As You Are

As You Are

Every time I think I’m “getting it” about Jesus, I hear a parable like the one from Luke 18 that we’ll hear on Sunday. Two men go to pray — one is a righteous person, and the other is a tax collector, someone that others looked down on. Yet Jesus says the righteous...
Prayer Changes Me

Prayer Changes Me

Prayer changes things. I believe that, and especially that prayer changes me as I pray. When we hear from Genesis 32 this Sunday about Jacob wrestling with “a man” at the river Jabbok, I think about prayer. Praying with God can seem mundane and ordinary, but it can...
Learning from Outsiders

Learning from Outsiders

This week we’ll hear a scripture passage that just about got Jesus killed. In Luke 4, Jesus told the crowd “there were many lepers in Israel at the time of the prophet Elisha, but none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” People got mad at Jesus for showing...
Faith Lives in You

Faith Lives in You

In one of our readings for this Sunday from 2 Timothy 1:5, the letter addressed from Paul to Timothy says, “I am reminded of your faith, a faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now lives in you.” There are some remarkable bits...
Cost of Discipleship

Cost of Discipleship

In Luke 14, Jesus talks about the cost of discipleship. Jesus knows that his own life will include opposition from powerful forces and hard decisions. For us to strive to live as disciples of Jesus likewise means that there will be costs. We don’t have to be Christs,...
God’s Banquet

God’s Banquet

In Luke 14, Jesus goes to a dinner event where other guests are jockeying for position. Jesus heals a diseased man there, which creates a stir. Jesus notices how people observe a pecking order — some get positions of honor at the table while others are relegated to...
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