Sunday, October 2, 2022 Having confronted the Pharisees about the temptation of money, in this week’s Gospel Lesson Jesus turns His attention to His disciples. They will be tempted, due to their closeness to Jesus to look down on or lord it over others. He warns them rather to be especially concerned for the weak…
Jesus tells a lot of parables, but only once does He name a main character. That happens in this week’s Gospel Lesson where we hear about a rich man (nameless) and a poor, sickly beggar named Lazarus. Lazarus is a short form of Eliezer, “The Lord is my help.” The Lord was his help when…
Sunday, September 18, 2022 Jesus tells another parable to make a simple point: “You can’t serve God and Money.” While the point is simple this week’s Gospel Lesson presents a few challenges. The story Jesus tells is of a “shrewd” manager, who uses someone else’s money to get friends for himself before he gets fired…
Sunday, September 11, 2022 Last week’s readings focused Jesus’ followers on the difficult decisions they will face. Christians must count the cost of following Jesus. They must be aware of all they gain in Christ so that they are willing to bear the cost of whatever they might lose. There is, of course, one decision…
It’s challenging to be a follower of Jesus. He doesn’t hide that fact from us, although many preachers do. We’re in the middle of a whole series of tough talks by Jesus about the reality of living for God in this world. He taught us that the last will be first, then that the lowly…