Tag Archives: 02-23-25

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.

Sermon Notes

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02.23.25 Greater Love Luke 7:36-50

To understand scripture, we must recognize the historic cultural aspects of the passages we read, as well as our own cultural perspectives. 

Let’s look at today’s passage

‘Simon, a Pharisee, asked Jesus to eat with him, and when Jesus went into Simon’s house, he (Jesus) reclined by the table to dine.’

Our cultural understanding of passage – Jesus is invited to Simon’s house for an dinner with Simon and his family. Jesus enters the house, sits in a chair at the table, and begins to engage peacefully with those at table. 

This view leads us to ask, ‘If Jesus was sitting at a table in a chair pushed up against the table’s edge, how would it have been possible for the woman to wash Jesus feet? How would she navigate a crowded space of feet and knees under the table? We end up with a hilarious picture.

Even if we are aware of the cultural practice of reclining by the table we stil have to intentionally insert this strange (to us) cultural reality into our understanding of this opening scene.

Let’s reinterpret this scene through the historical cultural reality:

Reality 1 – Jesus arrives and reclines on the floor next to the table. It is possible that Jesus lies partially horizontal to the table, or floor, while leaning on one elbow and eating with the other hand and hand and arm. While Simon’s family may have been present in the background they are not a part of any discussion. They stand back and, if permitted, listen. Doors and windows are open so folks outside are listening in and some will enter and also stand in the background, and will listen, again, if allowed. The purpose of this ‘dinner’ is for the men, who are considered deep thinkers, and possibly men of position or controversy, to discuss, debate, and argue the issues that face them, their nation, and the world.  Intertwined into the discussion will be a religion. Much like the philosophers in Athens the men at the table in Simon’s house will discuss and debate without actually coming to any conclusions or solutions. Sometimes there would be agendas and sometimes agendas would naturally rise up. Jesus is not only a guest at dinner others will be present as well – It would have been an honor to be invited to such a seat at this table. 

Reality 2 – There would have been uninvited and unexpected guests, probably hoping to enter without notice throughout the men’s discussion. And, as odd and awkward as we imagine it to be from our own cultural perspective, the appearance of this woman to wash and anoint Jesus’ feet would not have been that strange or awkward. Often, an action such as this would have taken place upon entry into the house by the host as a gesture of honoring the guests – remember Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. 

Sometimes unexpected individuals would enter to honor or gain favor with hosts or guests. The woman’s act probably went unnoticed by most. It is probable that those at the table, as well as those in the room, were not paying attention to the woman or her actions –  if they did they would have quickly judged and dismissed her. 

The house, was probably a chaotic scene and upon leaving the house every guest would have left with different views of what took place. 

Jesus and Simon, would end the evening with one mutual remembrance – a woman washed Jesus feet in a very gracious and sacrificial (Simon would say wasteful) way with utter disregard of what anyone thought of her or her actions. 

Both men were less engaged with the deep thinkers as they were the presence and actions of the woman. It is the inner processing of each of these men and their external commentary that we will focus on today.

Speculation as to the details about this woman…her name, her association with Jesus, her sin, her life, plus the constant argument ‘was sinner code for prostitute?’ have always hijacked this story.

I think that we purposely are not given answers to these questions because we do not need answers to these questions. It is possible that we would miss the most important aspect of this woman if we had such details. 

Why? Because, this woman is us, all of us, all of believers, all of humanity.

Simon saw this woman as her sin. In Simon’s perspective, her sin was more sinful than his sin. Jesus, though, was moved by her gratitude

This is the problem when faith has a foundation of rigid legalism, judgement, condemnation, and finally, rejection. Our ‘sin’ is seen as our actions rather than our disobedience. Our list of things that make a person a ‘sinner’ is continually edited and altered, molded by our own prejudices, actions and arrogance. 

Think about Jesus’ first sermon where he upended the ‘sin’ list of the religious officials. Lust became adultery and hatred became murder. These were lists that no one, except for Jesus, could live up to. The leaders could not grasp that our inability was Jesus’ point.

Simon ended the evening in confusion and outrage – Jesus had allowed this unclean woman to touch him and, even worse, Jesus had pronounced  her forgiven. There was no way Simon could make sense of this evening. His perspective was stuck. However, Jesus went to bed with an affirmation of his purpose. The woman closed out the day in peace.

Jesus did not see this woman as her sins. Jesus saw her struggles and her gratitude. Jesus saw this because Jesus did not dismiss her very real struggles, pain, and shame, which were her core. With her permission and society’s insistence, this core formed her label of worthless. Jesus did not agree with her acceptance of worthlessness – Jesus saw her strength that raised her up from a new core of gratitude that then enabled her to accept what came next – Forgiveness. 

Jesus removed the weight of the baggage of her shame and all that it included. Jesus removed the name tag that said ‘SINNER’ from the woman, a tag that had been assigned by Simon and most of society, and the woman subtly left the room released and relieved.

Jesus had not only allowed this unclean woman to touch his feet but he had given her forgiveness.  

The woman had been noticed and forgiven by God. She left with a love much greater than the hatred of Simon and the crowds.

‘In Luke’s version of the story of the sinful woman we see the refusal of Jesus to play into the Pharisees’ judgment of the woman based upon who belongs at the feet of Jesus and what appropriate interaction with Jesus ought to be. Fast-forwarding from Luke to thinking about worship inside churches today, how often are we also quick to judge what kinds of people belong in the house of God and how they should act?’

Rev. Dr. Gerald C. Liu, Emerging Faith Communities Cultivator, & Princeton Theological School

In 2001 researchers and statisticians found that regular church attendance in the United States had dipped below the 50% mark. 2021 was a rough time. Public was concern about social settings, and crowds, due to the pandemic while politics and social media warped the thinking in our isolation. The decline in church attendance and affiliation would have been dismissed except the decline continued even after that. In just 3-4 decades the church went from majority high percentage points while church participation and growth fell in public respect, status, and position.

Consider the realities of religion over the past decades.

  • Politicians went from not so subtle use/abuse of religion and religious institutions to blatant abuse and disrespect to those who were religious. The exact things Prophets such as Jeremiah and Isaiah had warned the people about.
  • Politicians have assumed the role of false prophets with the approval of and partnership with influential religious leaders fueling ugly and hateful religion. Making unholy alliances, these religious leaders have falsely claimed that these false prophets, many of our politicians were and are anointed and inspired while, at the same time, choosing to verbalize, and judge, who could have a seat at faith’s table, and who was not worthy.
  • Denominations and Churches who were accustomed to high membership and attendance stats were free, like Simon, to sit at the table and decide who was uworthy to be at the table or to sit in our pews. The ‘sinner’ woman, and all like her, have been quicly denied as their sins have been judged more harshly than sins of those at the table. Their struggles were doubted, ignored, and dismissed. Now, as churches sit with more empty seats than full seats, denominations, churches, and the religious of our world, seek to find a scapegoat rather than recognize their own unholiness.

All the while, we see an answer in this story of Jesus, our deliverer, and Simon, a Pharisee. Simon saw an unworthy female sinner while Jesus saw a loved woman overflowing with gratitude.

Everywhere in this country and in this auditorium we see empty chairs. We can shake our heads in outrage at the unholy state of our world or we can recognize the probability that many of the empty seats we see are God’s a reminder of God’s call for those denied seats since 250 AD. (Church – world wide)

May we look at those seats and see a world denied seats for decades/centuries. May we meet our world without judgement but, instead, with the love and embrace of God extended to all. 

Our calling is to offer a seat to all, a place at faith’s table to all, and, in doing, we show the world a greater love.