that dominate my thoughts. We all worry about money, work, and all sorts everyday stuff. But these earth bound things are not supposed to be the ultimate end for our lives. What Paul wrote to the church in Collasae gets right to the meat of his faith and his life and what he believes all of us as Christians should live like today.

Slide 3: God's calling...

One of the most uncomfortable parts of being a Christian is the way that God works on us 24 hours a day 7 days a week moving within us to get our lives and our priorities to match heaven's priorities. Some people call this experience conviction. Every believer has experiences of God's challenge to them.

Sometimes conviction comes in the confrontation of somebody who loves you enough to tell you that your behavior is simply wrong and that what you are doing needs to change. Sometimes conviction comes in the news that shakes you out of your comfort and moves you to action. Some say that you and I, the church, have been too easy on this culture. Some complain that we have forgotten Jesus' real teachings and the real need that each of us has to be convicted by God of our sin. Jesus taught people and many walked away convicted. The Jesus we meet in the gospels wasn't concerned about the temporary comfort of his hearers. He wasn't purposefully vague like a politician making promises in the year of election. Jesus was bold. He challenged his hearers to see their lives and their neighbors lives through the eyes of heaven.

God doesn't want us to be comfortable in the here and now; not if our neighbors are living with challenges they can't walk away from. God's not offering you paradise on earth; he's offering you a chance to participate in the coming of the kingdom of God. Its easy to find distractions. Its easy to turn on a television or computer. Its easy to walk away from the problems.

Slide 4: Colossians 3:3-4
3 Your old sinful self has died, and your new life is kept with Christ in God. 4 Christ is our life, and when he comes again, you will share in his glory. NCV Col 3:1-4. Dallas, TX: Word Bibles, 1991.

There are a lot of things that people worship these days. It's a situation similar to Jesus day when the people worshiped many different gods. They and we worship prosperity. They and we worship wealth. They and we put our status on this earth above our status as children of God.

Slide 5: Luke 13:12-14
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” 
14But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

Jesus' meeting with a man who demanded that Jesus mediate a dispute about an inheritance with his brother challenges us to keep our eyes on what matters. I've been amazed by the families that have broken down over issues of money and trust. As pastor in another congregation I was telephoned by a person who wanted to talk about a sibling. One was concerned about what the other was doing with their parent's home and money. The person I spoke with was 50 something and the the other was 60 something. The one I met with wanted me, a 20 something, to tell a 60 something member of my church to, “Grow up.”

Jesus warned his hearers not to obsess about money and possessions. Be on guard against all kinds of greed. And Jesus told them a story about a successful farmer who had been blessed with a great harvest. He had barns but his harvest was so big he needed bigger barns. So he tore the barns down and built even bigger barns for all his grain and goods. The rich man said to his soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’” Luke 12:19

And God met the man that night, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ Luke 12:20 (NRSV). Some people might call this man shrewd or even wise for looking out for himself and for being financially secure. He might be the one selling a wealth building system that will help others be financially secure too. And God called him a fool.

Slide 6: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The Holy Bible : King James Version., Heb 10:31. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995.

How's that for conviction? How's that for standing right before God and having God see right through all the facades and pleasantries and look right into your very soul. The writer of Hebrews said, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” These words are haunting and true. We'd to have a god who approves of what we do and how live. But we a living God. We'd like a god who only smiles down upon us. But we have a living God. We'd like a god who answers our prayers and meets our needs. But we have a living God.

God challenges us to let Christ shape our lives. We can obsess about things. We can pile up more and more stuff; but Jesus calls us to stop stockpiling as a substitute for faith. The rich man believed all was well; but he'd forgotten that everything he viewed as so important was temporary.

What's important Luke 12:13-21; Colossians 3:1-12

Colossians 3:1-2
1 Since you were raised from the dead with Christ, aim at what is in heaven, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Think only about the things in heaven, not the things on earth.

Paul wrote to the early church that every believer was a new creation. He believed that God is at work in all of our lives because we have died and risen with Jesus. It was that simple for Paul. In Jesus Paul met the one true God and that meeting left him changed. And Paul believed that every Christian was meant to have the same kind of experience. Paul's first hand experience of God's love and correction shook him to the core. He was a new man with a new life. Part of that new life meant putting aside all that he once thought mattered.

It's not easy to lay down the things that we think are important. But part of following Christ is learning God's perspectives and God's values. We have all sorts of important things in our lives. I know that I have all kinds of things that dominate my thoughts. We all worry about money, work, and all sorts everyday stuff. But these earth bound things are not supposed to be the ultimate end for our lives. What Paul wrote to the church in Collasae gets right to the meat of his faith and his life and what he believes all of us as Christians should live like today.

Colossians 3:3-4
3 Your old sinful self has died, and your new life is kept with Christ in God. 4 Christ is our life, and when he comes again, you will share in his glory. NCV Col 3:1-4. Dallas, TX: Word Bibles, 1991.

There are a lot of things that people worship these days. It's a situation similar to Jesus day when the people worshiped many different gods. They and we worship prosperity. They and we worship wealth. They and we put our status on this earth above our status as children of God.

Jesus confrontation with a man who demanded that Jesus mediate a dispute about an inheritance with his brother combined with the story about the rich man who Jesus called a fool in Luke 12:13-21 challenge us to let Christ be our life. We can obsess about things and pile up more and more stuff; but Jesus calls us to stop stockpiling as a substitute for faith in God. The rich man believed all was well; but he'd forgotten that everything he viewed as so important was temporary.