Grace to you on the Feast of the Holy Cross and the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, a day at the end of a polarizing week in America.
Our invitation to worship is a prayer which declares our dependance on God to do things that please God and that the Holy Spirit directs us and focuses our heart on God. Our first lesson from the Prophet Jeremiah offers the conviction of the Israelites for being foolish and for forgetting God; thus, they receive their just reward. The Psalmist’s refrain echoes the impeachment of those who forget God and act foolish in God’s eyes. The New Testament reading from Paul’s first letter to Timothy recounts Paul’s redemption from being one who actively opposed God by the indwelling of the Spirit. Our Gospel from Luke is recounts two parables – the 1 lost sheep and the woman who loses one coin – and highlights that there will be much rejoicing in heaven about one who repents than any number who don’t repent.
Our lessons and sermon spotlight being a follower of God involves risk in the eyes of society, yet the risk taken on is something which builds community instead of dividing people. Jesus offers inconceivable images of abandoning 99 sheep to find 1 which has wandered off and a woman who loses a coin in her house, lighting a lamp, sweeping the (dirt) floor, and rejoicing that the coin had been found. While these verses help us stand in the radical position calling on God’s strength, they also assure us that there are things which are intrinsically right and good in God’s kingdom, and that our humanity often supplants God’s wisdom with retribution and “othering” – things that will serve to divide.
What are we invited to give up that binds us to this world? Who are you called to serve? I invite your likes and comments,
Les+
Readings: Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10.
Sermon link: https://audiomack.com/fatherles-2/song/pentecost-14-sermon-1
