Greetings on the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, the first Sunday of the Season of Creation. Highlighting “All things bright and beautiful,” and “I have decided to follow Jesus.”
Our invitation to worship is a prayer asking that we learn to trust God and to resist confiding in our strength and rather rest on God’s mercy. Our first lesson from the Prophet Jeremiah recounts is the reminder that God creates and can create whatever is needed and make exactly what is needed. The Psalmist’s refrain affirms our place as God’s beloved creation and that we are unable to hide or be hidden from God. The New Testament reading from Philemon and is Paul’s request to Timothy to receive Philemon, not as a slave but as a friend. Our Gospel from Luke is a continuation of Jesus’ reminder that the world will not accept our faith and that being faithful has a cost which will, ultimately be, everything of this world.
Our lessons and sermon spotlight the need importance of our faith – that our focus needs to be faith, family, and work – because, without faith, everything else pales. We see Jesus’ recounting that people must hate (may be hated) family/society, not as a prescription, rather as a statement of the world’s reaction to a true life of faith. We are invited to realize that the “inconsequential things” (by human standards) are of such gravity and importance that we need to continue to do the hard work of faith, not something which we will get perfect but something that we will evolve into.
What are we invited to give up that binds us to this world? Who are you called to serve? I invite your comments,
Les+
Readings: Jeremiah 18:1-11; Ps 139:1-5, 12-17; Philemon 1-21; Luke 14:25-33
Sermon link: https://audiomack.com/fatherles-2/song/pentecost-13-sermon
