Monthly Archives: March 2025

Sermon Notes Luke 16:19-31

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03.30.25

There is always a thread running throughout God’s truth, God’s word. And that thread works to prepare us for and give us tools to understand, the next insight or lesson given to us by the Spirit. 

Let’s look at our recent identified thread. We looked at Jesus’ 3 parables of lostness which enhanced our understanding of God’s love, specifically – how it is not negated based on our actions or the actions of another – 

We were reminded that we can never be so lost that God’s love cannot find us and we can never be too far to run back to God’s love. 

A story of a sheep that wandered away and a shepherd who did not give up on the desperate search for the sheep. A story of a coin that was lost, and a woman who went into a cleaning frenzy to find the coin. And, a son who rejected his father – and a father who watched the gate to his property passionately hoping for the return of the son. 

[Slide] All three parables provide us with insight into how God’s love never disappears, God is always in the pursuit of those he loves, and we are all loved by God.

On our way to today’s passage, let’s stop at a short passage in between last week’s passage and today’s passage – a passage that gives us an enhanced perspective of God’s unboundaried and unconditional love. 

THEN  – remember our ‘NOW’ from last week that served as a travel monologue of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and the Cross? Today’s passage ‘THEN’ us to the thread further into and onto the THREAD of God’s love. 

THEN, Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to the rich man that his manager was squandering the rich man’s property. So the rich man summoned him and said to the manager, ‘What is this that I hear about you? 

Give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.

I have decided what to do so that, after I am dismissed, I will be welcomed into the homes of my master’s debtors.’  The ‘about to be fired’ manager summoned his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 

The debtor answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ The manager did this for all of his master’s debtors. 

Consider this Story before we continue…An owner has been cheated out of at least half of his income because this employee has figured out away to ‘steal’ from the manager while, at the same time, taking care of himself and securing his own future – NOW, look at the owner’s response… back to the master’s response…

When his master found out what the manager had done, he commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly 

What?!?

Consider how Jesus’ wraps this story..

And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone they may welcome you into their eternal homes.

???

Il. Graffiti on building with correct spelling. ‘Commends’

Jesus talking about the manager recognizing the worth of others….baby steps to ‘Be Kind” and baby steps to God’s command to love, it was still totally selfish, but, something had happened, something to which caught the eye of the master – the manager recognized the worth of others. 

The manager had seen something he had never seen before – the worth of all of God’s others. W we see the worth of others, we recognize them, we stop to know them, and, along the way we begin to see and notice them for much more than just seeing in a selfish way.

So, with that on our mind – the thread of God’s unconditional and unboundaried love along with the recognition of every person’s worth, we come to today’s passage.

Remember, we are still under the umbrella of our ‘THEN’. Previously, Jesus was specifically focused on his disciples. Now, we have a new THEN and Jesus’ focus audience has enlarged to include the religious leaders.

One audience (the disciples) is listening to Jesus for words of earthly life that are focused on the now, life here on earth, as Jesus teaches about a heart faith which grows in its love for God’s created – humans and creation itself – a love that grows our love for God – a faith which naturally will transition to a widened definition of eternal life. 

While the other group (the religious leaders) has become entrenched in an institutional religion that has grown out of their sincere and authentic faith. They live by the thread of God’s promise to Abraham, but, as happens with us humans and religion, that faith and the subsequent human developed religious agendas of these religious leaders has become more dependent on human interpretations and attempts to control their own people than following their own passionate search for the promised deliverer.

In a nutshell…

  • The faith of the religious leaders has lost much of its focus on the God of the promise – much like we see in our own institutional faith now.
  • The faith of the religious leaders has allowed its passion to be gradually hijacked by their leaders and politics, much like we see in our own institutional faith now.
  • The faith  practices of the religious leaders have been anchored to their traditions, much like we see in our own institutional faith now. 
  • The faith of the religious leaders has reassigned its hope to being able to control their culture and society, much like we see in our own institutional faith now.
  • All the while, Jesus is teaching those who will listen to his mission, which will be their mission. A mission that will rise up a religious striving to live life to its fullest. A fullness that will lead us naturally into an eternity of fulfilled abundance. 

So, we look at our passage for today with the following truths learned so far…

  • God’s love for all of us never ends, we are never too far for God’s to find us and we are never too far to run back to God’s love embrace.
  • God calls us to love him as he loves us – a love which is unboundaried and unconditional, a love which will grow us to love what and who God loves.
  • God encourages us to embark on that love for others by intentionally noticing, knowing, and recognizing those who God loves – which is everyone. To not see others as a hindrance, threat, or annoyance, and instead as God loves them – leading to our recognition of their worth.
  • God calls us to be kind and loving toward, and to, others on earth even to those who live very different lives than we live.

Our passage involves 2 characters who, here on earth, live very different lives, and then step into eternity living the life of the other. 

A story often only perceived through an eschatological filter but actually, along with the stories before it, it gives us a huge huge lesson on how to live here on earth. 

This morning, we fall into one of those categories – Jesus’ followers and/or possibly Jesus’ foes. So, let’s look at this passage not as a distant FUTURE eternity, to, instead, a NOW eternity. ‘Living life as we are called to live. Living a life the way Jesus lived his life.’’

Let’s look at what Jesus said about the thieving manager – 

“the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” (Luke 16:8).

Jesus is telling us that sometimes non-believers live out God’s call to love and value others better than believers. Yes, hear that, sometimes the world does a better job of being the hands and feet of Jesus, than we do! Why, because sometimes they are more attuned to the world, the needs, the injustice, the hatred and brutality, than we who are often isolated and detached religious people.

So, two individuals, living in the same area, living different lives. One is poverty stricken, desolate, cripled, gross, unclean, while the other is exorbitantly rich, enjoys every meal as a feast, wears the best clothes made of the most expensive cloths, powerful, sitting in a position of great influence. 

Everyday the rich man, who has no name, leaves his palace and resentfully has to step over the annoying poor man that lays at his gate. The poor man, who has a name, Lazarus, dreams of access to the crumbs that drop from the Rich Man’s table.The rich man does not know that because he refuses to know or notice the poor man. The rich man can see no worth in the poor man because he can only see the poor man as an inconvenience.

After both men die, the rich man comes to an understanding of the value and worth, of the poor man. It is too late. Sadly, now, there is nothing the poor man can do for the rich man.

As long as we live here on earth we are still able to love the poor man, or the rejected man, or the unloved man, or the depressed man, or the selfish man, or the judgemental man, or the powerful man, or the hateful man, or the desperate man, or the failing man, or the victorious man, or the ….. The list goes on. 

Who are we failing to notice, to see their worth, to know them. Who is God calling us to love but we are unable to love because we have created too many barriers to even notice them?


That is our question. Not asked out of a fear of an eternity of hopeless suffering but, instead, out of a desire to know and appreciate all those that are loved and valued by God just as God loves and values each of us. A calling to recognize God’s love in our life and in the life of others. 

Directed prayer.

Sermon Notes Luke 15:1-32

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Luke 15:1-32, 03.23.35

Our passage for today begins with this intriguing word ‘NOW’. It is up there with the words ‘Therefore’ and ‘Nevertheless’, and with the phrase ‘Once Again.’ All of these are introductions to a new moment which is built on a previous moment, or moments. The word ‘Now’ is not really a reference to an event but instead it is more of a travel monologue. ‘Yesterday we did so and so and now, today, we are doing something else.’

Our ‘Now’ in today’s passage is referring to this journey of Jesus, and growing number of followers, on their way to Jerusalem, and for Jesus, on the way to the cross. Remember that this is a growing number of followers and today we see the addition of an entirely new group of followers.

NOW…all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Luke 15:1-2

[Title Slide] The complaint the religious leaders had with Jesus was that he saw/noticed people, all people, in a loving manner and did not exclude anyone from God’s compassion and mercy. This inclusive love was not new to Jesus, it was commanded in the OT. It was/is a love for God that is all encompassing, a love for God that then calls us to love what God loves and who God loves.  This outraged the religious leaders when Jesus did not reject and shun the ‘sinners’ and the tax collectors – (‘Sinners’ being a subjective term such as ‘your sins are worse than my sins so YOU are a ‘sinner’ and I am not.) 

Understand this, the people that the Jewish leaders condemned were their fellow Jews, they were not gentiles…they were the people of the promise, the children of God just as the religious leaders were.

It makes you wonder – Did the leaders expect  God to abandon these individuals like they had done? Or, worse, did they find their condemnation of these individuals to be a holy and righteous act? Did they find comfort in their own hearts and minds nurturing this ugly dark and unholy judgement, condemnation, and hatred? Did these religious leaders see these people as enemies even though these were their own people culturally and spiritually?

Ill: Wayne Scoggins in Deacon Training

Sadly, this type of prejudice still exists in the Christian church in America and around the world. It is actually the history of the Christian church for almost 1,750 years ago. Then, and now, religious communities were/are rejecting those who worshipped the same God.

This is the scene our story for today begins with. Jesus, as he is on the way to Jerusalem and the cross, is engaging with those who are considered unacceptable by their own religious leaders.

Our passage today takes place before Christianity was a word that identified Jesus followers, it is before Jewish Jesus Followers thought of themselves as anything other than Jewish. This was a time, much like our present time, when religious institutions and religious individuals were judgemental of others not only because of sinful actions but even more so because of things beyond their control, factors such as skin color, cultural background, religious practices, religious interpretations, as well as education, economic status, politics and many more. Basically no one was above being judged – even those with who they shared the same faith.

Emmanuel Katongole tells the story of the 1990’s when the most successfully evangelized country in world, Rwanda, fell into an inner genocide. Tribal ties became points of loyalty and allegiance over any other factors. Church services on Sunday mornings were frequently interrupted by brutal physical fighting between different tribes who had before always been able to joyfully worship together in the same room. But as their focus subtly moved away from Jesus, the fighting intentionally ended with many fellow believers dead. 

Stories of Rewandan genocide such as bulldozing a church building while people were inside worshiping just because the worshippers in side were of a different tribe than those driving the bull dozer. Katongole warns that this is happening in more subtle ways in churches around our world, and, in our own nation. Allegiances like political parties, religious agendas, rejection of different practices of religion, as well as differing religious interpretations of truth – interpretations that were often more dependent on tribal leaders than time spent searching for truth.

Mirror to the Church: Resurrecting Faith After Genocide in Rwanda, Emmanuel Katongole 

So, Jesus told three parables in response to the judgemental religious leaders’ contempt toward Jesus.

As I share these with you, remember that these parables were how Jesus answered the religious leaders’ contempt toward him because he spent time, and sat at the table, with these Jews who were considered unacceptable and undesirable by the leader and others.

I will be asking your thoughts…

  1. [Slide] So Jesus told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (15:3-7)
  1. [Slide] Or, another parable, “what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (15:8-10)
  1. Recap of Prodigal Son Story 

[Slide] The youngest of 2 would not wait for his father’s death to receive his share of the inheritance. Disappointed and surely feeling somewhat rejected, the father grants his son’s request and gives him his share of the inheritance… 

Feeling worthless and hopeless, the young man returned home hoping to be accepted as a slave but instead the father came running to him accepting him back as a son. A treasured son who had been lost but now had found his way back – now to be found.

[Title Slide] 

Interaction: With an understanding that Jesus told these parables in response to the religious leaders’ contempt toward Jesus because he was sitting at the table with the sinners – what was Jesus’ intent?

{Responses}

{Question:}

Who, or what, was to blame for the lostness of the lamb?

Who, or what, was to blame for the lostness of the coin?

Who, or what, was to blame for the lostness of the younger son?

{Responses}

{Bounce off the responses to bring to the story of the older son…}

“The Older son was in the field when the younger son arrived, and as the older son came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then the older son became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 

[Slide] He answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ The father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

Note: The older son had been living on the father’s estate, the older son was now the sole heir to the father’s estate. But, living there he had forgotten this. He was jealous of the fathers’ love for the younger son because he had failed to realize his own favored status. The younger son was one of the family, that did not change when he left and that did not remove the love of the father.  

We do not have an ending to this story, we do not know what the older brother did with his discussion with his father. We do not know if he ever realized the truth of his existence. These parables bring us 3 separate yet dependent categories of truths to hold for us to recognize.

First – [Slide for each of this category]

God’s love has no judgement or regard for our worthiness/worthless. 

God’s love has no regard for anything about us except that we carry the breath of God.

God’s love is the constant and consistent of life for all people.

God’s love empowers God to never give up on us.

Second – [One Slide]

God’s love is often missed most by those who are in the middle of it.

God’s love is often forgotten when we reside in the midst of it.

God’s love can often blind us to God’s presence when it is our daily reality.

Third – [Slide for each of this category]

We must not allow ourself to let the judgement of this world, including the religious parts of this world, keep us from recognizing that we are living in the midst of God’s Love, that we are loved sons and daughters of God.

God loves us all. God loves all. God goes after what is lost regardless of the reason for the lostness. We have been found, we will be found. All that matters is what/who God finds important enough to go after and that is all those who have been created by God.

Sermon Notes – Luke 9:51-62

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03.09.25 

Challenge Comment – ‘I’m not sure I like this Jesus.’

Jesus is not the one dimensional being that religion attempts to portray him. We want Jesus to be the nice guy and let the apostles Peter and Paul to be the heavies. But, Jesus is complicated and this final journey to Jerusalem is complicated. Last week and today we see Jesus’ intensity as the cross approaches. Complicated – like humans are.

Last Sunday we saw Jesus ask:

“Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Messiah of God.”

Luke 9:20

We must understand the gravity of this statement. It is central not only to Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem but also to our faith everyday.

Even though Peter’s answer was true, it was risky on 3 fronts. 

  1. Once the non-believing religious leaders discovered rumors that Jesus had heard and yet had not denied Peter’s claim they would think they had the proof to back up their claims that that Jesus was a heretic – that Jesus was making, or endorsing, unholy claims that he was the Son of God, the Messiah.
  2. If the politicians/oppressors had fully understood Peter’s pronouncement they would cease placating the religious leaders with the coming arrest and trials. Their main job was to keep control and peace among the Israelites. The leaders would have attempted to remove Jesus from the equation, arresting Jesus early and bypassing Jerusalem and the questioning, the trials, the cross, and all that would happen after.
  3. If the downtrodden and oppressed Israelite crowds fully understood what Peter revealed they would have possibly done much the same as the oppressors. They would have probably also taken Jesus by force, however, they would not be taking Jesus away, they would take Jesus directly into Jerusalem. Bypassing the government officials and politicians as well at the religious leader in order to sit Jesus physically on the throne. And, in doing so would have brought their erroneous expectations of Jesus as an earthly King.

When Peter made his proclamation he was saying:

”Jesus, You are the promised Messiah, you are our Deliverer, our Redeemer, our Hope, our Peace, our eternal King, You are the one we have been waiting and looking for since our ancestor Abraham.’

Now let’s move past our passage for today to chapter 10, where we see Jesus send out 72 ‘others’. We do not know for sure who these ‘others’ were. We know that in John’s gospel John quotes Jesus saying: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” (John 10:16) Was he talking about the Gentiles?  

Jesus instructions to the 72 were: “Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you (hope is near).’

Jesus does not say Preach the Good News, he is saying, “Be the Good News.

This flies in the face of our understanding of what Jesus meant later when he says “go to ends of the earth.” Jesus did not send this group out to build a church, or even to build the Kingdom, there was no ulterior motive or agenda –  these ‘others’ were going out to BE Jesus’ hands and feet to a people who were oppressed and who knew little peace. This wasn’t a tool to attract people to follow Jesus, this was a calling to go and ‘be the compassionate, merciful, and graceful hands and feet of Jesus.’ They were going out to BE Jesus empowered by an understanding of Peter’s proclamation.

Let’s use a historic moment. Friday marked the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the Sunday, in our country, when 500-600 mostly black marchers set out to walk from Selma Alabama to Montgomery Alabama to ensure their constitutional right to vote. A right which had been invalidated by the segregationist system. As the marchers attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, (named, and still named, after a former senior officer in the Confederate Army as well as a leader in the Alabama KKK) – the marchers were stopped in crossing the bridge by state troopers and many county white citizens. The peaceful marchers were brutally attacked and beaten. All ages, even children and the elderly, were violently beaten, some as they were bowing to pray.

Now, take this shameful moment in our US history which took place in many of our lifetimes, and consider that each of those marchers had heard the words, “All men are created Equal’ as written in the Declaration of Independence, and then repeated by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettsburg address. However, in these marchers’ 1965 existence their experience proved these words hollow and false. They heard the words of equality but suffered the opposite. Imagine the young people and children who saw friends and loved ones being brutally beaten, blood everywhere, and then be expected to believe these deceitful words. How could they settle for words of hope and peace that had been repeatedly spoken to them as they bled onto the pavement of the bridge? How could they believe words that were the brutal opposite of their reality?

So, the 72 did not go out to say words – instead they were called to live out words – words like compassion, joy, peace, mercy, grace, hope, and love. These 72  would serve as a proof of the coming of the Kingdom, the coming of hope and peace. While our usual practice is to rely on words, persuasion, and even force (think of our state officials’ push to force a Chrisitan bible on every student in our state). Unproven words have little impact when actions say the opposite, when there is blood on the bridge.

When the 72 returned, they were excited, the people had seen Jesus through them. The people experienced the power of knowing that Jesus is the Son of God not through words but through hearts, hands, feet, and sacrifice. 

But, and this is where it gets fun, Jesus seems to be equally excited by their excitement. These ‘others’, as well as those they impacted, now understood who Jesus is because they had experienced Jesus. They now understood the character of God as understood in the life of Jesus.

Now they know, now we know, why Jesus prayed ‘God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ They understood Jesus’ passion was that we would/will all have life abundantly. 

We must understand God through the life of Jesus and we must understand Jesus through the character of God.  We must no longer compartmentalize our faith. We must, no longer, practice an ugly and exclusive religion. We must shut the door on a religious faith that leaves Jesus at home when Jesus is an inconvenient companion. We must take Jesus on the bridge with us regardless of the side from which we start.

Now, today’s passage is sandwiched between Peter’s proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah and journey of the 72 ‘others’.  Now we see that Jesus makes a final and definite turn towards Jerusalem. And, as Jesus makes this turn with his disciples following him, he gives a ‘Are you ready for this?’ locker room talk reminding his disciples how He Lived. Jesus is telling them how to survive the days between this turn to Jerusalem and his entry into Jerusalem, and all that lies beyond. Jesus is telling them how to live life abundantly. Jesus is telling them, telling US how to not be pushed down into survival mode but instead to walk in Joy. 

  1. Shake off the dust. Do not carry rejection with you, –  (Samaria experience) wipe the dust off your feet, discard the harmful baggage, of your mistreated – Live the Jesus life. We are not called to ask, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and wipe out those who abuse us?” No, we shake it off, we let go of that baggage of hurt and betrayal and instead remember our path, our calling to BE, we remember our Jesus.
  2. Keep your eyes, ears, minds, and hearts open. Turning to his disciples, Jesus said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!” We have no reason to not be looking for Jesus all the time and in every area of our life, because we have been allowed to see. We must live in a constant awareness that allows us to see and hear.
  3. Remember our calling is from God, not an agenda or approval from humans. Our calling is not reforming the world’s morals, it is not about population building a Kingdom, it is not about persuasive speech or debate, it is not about judgement and condemnation, it is about the life lived out by Jesus.
  4. Do not compartmentalize faith separately from life. Following God is a lifetime decision, faith is an immersive reality – there is not an option to turn and run away. However, at the same time, we must also remember that God always welcomes us back with open arms –  we are secure and embraced by God always – we will see that more next Sunday. 

Lynn led us in a song by Rich Mullins written in 1992 at a point of personally recognizing this locker room talk that Jesus gave his disciples as he wrote:

Sometimes the morning comes too soon and sometimes the day will be so hard. There is so much work left to do but I must not forget how much has already been done. Sometimes the climb can be so steep that I may falter in my steps but I am never beyond God’s reachOh God, You are my God, and I will ever praise You. I will seek You in the morning. I will learn to walk in Your ways. And step by step You’ll lead me, and I will follow You all of my days.

Sermon Notes

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02.23.25  Luke 9:28-45

Lent, which begins this Wednesday, is a solemn human-designed religious season when believers prepare ourselves for the cross, resurrection, and ultimately the ascension. It is a season, like Advent, built for us.  

Lent is a 40 day period which ends as Jesus enters Jerusalem. Forty days mirrors the 40 days following Jesus’ baptism when Jesus spent in the wilderness tempted and tested  – before Jesus began his earthly ministry. 

Lent, like Advent, is a season for believers, we are the target. Every aspect points us to the sacrifice, humanness and holiness, pain and relief, darkness and light, deceit and truth, ignorance and understanding, and to the freedom and peace.

While Advent is to remind us of God’s gift of His Son – Lent takes us to the moment we see the calling of Jesus comes to completion. 

On Ash Wednesday, this Wednesday, many will begin a fast, a sacrifice. Giving up something as a sacrifice or inserting something healthy into daily rituals to rise up our intentional focus on the path of Jesus to the gates of Jerusalem. A sacrifice to strengthen us to experience a small dose of God’s sacrifice of His son, and Jesus’ brutal sacrifice of his life.

This Tuesday, you might partake in a feast of food and drink, on the day we call Mardi Gras. It is on this day that we symbolically have our final moments of human indulgence and, for some, gluttony. Originally, this day of Mardi Gras was an organic add to Lent for believers who were going to make a fast, who chose to give up food in one way or another. So, Mardi Gras began as a very practical opportunity to rid themselves of food, or specific foods, they would be giving up to avoid waste.

That is a very, very, simple overview of the Lent season.

Today’s passage is just steps away from the moment when Jesus makes a final intentional turn toward the cross, a step of ‘no return.’ A step his disciples repeatedly attempted to dissuade Jesus from taking. 

Our passage today actually begins with 10 words, pivotal words we intentionally did not voice in our reading, essential words, so we begin with our look at the prequel to our passage…

[Slide] ‘Now about eight days after these things that were said.’  (Lk 9:28)

Before we name those words we must understand that there is much still to happen, and be taught, before Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Our passage brings us to the moment of reality –  the truth about Jesus had been revealed and it could not be denied. Pivotal words that were good news to all but also ammunition for some.

[Slide] Jesus asked his disciples for some words giving them the prompt, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They answered, “John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.” Then Jesus gave them a second, more specific, prompt, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Messiah of God.”

Luke 9:18-20

[Slide] Jesus, the Messiah, had been named and identified, Peter has said the words – ‘You are the promised Messiah, our Deliverer, our Redeemer, our Hope, our Peace, You are the one we have been waiting and looking for since Abraham.’

Words that could not be taken back. Jesus desired to heed the spread of this news by reminding them of what still needed to happen before Jerusalem. From this point on, in Luke’s chronology, Jesus’ teaching will be aimed more at preparing his disciples to be apostles, leaders of the New Testament Church. But. there are still miracles to take place, there will still be tensions with religious leadership, but this marked a crucial moment.

[Slide] These words spoken by Peter present a thread that weaves its way through the 40 days. A thread of the necessity of community. Community began with the community of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit. It was introduced into creation as God created Eve. Community continues with family and then a people. It is a never ending thread throughout history.  

Jesus took 3 of his disciples, his earthly community, up the mountain to see Jesus with Moses and Elijah, Jesus’ heavenly community. 

Community is a thread that ties us to those who organically become our support and encouragement when our faith, in the midst of our humanness, most needs support and encouragement.

We even see the thread of community as Jesus, coming down from the mountain, is approached by the father of a son in need of healing and deliverance. The father recounts to Jesus all the failures of faith in the struggles of his son, even the disciples are identified by the father as being of no help or hope. The father does what is automatic to us humans – He begins to blame.

Jesus’ response is odd and harsh to say the least. Jesus answers by looking not only at the man but also to those surrounding him, probably his community.

[Slide] ‘Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and put up with you?”’

Brutal.  And who were these harsh words directed at? Were they aimed at the father because he had lost all but a tiny bit of faith? Was it directed towards Jesus’ disciples for failing to heal and deliver the man’s son? Was Jesus mad at everyone because they did not have a strong and enduring faith?

I think I have always struggled with Jesus’ harsh words and stern behavior in answering the father’s request. The man is worried and grieving for goodness sake! I feel like I can empathize with the man’s struggle, probably in one way or another, all of us have. 

[Slide] Andrea & I sat in a hospital room for 2 weeks as we watched our then 14 year old daughter fight for her life attempting to defeat an illness that had no cure except to wait it out for a small chance it the body would heal itself. I understand the hopelessness of the father, the grasping at every straw that offered hope, knowing each new day that child may lose the fight. I can fully understand what brought that father to ‘beg.’ I can understand his doubt.

But, we also had our community, our communities, who grieved with us, who encouraged us, often just with their presence. The community that is our extended family who were there to back us up with any and every need we had. Our church community somehow managed to get a key to the building where we gathered on Sundays to spend one evening praying together for our daughter and to sign cards of support and hope. Friend community called and wrote, trekking up to OKC to sit with us or to just show their support in showing up even for a short moment.

That is the purpose of community, but sometimes communities become toxic and cancerous. They become more hurtful and destructive than any community should be. Sometimes the community of church can become that way. And, sometimes God corrects communities, sometimes God discards communities, sometimes God removes even himself from communities. Sometimes God has to remind communities of what their responsibility is.

We even see toxic moments of community with Jesus’ disciples as they, not long after this passage began to argue of which of them will replace Jesus.

I think this is the explanation for Jesus’ harshness. He was talking to the man and to the man’s community. They had not been the faith that encouraged him. They had not been the strength he needed. It is possible that they too had little faith and had given up, or grown tired, of the man’s son and the drama that accompanied.

This importance of community could also be why God interrupts after Peter tells Jesus they should all stay on the mound saying,

[Slide] “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”

Jesus must be the center of our community. And, when Jesus is the center of our life, we must also allow Jesus to be the center of our community(s). This does not mean we change all of our engagements. It might be that others do not even know that, in your life, Jesus is the center of that community – they may never know, or they might see the light in you.

God’s words were a reminder to Peter and the disciples that they had a community at the bottom of the mountain that needed their unspoken experience to strengthen and encourage that community, a community that would soon have a great need for the community.

So why, why in Luke’s chronological does Luke place this thread of community here? Well, it has always been there. Pretty much everything since creation has been about community. As I said earlier, community is seen in the creation of Eve, the confrontation of a toxic community at Babble, the promise of community to Abraham and Sarah, the rise of community amongst the people enslaved in Egypt, and the purpose of community which organically came to be within the Isrealites enslavement in Babylon, and we see that community was the missing link for the centuries between the prophets and the arrival of Jesus.

Community is fiercely accentuated in this passage because Jesus and his community were entering a time when community would be most important. Important to Jesus, important to the disciples and followers of Jesus, important to Jews, important to Gentiles, important to Humans. It is important because only 7 verses later we are told,  

[Slide] ‘Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem.’

Jesus set his face, his path, his eyes, his heart, on Jerusalem, to the cross.

He would now, more than ever, need his community and communities.

The same is true to us – true when we are the needed community and true when we are in the need of community.