Matthew 10:24-39-"Third Sunday after Pentecost"

Synopsis:

On the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Jesus calls his disciples to fearless discipleship in a dangerous world. What does fearless love look like in our world today? It doesn’t take long to see such grace. In Louisville, we saw images of protestors protecting a police officer who was separated from his partners in downtown underneath the Bearno’s Pizza sign. Love compels us to listen, to learn, and to do as the great, Black theologian Howard Thurman says we must follow Jesus and, “Jesus stands with those whose backs are against the wall.”

Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19- “Feeling Heard”

Synopsis:

The Psalmist tells us, “I love the LORD, because God has heard my voice and my supplications.” In times of uncertainty, we want to “feel heard.” As the old Celtic proverb says, “Bidden or not bidden, God is Here.” God is always listening, and the Jesus-Story of God’s compassionate love invites us to see how, despite appearances, it is an Easter World. So, while God hears us, God is also still speaking into our present circumstances…so, are we listening?

John 4:5-14-" Clearing the Way for Christ: Seeing Our Circumstances with Fresh Eyes (COVID #2)"

Synopsis

So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’

John 9:1-41-"Clearing the Way for Christ: Seeing First with Fresh Eyes (COVID #1)"

Synopsis:

Jesus heals a man born blind. His disciples assume he is born blind because of his parent’s sin, but Jesus tells them this is not so, spits in the mud, rubs it on his eyes, and sends him to wash in a pond. Immediately, everyone in town who knows this man start asking questions, and the religious authorities get involved. Because Jesus heals on the sabbath (using religious rules as a technicality rather than celebrating this man has been healed), the Pharisees are outraged and interrogate the man who is now seeing for the first time in his life with fresh, healed eyes. They want him to agree that Jesus is a sinner for healing him on the sabbath and that Jesus is a charlatan. With great humility and simplicity the man responds, “Look, all I know is I was blind, and now I see.” No matter our level of sight impairment, the trans-formative power of the Gospel illuminates our mind’s eye to imagine new possibilities beyond the situations into which we are born. We are invited to re-imagine our lives (through dreaming), our relationships (through reconciliation), our homes (through clearing), and our communities (through peacemaking and justice) with fresh eyes as if we were seeing the world for the first time.

Jeremiah 29:4-14 - "Into Exile: Bloom Where You Are Planted"

Synopsis: Jeremiah challenges the Hebrews carried away in captivity to Babylon. He invites them to see exile not as a short transition period but as an opportunity to bloom where God has planted them. They are invited to build houses, plant vineyards, have children, and God promises to give them a future, “for I know the plans I have for you says the Lord…” Wherever we find ourselves in our journey, God gives us the opportunity to see ourselves as agents of God’s reconciliation as we bear witness to God’s love, compassion, and justice in our communities and lives.

Keywords: Jeremiah, Exile, hope, future, mission, faith, courage, wisdom, incarnation, presence, love, community

Luke 16:1-13 - "Founded for Good Risk in 1870"

Synopsis: High rewards demand high risk. Jesus tells this parable of the shrewd manager who risks life, limb, and livelihood to secure for himself a future when his prospects looked bleak. Because of this risk, he was rewarded greatly. This problematic parable sits strange in our souls because the protagonist is a cheat and a liar, but Jesus message is clear as day: you have to risk something big for something good. As we reflect on our past and dream about our future, what are the bold risks God is inviting you to consider in your life and in our life as a church family?

Keywords: Jesus, shrewd, courage, wisdom, risk, security, stewardship, gamble, challenge, bold, brave, love, vision

"It Makes You Grow" - Luke 13:6-9

Jesus tells them a parable about a tree given new fresh manure on it’s roots, and that stuff, as gross, tragic, and terrible, as it is, will make or break that tree. And, if fruit is not bearing, sometimes we have to let fields lay fallow with enough time and distance before we can go back and plant again. Grow is not rapid or forced; it is gradual and incremental. The broader way of Lent reminds us how in our life journey it’s the manure of life that makes you grow.

“The Transfiguration, Part Two: A Boy Alone” - Luke 9:37-43a

Leaving the mountaintop experience of the Transfiguration, Jesus is faced with reality down in the valley. His disciples, who he commissioned at the beginning of Luke 9, cannot heal a lonely boy suffering from a spirit of sabotage and self-harm–the only son of a father who brings his boy to Jesus. Jesus comes to set humans free from the destructive cycles of self-destruction and oppression. The broader way we travel this Lent invites us to not be shackled by our past pain but discover hope and healing in God’s light.

Keywords: Lent, Jesus, healing, loneliness, unclean spirits, miracles, family systems theory, power, courage, trust, love, advocacy

"A Triple Temptation" - Luke 4:1-13

Jesus is lured into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted by the satan, the prosecutorial powers and principalities of darkness, who tempts Jesus in three ways: to abuse his power for his own self-satisfaction (stones into bread); to abuse his power for his own self-promotion and popularity (dazzle the crowds by diving off the Temple); and to abused his own power to bring his Kingdom with immediacy and force (to kneel to the Powers and rule the nations). The earthly Jesus remains faithful to his heavenly Father by trusting the promises of God through scripture and the Spirit. As we travel the broader way in Lent, we learn that even in times of trial God is worthy of our trust.