Musings about Faith

Read the lesson here: Luke 16:1-13 Keep Your Eye on the Ball! Of all of Jesus’ parables this one is perhaps the most difficult to understand.   A quick reading of this parable gives us the impression that Jesus is calling on his disciples to act more shrewdly even to the point of dishonesty!   So, what is this parable about?   It all seems so straight forward at first: A steward gets in trouble for “squandering” or mismanaging and is told he will be terminated.   The steward, recognizing his complete unsuitability for physical labor comes up with a ruse to ingratiate his master’s debtors to himself.   So he reduces the amount of the debts, collects the remainder of what is owed and earns the appreciation of the debtors.   We expect that when the master finds out what he has done the steward will get punished in the end.   But no, the master commends the shrewdness of the steward and Jesus finishes up by talking about the dangers of focusin...

Read the complete text here: Luke 15:1-32 Come, Join the Party! “… But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”   Luke 14:13-14 Who doesn’t like a party?   Who doesn’t like a time to relax with friends, eating and drinking and having a fun time?   Jesus certainly seems to love to party.   In the Gospel of Luke he seems to go from one party to the next.   In fact, Jesus will accept an invitation from anyone – Pharisees, Scribes, tax collectors, sinners of different kinds, people of differing classes and backgrounds (see quote above from Luke 14).   Jesus will party with anyone!   And that is one of the things that gets him in trouble.   The good and respectable people don’t like it!   Maybe it’s jealousy or self-righteousness, but when Jesus accepts party invitations fr...

Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple… none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.  Luke 14:26-27, 33  Read the full text here: Luke 14:25-33   Counting the Cost Is Jesus serious?   What strong language – we are to hate not only our family but even our own lives and give up all our possessions?   That seems like a prescription for loneliness and homelessness.   Surely Jesus is not serious! He must be using those words for effect, to make a point – right? That is the most common and comfortable way of looking at this passage – Jesus doesn’t really mean it – Jesus is talking to people who are really dense and he has to use these extreme examples in order to get the message through.   Well, perhaps, but I think we should...

What is healing?   Why do we do a “healing” liturgy on the 5 th Sunday of the month?   Are we offering “cure?”   No, God has given us the gift of medical science to help us find cures. So then what is the “healing” that our liturgy offers us from God through Christ? It is easy to mix up those two words – healing and cure.   Our culture tends to under of “healing” as “cure,” and “cure” as “healing.”   Cure and healing are interchangeable in our society.   We go to the doctor for a cure in hopes that we will be healed of whatever ails us.   We come to church and experience a liturgy of healing in hopes that this will aid in providing a cure.   But are they the same thing?   No, in the Bible they are not the same thing at all.   They may be related, but they are two separate things.   Here then is a statement that sums up the biblical view of healing and cure: First, One can be cured without experiencing healing ...

Read the text here: Luke 13:10-17 Bad Guys and Good Guys – Law & Gospel Every story needs a bad guy.   Right?   Certainly if you watch much TV you know that, with the exception of comedies, most shows have some kind of bad guys – even the reality shows!   We need someone to cheer for and to cheer against.   This past week I attended a conference and the presenter at one point during his presentation started talking about bad guys and good guys using Star Wars characters as examples.   For him Darth Vader = bad; Han Solo = good.   Except, those of us who are at all familiar with the Star Wars films and franchise know that it isn’t that easy.   Darth Vader is actually not all bad, in the end he gives up his life to save his son, Luke (sorry, spoiler alert!); and Han’s popularity (not to mention Harrison Ford’s) was based on the fact that Han was actually a bad boy good guy.   Not so cut and dried at all.  ...

Read the text here: Hebrews 11:29-2:2 No One Is Alone “… since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…”   Wow!   Think about it.   We are surrounded; we are supported; we are being cheered on; we are being inspired - by so great a cloud of witnesses! This statement, which appears near the end of this epistle to the Hebrews, is, for me, one of the most strengthening and encouraging lines in scripture.   A few lines later the writer uses another image – the image of a runner running a race.   When you combine these two images what the preacher is saying is this: we running the race of life, which includes all the dimensions of life including our discipleship.   This race is at times a “rat race;” at times the race leads us into the some dark places and experiences; sometimes we stumble and fall and trip over obstacles; sometimes the climb up the mountains can be really hard; but at other times it is like running downhil...

Read the text here: Luke 13:32-48 God’s Great Delight Jesus is on the way towards Jerusalem.   Beginning in chapter 9 immediately following the Transfiguration, Jesus sets his face towards Jerusalem.   But along the way Jesus, accompanied by his 12 disciples and a host of others who come and go as the journey proceeds, spends the time teaching, telling stories (parables) and answering questions.   But throughout all of this a couple themes emerge:   First, the Kingdom of God is come now, in Jesus!   We do not have to wait for the Kingdom to come down the road in some distant time and place.   The Kingdom is NOW!   As you experience Jesus, you experience the Kingdom.   Also, the Kingdom is not something we can earn, or accomplish, or forcibly establish – it is a gift of God’s.   And it is God’s delight and joy to give God’s people this gift.   So what prevents us from accepting and fully appreciating this incre...