Sept. 10, 2017 14th of Pentecost

Matthew 18: 15-18  (The Message)

15 "If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him - work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you've made a friend. 16 If he won't listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. 17 If he still won't listen, tell the church. If he won't listen to the church, you'll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God's forgiving love. 18 "Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this.

We are not to be piously judging and condemning; we are to be accountable to each other and not be indifferent about that which causes disharmony in our lives and relationships.  And we are to strive for forgiveness, not giving up until it can happen.

Forgiveness is not an option in God’s Kingdom.  It is a must!  And we are to keep at it until it happens.

"The hallmark of forgiveness is that
it enables the forgiver to live painlessly
 with the forgiven.”
                          Susan Howatch







Prayer thoughts for the week:

“Lord help be remember to seek forgiveness in difficult relationships.
forgiveness both ways - from me and to me.

Sept. 3, 2017 13th of Pentecost

Matthew 16:21-24 (The Message)

21 Then Jesus made it clear to his disciples that it was now necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, submit to an ordeal of suffering at the hands of the religious leaders, be killed, and then on the third day be raised up alive. 22 Peter took him in hand, protesting, "Impossible, Master! That can never be!" 23 But Jesus didn't swerve. "Peter, get out of my way. Satan, get lost. You have no idea how God works." 24 Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how.

Peter had the best of intentions at heart when he tried to talk Jesus out of the way of suffering. He had no intention of being an evil temptation.

He wanted suffering eliminated from Jesus life.  We all would like to see the same.
Suffering is so costly; it hurts so much, demands so much, takes so much.

What Peter and we need to understand is that suffering belongs to the very nature of this world and to the very nature of Jesus - the suffering servant who emptied himself.

To be caught up with the will of God is to take on suffering as a part of loving.  The only way to eliminate suffering is to eliminate love.  Love makes sense out of and gives meaning to life, even suffering.

“...life without any kind of suffering would be no life at all; it would be a form of death.  Life - the life of the spirit like the life of the body- depends in some mysterious way upon the struggle to be...suffering-as-struggle belongs...to life’s foundational basis and goodness...A pain free life would be a life-less life.”  Douglas John Hall

“We suffer because we are human and
 out of our suffering comes our
capacity for compassion.
 For suffering integrates us into life
and makes us more fully and truly alive.”
Douglas John Hall







Prayer thoughts for the week.

Lord, when it comes (suffering) help me to walk through it to the better end.
…keep me from loosing touch with compassion even in suffering.
…help me to love the pain out of suffering, and live life with a joy which
passes human understanding.

August 27, 2017 12th of Pentecost

Matthew 16:13-20  (The Message)

13 When Jesus arrived in the villages of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "What are people saying about who the Son of Man is?" 14 They replied, "Some think he is John the Baptizer, some say Elijah, some Jeremiah or one of the other prophets." 15 He pressed them, "And how about you? Who do you say I am?" 16 Simon Peter said, "You're the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God." 17 Jesus came back, "God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah! You didn't get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am.

“The genius of the poet is that he says more than he knows.”
The genius of faith is that it says more than it knows - always!
God is unsearchable and incomprehensible;  grace goes beyond human understanding and logic.  Faith is believing more then we can ever know.

Peter was saying more then he knew when he confessed Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  The words came strangely to his lips from beyond his own understanding.  It is so also with us,  as Luther wrote long ago: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in my Lord Jesus Christ or come to him...”

Faith is not having all the answers to the riddle of life;  not never having to doubt again; or be perplexed about things; or afraid; or confused; or ever having to feel lost again.  It is not a magical formula which takes away all the hurt, pain, and fear out of life.

Faith is the God given capacity to hope when all looks hopeless; laugh when much is heavy; dance when there is little reason to dance; pray when God seems far away and not tuned in.  It is the God given capacity to list all the reasons why there is no God, and yet...and yet believe in God!

It is the sure and certain hope that God is for is, not against us.  No matter what!








“I believe in the Sun, even when it is not shining.
I believe in Love even when I feel it notI believe in God even when He is silent”

Found on a cellar wall
in Cologne after WWII.








Prayer thoughts for the week:

Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.
…help me hold on when I feel there is seems to be nothing to hold on to.
…help me remember and dare believe that when all seems lost,
             You are still with me.
…keep me mindful of your awesome grace: that You are always with me,    
for me, by me, in me.  Never against me!

 August 20, 2017  11
th of Pentecost

Matthew 15:21-28  (The Message)

21 From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. 22 They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, "Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit." 23 Jesus ignored her. The disciples came and complained, "Now she's bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She's driving us crazy." 24 Jesus refused, telling them, "I've got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel." 25 Then the woman came back to Jesus, went to her knees, and begged. "Master, help me." 26 He said, "It's not right to take bread out of children's mouths and throw it to dogs." 27 She was quick: "You're right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master's table." 28 Jesus gave in. "Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!" Right then her daughter became well.

“Great Is Your Faith”

The Canaanite woman wanted something of the goodness of God’s grace in her life too.
She persisted until she got it.  She took the rebuke, came back for more, and hung in there until Jesus could only do what he came to do - bless her.

It is often our vulnerability, our deep needs, which lead us into the arms of a loving, gracious God.  It is also our persistence - our faith which will not give up - which sees the worst in life redeemed and turned into blessing.

Expect to have something of the goodness of God’s grace in your life - and don’t give up until it happens!

"Never, never, never give up!"
~ Winston Churchill










Prayer thoughts for the week.

Lord, help me to not give up even when all is dark.
         Help me to persist until it all becomes a blessing.
         Give me the faith of the Canaanite woman.

August 13, 2014 10th of Pentecost

Matthew 14:22-23  (The Message)

22 As soon as the meal was finished, he insisted that the disciples get in the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the people. 23 With the crowd dispersed, he climbed the mountain so he could be by himself and pray. He stayed there alone, late into the night.

Jesus finally is alone.  Finally he has a moment to catch his breath, gather his wits about him, and just be with God in silence, praying.

This is no game he is playing.  He needs this time away in prayer.
It takes silence to ‘see who we are’, for it is in silence we touch the deepest part of our humanity as well as God’s divinity.

Thomas Szasz, an American psychiatrist has said;
“(Humans) cannot long survive without air, water, and sleep.  Next in importance comes food.  And close on its heels, solitude.”

Faith cannot exist without solitude either.

“Only in silence, in the space between noise, speech,  and activity, is there room for a person to become focused, to achieve gravity and centeredness.  Only in waiting before the mystery of existence itself, in brooding upon the world and eternity, does one become endowed with true worldliness and true everlastingness.”   John Killinger

“(Humans) cannot long survive without
air, water, and sleep.
Next in importance comes food.
And close on its heels, solitude.”
Thomas Szasz








Prayer thoughts for the week:
Lord,
      …help me to find the “sound of silence” in my daily noisy life.
      …give me “spaces in my togetherness” where I can be still, and find solitude.
      …help me to remember that You often speak in a still small voice which can only be heard by being quiet and listening.

Aug 6, 2017 9th of Pentecost

 Matthew 14:13-21 (The Message)

13 When Jesus got the news, he slipped away by boat to an out-of-the-way place by himself. But unsuccessfully - someone saw him and the word got around. Soon a lot of people from the nearby villages walked around the lake to where he was. 14 When he saw them coming, he was overcome with pity and healed their sick. 15 Toward evening the disciples approached him. "We're out in the country and it's getting late. Dismiss the people so they can go to the villages and get some supper." 16 But Jesus said, "There is no need to dismiss them. You give them supper." 17 "All we have are five loaves of bread and two fish," they said. 18 Jesus said, "Bring them here." 19 Then he had the people sit on the grass. He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples. The disciples then gave the food to the congregation. 20 They all ate their fill. They gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. 21 About five thousand were fed.

“A miracle is any event, natural or supernatural, in which one sees a revelation of God.”
The miracle here could have been that once the people saw what Jesus was going to do with a small boys small lunch, they opened their hearts and their lunches for all to share.

If this is how it happened, it is still a miracle!  In fact, this would be the a more difficult miracle for it meant many hearts being changed, opened to sharing.

“Jesus risked his entire ministry on the sufficiency of the infinitesimal.”
“Every social change can be traced to a few determined individuals.”
Walter Wink, “The Power Of The Small”




“When God seeks to turn the world around,
one person is usually enough.”  Walter Wink







Prayer thoughts for the week:

Lord:    keep me humble so I can be helpful.
help me be a miracle in ways I never dreamed possible.
open my eyes to see how much you can do with so little.
help me do what I can to make life better for someone.

July 30, 2017 8th of Pentecost

Matthew 13:31-33; 44-46  (The Message)

31 Another story. "God's kingdom is like a pine nut that a farmer plants. 32 It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a huge pine tree, and eagles build nests in it." 33 Another story. "God's kingdom is like yeast that a woman works into the dough for dozens of loaves of barley bread - and waits while the dough rises."

44 "God's kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic - what a find! - and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field. 45 "Or, God's kingdom is like a jewel merchant on the hunt for excellent pearls. 46 Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it.

God’s Kingdom is too big a concept to grasp with logic.  It has to be discovered in a story, a parable.  A parable is a story you can’t get unless it first gets you.  It is a story designed to “pull another story out of the listener”.  The end result is that “more happens in the mind of the listener than in the mouth of the teller.”

Our parables today tell us that the Kingdom of God starts small and becomes big, like a seed..  It only takes a little to make a big difference, like yeast.  It may be found accidentally or after a long hunt, like a hidden treasure or an excellent pearl, but once it is found it demands a total response, with great joy and anticipation.  Indeed, God’s Kingdom is priceless!
There are not enough words to say all that an be said about it  Yet one word captures it best - grace.  It is a Kingdom of amazing grace!





The parables of Jesus are about
"a passionately, desperately,
insanely forgiving God."
Andrew Greeley







Painting “Gift of Grace”
by Ravae Luckhart

Prayer thought for the week:

Your kingdom come on earth…
 to me…
    through me…
      in spite of me…
        for all…
in your dazzling grace and endless love.
Open my eyes and heart to get a glimpse of it in human form."

‘’…for not with swords loud clashing, nor roll of stirring drums,
but deeds of love and mercy the heavenly kingdom comes.”
Lead On, O King Eternal