A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. [Jesus said]: “But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:13-14). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! On first reading, this text appears to be an assortment of different, unconnected moments in the ministry of Jesus. We have a healing (vv. 1-6), a parable (vv. 7-11), and then a teaching about concern for the poor (vv. 12-14). When you look at the text more closely, however, you see that this all happens on one occasion. The text begins with a reference to a meal on the Sabbath at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees in verse 1, and it is not until verse 25 that we leave this occasion. Recognizing this unity encourages us to look for the connection among these seemingly unrelated events. Like a friend telling us what happened last night at dinner, Luke re...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, ‘As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.’ Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’” (2 Samuel 12:5-7). Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Psychologists say you’re only as sick as your worst secret. No wonder King David isn’t feeling so hot. He has a doozy of a secret; but he’s managed somehow to keep it under wraps for about nine months. At least he thinks so. But it’s taking a toll on him spiritually, mentally, and physically. Later, he will describe the experience in one of his psalms: “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer” (Psalm 32:3–4). But for now he is in a state of den...

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our Gospel lesson, Luke 7:36-50. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a certain creditor who had two debtors.   One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.   And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both.   Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him more? The answer is obvious, at least to Simon the Pharisee: “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”   But though he gives the right answer, Simon completely misses the point.   As we often do!   For this certain creditor does not keep his books according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).   And we are so oblivious to the extent of the great debt that we have piled up over the years that we can take this forgiveness for granted.   So maybe we should modify the parable a little bit.   There was a certain creditor who had ...