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…
Sunday, August 28, 2022 Challenging Truth: The Humble Will Be Exalted, the Exalted Humbled Even the world recognizes that humility is a virtue and swollen pride is not. Nonetheless the world doesn’t live according to that truth. And as sinners, we’re not always so good at it, either. Therefore we need these words of God…
Sunday, August 14, 2022 Who of us doesn’t want life to be “a bowl of cherries”? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone just believed in Jesus and acted like it? Wouldn’t it be great if those who don’t know Jesus would all melt with joy when they hear the Gospel and join us on the…
Readings for Sunday, August 7, 2022. The Lord promises us a bright, eternal future. He promises to safely bring us to heaven. His promises are what create and sustain our faith. In our Old Testament Lesson we back up a bit from the previous two encounters with Abraham. In our reading, Abraham’s name hasn’t even…
Sunday’s Readings, July 31, 2022 Jesus is our priceless Treasure! He made possible everything that lasts forever. Without Him, there is only death and decay and life is meaningless. “Nothing but vapor,” Ecclesiastes said. “Totally vapor. Everything is just vapor that vanishes.” In our Old Testament Lesson King Solomon, calling himself the pen-name “Ecclesiastes” (which…
Sunday’s Lectionary Readings – July 24, 2022 What a Friend we have in Jesus! And what a privilege it is to carry everything to God in prayer! So how should we pray? And what should we pray for? Our readings this week answer those important questions. In our Old Testament Lesson Abraham prays on behalf…
Last week Jesus reminded us, His disciples, to focus on the Love He has for us so that we can love our neighbor as ourselves. This week (Sunday, July 17) our readings focus on our need to be filled with the Word of God. In our Old Testament Lesson the Lord Himself appears to Abraham…