Luke 14:25-33 We do it all the time, of course, perhaps sometimes with a higher level of consciousness than others. We estimate the cost, weighing one option against another, trying to decide if we have enough or want it enough or need it enough. We do it with our budgets and we do it in our …
Tag: Luke
Moving Up Higher
Luke 14:1, 7-14 In my experience it’s not all that often in our culture that we encounter such a formal situation that we know what it means to be ‘moved up higher.’ As in the time of Jesus, at wedding receptions perhaps. And on airplanes. My station in life has meant that I’ve never been …
Jesus, the Bent Over Woman and a Pastor Who is Still Learning…
Luke 13:10-17 The story we hear today is one we can’t help but feel deeply, it seems to me. To hear of a woman who has been unable to stand up straight for eighteen years is to begin to feel how her every waking moment must have been marked by physical pain. To understand that …
Not Peace But Division
Luke 12:49-56 The words of Jesus are hard to hear today….and yet I have learned that what he points to, while painful, often simply is. And so it is that the story I share now still lies close to my heart — never mind that the memory is nearly 40 years old, it still pains …
Old Faithful and the Waiting Slaves
Luke 12:32-40 I ventured into Yellowstone National Park for the first time last week. I flew into Jackson Hole late on Monday and out early on Friday, so my time there was short. I traveled there to participate in a retreat so most of my time was taken and I wasn’t able to linger long …
The Rich Man and Me
Luke 12:13-21 The perspective offered in this week’s Gospel lesson is one that’s always hard earned and too often, I’m afraid, comes to us late. I, at least, like the poor rich man in the story Jesus offers now, normally don’t hold it. I’m still holding on, saving up, thinking I have forever. At some …
Martha and Mary, Mary and Martha
Luke 10: 38-42 A long time ago I was in worship on a Sunday morning. I was a young teenager and sitting on my lap was three-year-old Elizabeth. I was her regular baby-sitter. Our dads worked together. We lived in the same neighborhood and worshipped at the same Lutheran church. Now this church was a mission start …
Who Is My Neighbor?
Luke 10:25-37 I stepped out the front door of the church the other day and looked up to see a woman clothed in a black burqa walking by. She was holding the hands of two little girls. The children wore head scarves and were sporting bright purple and pink flowered back packs. No doubt they …
What God Has Done: The Man No Longer Possessed By Demons
Luke 8:26-39 This is one of those weeks when it feels a whole lot more like I am Wrestling instead of Dancing with the Word. Indeed, a friend of mine will be away from her congregation next week and she was unable to come up with a supply pastor. They’d looked ahead, you see. They knew …
Responding to Jesus: A Child’s Song, A Woman’s Gift
Luke 7:36-8:3 I sat half way back for my cousin’s funeral earlier this week. Normally, like many of you, I am up front, so it was a gift to experience this very different perspective. It was easier than I would have thought just to sit back and receive the gifts of the day. In fact, …