And He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And He said to him, You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” Luke 10:27-28 (read vv. 25-37)

INTRO: As the story opens, two important themes are introduced

1. The first theme is embedded in the question, “what shall I do?”
   – Jesus forms his response around the word “do”: “do this” (v.28) and “do the same” (v. 37)
2. The other theme is the tip-off that the lawyer is being dishonest, “put Him to the test”
   – a lawyer in this context was someone who had received extensive training in the Law of God

There is more to this interaction than we see on the surface Continue reading →

All things have been handed over to me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him. Luke 10:22 (read Lk. 10:1-24)

INTRO: Can you think of someone whose words and actions made God beautiful to you?

Has there been anyone whose words and actions made God seem terrible, oppressive, or abusive?

For me, the development of my own mature knowledge of God generated some resentments
– I found myself feeling anger towards people who had misrepresented God to me
– Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, camp counselors, and pastors who gave me the impression that God was unloving, always angry and disappointed, that every day he had to be won over-again, yet was impossible to please Continue reading →

When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. Luke 9:51-53 (read verses 9:51-62)

INTRO: In the last few months, I’ve been asked a couple of times, what I thought of Harold Camping’s predictions of a May 21 rapture

– I didn’t really know anything about it
– since I could not force myself to get interested in it, I never looked into it

But now, after it didn’t happen, I am interested
– what is he doing the day after? How is he handling his failure?

• is he blaming God? Satan? The media? His calculator?
• is he coming up with rationalizations–why he wasn’t wrong?
• or is he sitting in humility admitting he made a mistake, that he let his excitement get the best of him and now he’s learned important lessons about the mystery of scripture and letting God be God? Continue reading →

And Jesus said, “Who is the one who touched Me?” And while they were all denying it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing in on You.” But Jesus said, “Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out of Me. Luke 8:45-46 (read Lk. 8:40-56)

INTRO: Some stories in the Bible require long explanations

The differences between their time and culture and ours are as so great, without explanation we miss the point of the story
– other stories, the elements are so familiar, we step into them and instantly feel at home
– today we encounter two stories that immediately open to us

A man emerges from the crowd and falls down before Jesus
– he is not the first, nor will he be the last parent to feel helpless regarding a child
– but before his crisis is resolved, a desperate woman sneaks up behind Jesus and steals a touch Continue reading →

Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on (for he was stripped for work), and threw himself into the sea. John 21:7 (read Jn. 21:1-9)

INTRO: For many years, archeologists in the mid-east have been digging up mugs and cups with inscriptions on them

One frequent inscription in particular from the first century has captured the attention of biblical scholars
– four Greek words are inscribed on it that read, “Rejoice, that’s why you’re here”
(at least on scholar translated it as a question, “Why are you here? Rejoice!”)
– perhaps it was intended as a blessing or a first-century toast

What’s so special about these four Greek words? Continue reading →

The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trapmled under foot and the birds of the air ate it up. Luke 8:5 (read 8:1-21) 

INTRO: From the time we were big enough to carry a lunch sack, we were sent off to school every day to learn
– first, to read and write, and then everything else (history, gramar, science, etc.) 

Do you remember ever being taught how to learn?
We were constantly told to pay attention, but were you taught how to pay attention?
– it was assumed from our first day of class that we knew how to learn, focus our attention, and use good study habits 

Jesus taught his autdience how to listen to his teaching Continue reading →

A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more? Luke 7:41-42 (read verses 36-50)

INTRO: Do you remember being told as a child, “Never play with matches”?

The danger of a fire getting out of control is even greater in the age of the Internet
– a pyromaniac can strike a match in Florida that sets fires all over Afghanistan
(See recent news of the preacher who burned the Quran. With all the tragedy going on in world right now, why did he think he needed to add this to it?)

It is one of the great mysteries of human nature that in the name of God, people can become calloused regarding the death of others
But the truth is, this is a spiritual virus that creeps into every religion and all religious people
– either we get too devoted to the wrong things or our devotion gets twisted–e.g., fanaticism Continue reading →

Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else? Luke 7:19 (read verses 18-35)

INTRO: This week, Barbara said she was going to look into getting a bus pass for next month

Gasoline is simply too expensive right now to keep filling up her tank

Gas prices right now, like the tidal changes along the West Coast due to the earthquake in Japan, illustrate the famous “Butterfly Effect”–only it’s not the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil nor is the effect a tornado in Texas
The hike in the cost of gas is the result of another famous physics’ model, the “Domino Effect” in the middle-east as the population of one nation attempts the achievement of those in another nation that brought down the authoritarian rule of an elite

I read an interesting article in Jadaliyya, in which Lina Khatib described the typical response of Arab autocrats to the current protests in their nations: Continue reading →

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchang seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matthew 13:44-46

Treasure . . . it was there all along, but hidden. The treasure was a source of joy. As long as the treasure was hidden, the man in the story did not know this joy. Had he passed that field every day unaware of the joy beneath him?

Jesus’ purpose for the parables is to give us knowledge of that which is present yet invisible (vv. 31-33). Truth is hidden in the ordinariness of the parables, the kingdom of heaven is hidden in every moment, and God is hidden in Jesus Christ. Jesus told parables to enable his followers to go beyond looking to seeing (Mk. 8:17-21). Continue reading →

Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” Luke 7:9 (read 7:1-19)

INTRO: So many centuries have passed since the time of Jesus, it isn’t often that archeology can locate an exact spot that is mentioned in the gospels
– one of the exceptions is the synagogue in Capernaum
– the ruins of the structure you see there today was built on the site of the first century synagogue

Continue reading →