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June 27th, 2016

6/27/2016

Psalm 77: 1-2; 11-20, Galatians 5: 1, 13-25, Luke 9: 51-62
June 26, 2016
The Samaritans and the Jews just plain didn't like each other. In our gospel lesson this morning, Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem”. He knew and we know that his visit there was going to result in his death, he'd told his disciples this as well. But it meant traveling through Samaria. And Jesus intended to stay overnight in one of their villages. He sent messengers ahead. They arrived at a village, “but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem”. Now Jesus has had interactions with the Samaritans before. It appears that it wasn't a personal vendetta against Jesus or his disciples, but one of those prejudices that too often are held onto beyond reason. The Jews rejected the Samaritans back when they returned from captivity in Babylon. They viewed them as unqualified to be one of the chosen ones of Israel. That didn't sit well with the Samaritans and generations later, they won't even let Jesus, because he's a Jew, spend a night in their village.
With that as a background, I want to look this morning at the reactions of the people involved in this story, Jesus, the disciples and the Samaritan villagers.

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Unchained

6/19/2016

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Psalm 42 and 43; Galatians 3: 23-29; Luke 8: 26-39
June 19, 2016

Today's gospel is the fourth straight to have Jesus freeing someone from their particular affliction, unchaining them from that trouble. Last week the woman who anointed his feet was forgiven of her sins of which she had many according to Jesus. Two weeks ago, Jesus touched two lives when he raised a young man from death. Obviously the young man's life was changed but Jesus also saved his mother from a life of hardship as a widow with no son to care for her. And three weeks ago, it was a soldier's servant who was healed from a terrible sickness. Luke has a lot about the healings of Jesus. And today we find a man who was possessed by demons, so many they were called Legion. For a long time, he had been tormented by seizures and violent outbursts. This meant that he was an outcast in so many ways. He was unable to be included in any type of community; not family, not society, not the church or synagogue. He was in prison in that he was physically chained, separated from the world. And then came Jesus! And we know the rest of the story; “Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.”

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A Dinner Party

6/12/2016

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Psalm 5: 1-8; Galatians 2: 15-21; Luke 7: 36-8: 3
June 12, 2016

Jesus was invited to a dinner party. Not just any dinner party, one thrown by a Pharisee. Now we know the reputation of the Pharisees and Jesus; they just didn't see eye to eye. We don't really know why this Pharisee invited Jesus to his party. Possibly because he was truly interested in the message Jesus was teaching and wanted to learn more about him. Possibly. But it seems unlikely because we discover in the course of the story that the Pharisee didn't treat Jesus with particular respect. Jesus himself points it out... “ I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet.... You gave me no kiss... you did not anoint my head with oil...” all things a host would see to for an honored guest.

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Fixing Death

6/5/2016

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Psalm 146; Galatians 1: 11-24; Luke 7: 11-17
June 5, 2016

You know, most things in this life just don't fix themselves. Some examples—the file cabinet in the basement that holds our session records somehow got locked. We discovered it last Sunday and we could locate no key. When I came back to try it later in the week...it was still locked. It didn't unlock itself. I pick up a lot of nails and such in the tires on my mail car. Last week I had a slow leak in the right front tire. It caused the low tire warning light to come on. I knew it was a slow leak so I had Dwight put air in it before I reported to the post office. But as I drove from Lorenson's to the Post Office, that light was still on. Did some more checking, the right back tire was leaking as well. So that day I paid for two tires that kept leaking very slowly, but they weren't going to fix themselves. Oh, and we had several grandkids stay overnight for Memorial Day. That brings to mind another thing that doesn't fix itself; a dirty diaper. Although I have noticed if I ignore it, somehow it seems to get changed.
Things that don't fix themselves. We read perhaps the clearest example in our gospel, death. A young man had died, they were carrying him off for burial. Dead people don't fix themselves, get up out of their coffin and carry on with life. It doesn't happen. And he was his widowed mother's only son. That meant that she was in line to spend the rest of her life in poverty. There were no social services. She would be dependent upon the goodness of others. There was no fix for her situation.
A dead man and a desperate widowed mother; who can fix that situation?

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June 27th, 2016

Unchained

A Dinner Party

Fixing Death

Pastor Gordy

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