Sermons from September 2019

We continue in Luke with the  Fall Sermon Series: What Disciples Do. This week “We Practice Generosity.”  In our scripture for Sunday, Luke 16:19-31, Jesus tells the powerful parable of “The Rich Man and Lazarus.”  It is a story of two men; one is wealthy and has plenty to eat, the other is hungry and homeless. It is a cautionary tale that calls us to acknowledge the privileges we have and to use those privileges to alleviate the suffering of others.  Join me on…

What Disciples Do:  We Resist Greed Luke 16: 1-13 Mark Twain once said, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts I DO understand.”  In this passage Jesus continues to respond to the Pharisees who have criticized him for eating and drinking with “sinners.”  He tells a parable that seems pretty confusing, but then he concludes with words that are clear and specific:  No slave can serve two masters…You cannot…

In Luke 15: 1-10, Jesus has thrown the religious leaders into a panic. They cannot believe the people who Jesus is hanging out with: the tax collectors and the “sinners.” These are the folks of ill-repute, ones who don’t really belong anywhere, and who live life on the fringes. They are the ones that respectable citizens would most likely avoid. Time and again, we see Jesus in the scriptures loving people across social, religious, and ethnic boundaries of the day. In his…

“Follow Me…”  Jesus says this when he calls the ordinary and unexpected to be his disciples. In what ways are we following Jesus?  Although many Christian circles are very focused on what one particularly believes, Jesus seems to care more about what his followers did. Belief and practice go together. This Sunday we begin the sermon series, What Disciples Do.  Each week we will look at Jesus in Luke’s Gospel and see what he is doing and what he expects us to do.   This…