Claimed, gathered and sent

Here are some thoughts on this Sunday's gospel. Please let me know what you see in these verses. Thanks! Gospel: Luke 10:38-42 38 Now as [Jesus and his disciples] went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. 40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42 there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” Just five short verses…but oh does this passage pack a punch. It also raises some questions. On an initial reading, this is what jumps out at me: 1. Is this the same Mary and Martha that were Lazarus’ sisters. If so, where was Laz...

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, July 14 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Luke 10:25-37. Are any of Jesus’ parables more familiar than this one we entitle the Good Samaritan? We think we know it so well. It is hard to see it with new eyes, to go beyond our preconceived notions that we bring with us to this text. But that’s just what we are going to try to do. And I’m going to need your help too. First of all, it’s easy for us to miss the shocking nature of this parable if we start to think that this story is only to teach us to imitate the Samaritan. Parables were intended to be shocking. This parable says so much more to us about God, our relationship to God and the lengths to which God will go to reach out to us. Who is this lawyer who approaches Jesus? Is he like those we hear of on tv and radio ads? No, he isn’t that kind of lawyer. He is an expert in the Torah, in the Old Testament law of God. In other words, he really knows his stuff. Luke write...