August 3, 2025 Luke 12: 13-21 Sermon "Some Rando in the Crowd called out to Jesus..." Rev. Peter Hofstra

             Some rando in the crowd called out to Jesus, “Make my brother split the family inheritance!”  I know that scene from a high school educational film on the life I remember being called the Hanging Judge.  This goes back to the last century, I am glad I remembered that much.    I remember it because there was a guy in the crowd there who called upon the judge in a crowd to demand his brother split their inheritance.  To this day, I am convinced that the set up comes from our Scripture passage.  The judge didn’t hang them, but he pointed to one brother and said, “You split the inheritance into two halves.”  Then he pointed to the other brother, “And you get first choice.”

            Jesus’ response to the brother is “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”  In other words, “That is not my job.”  Because it’s the job of a judge.  And I looked up the guy from the educational historic film, Matthew Baillie Begby, first justice of the Supreme Court of the Colony of British Columbia, a couple of centuries back…

            Jesus turns the shoutout to a teaching moment.  “Take care,” he says, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”  As a person highly susceptible to reverse psychology, I embrace one of its logical outgrowths, flipside psychology.  For example, there was a meme that said something like “When we speak of a domestic housewife, does that not presume the existence of a feral housewife?”  In this case, if one’s life does NOT consist in the abundance of possessions, then does it not presume the existence of something else to consist of? 

            To be clear, Jesus does not dismiss being rich.  At passage end, it is in being rich toward God.  I believe there is clarity in figuring out what that means in flipping Jesus’ parable. 

            Many kinds of greed, Jesus says. The 1st and most obvious seems to be verse 16 where Jesus says. “the land of a rich man produced abundantly.” Greed is about the acquisition of stuff. And that certainly follows. “My barns are too small, let me big bigger ones, a place for all my junk.” Well, not junk, the man is not a generic hoarder, but a hoarder of goods and grain.  It is the greed of stuff. I got it, I am not gonna share it.

            In the grand scheme of things, this man is blessed by God.  He’s rich by legal means.  His land produces abundantly. We have seen it in micro form in the vegetables shared in fellowship.  I believe we are going to see it one of these days on Tom’s tomato plant out back (it’s the one with the cross).  But what is different is the man does not recognize God in the process, he wants it, he's going to store it, he's not going to share it, it's all his. Seems like the most obvious development of life not being, not consisting in the abundance of possessions.

            So if that is how not to get rich in God, how do we get rich in God? When it comes to our possessions? The governing principle might be found in the story of the rich young ruler. This is a guy who gains the love of Jesus with all the correct answers about faith.  He also has a lot of stuff, and Jesus tells him you need only one more thing period go, sell everything, and come follow me. Left the guy stumped, because he had so much.

            But it is not the stuff that is bad, it's when the stuff gets in the way of our relationship with God. When the goods and the money and the love of those things is greater than our love of God. We forget that everything we have is God's blessing. The rich man in the parable has clearly forgotten that. So, devoting our stuff to the work of God, instead of to ourselves, that's the flip. That's the connection to being rich in God?

            Behind the abundance of possession, it seems the rich man is good at what he does. He's got a head for business, he's got a head for agriculture, he's got talents. The goods and grains are the rewards of those talents. He uses those talents to get rich. The man's a planner, you can look at his current storage and realize he needs more. He puts a plan in place to pull down the old barns, build new barns, and even with that investment in capital expenditures, they'll still be overflowing with grain and goods.

            All kinds of greeds, Jesus says. Like this include using his talents to get rich, using his talents for himself. I can do this stuff, I do it for me. So what's the flip side of that? I might be influenced by the fact that the Pennsauken library is currently moving from one facility into a new facility, but I think of Andrew Carnegie. One of the richest men in the nation in his day, and he turned those talents from making money for himself to laying the foundation of a Free Library system across this nation. He did it well.  It exists and still thrives today.   

            The rich man of Jesus, he is no Ebenezer Scrooge. There's a line in A Christmas Carol where his nephew comments that Scrooge, while being fantastic in business, although there is no commentary on the ethics of his business practice, does not even use his riches to make himself comfortable. He lives in a couple of rooms on the second floor of a light industrial complex somewhere in London. This rich man, he's got a plan. I am going to retire early and I am going to eat drink and be merry.

            The Bible of Jesus has a whole book about this, the book of Ecclesiastes. Rich guy, Uber rich, has done everything under the sun, And what is his response to all of that? Ecclesiastes 1:2, “Vanity of vanity, he says, Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”  I like the way my Jewish Study Bible translates it. “Utter futility! Utter futility! All is futile! What real gain is there for a man in all the gains he makes beneath the sun?”

            So the rich guy is all set, is going to retire early and get on the party circuit for the next 20, 30, 40 years. Except, God says to him, you fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. All the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

            Being rich in God may be the centerpiece of this passage, but the climax is that we do not simply die, but our life is demanded of us.  So to the grand question of existence, “Is this all, is there nothing more?”, the answer is, quite clearly, there IS more.

We stand before God. We stand before the one who gives us everything. And the gospel is clear that God gives over that throne of judgment to our Lord Jesus Christ. So it's Jesus we are facing.  Lok at the example of Jesus, he gave everything, his talents were invested into his ministry for us. His time was given to us, recorded in the gospels for the generations to come, all invested into God's plan.  And he gave us something far more valuable than riches, than possessions, He gave us His life, his blood, his body, spilled for us, broken for us, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the remembrance of that event which we celebrate as Holy Communion this very morning.

Our lives will be demanded of us before He who tells us to guard against all kinds of greed, of time, of possessions, of ability (all gifts of God).  But not simply He, our Jesus, who warned, us, but He, our Jesus, who showed us by His life, death, and life again, what it means to give all to God, to be rich in God.  The riches of God being eternal life, being perfected as children of God, of living in the perfection of the Kingdom of Heaven, renewed from all sin, death, decay, evil, and brokenness.  Living in the joy of the Lord always.

Which are, in fact, the ultimate goals of those who seek to live a life that does consist in the abundance of possessions, but not in Christ, but in the vain hope they can do it themselves.

Some rando in the crowd called out to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”  Jesus replied, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”  In other words, “That is not my job.”  And then, in explaining why it is NOT his job, Jesus lays out for us what is His job, that we gain the inheritance of heaven.

            So here’s a challenge for us this morning.  As Jesus’ First Presbyterian Church here in Merchantville, when we come to the Lord’s Table this morning, what considerations, what decisions, can we make, as individuals in Jesus and as a Community of faith, to live into this Way of life, into this inheritance that Jesus has laid out for us?  What shall be our response?

            Now, some might call this a “Stewardship sermon”.  That is not what this was intended to be.  If anything, I might call it a “Why Stewardship? sermon.

Amen.   

It Is So Much Easier When The Rich Guy is Also the Bad Guy, Isn't It?

 It would be easier if Jesus made the rich guy a thief or a swindler or a criminal of some kind.  You know, the kind of person who exploits their position and their power for their own gain.  Like they use political clout for their own advantage, to the advantage of themselves and their friends.  For those greedy for power, they twist religious belief to their own advantage, or target somebody because of their race or color or creed or status, to create “those” people, an imaginary enemy to be feared and exploited.  It would be so much easier to dislike someone for whom greed has obviously corrupted their soul.

But that’s not who Jesus lays out for us in his parable.  He works hard.  He did not make his money “the old fashioned way”, by inheriting it (lol).  “The land of a rich man produced abundantly.”  He was good at his business, and lucky.  This is where he has invested his talents.  And it has proven to be to his financial advantage. 

He’s got so much, he decides on the capital investment of enlarging his storage capacity to meet the demands of his surplus (how does that sound for trying to speak ‘economics’?)  He’s got a plan for all this stuff, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.’  It’s easy to dislike Jesus’ rich guy because he’s hogging the wealth.  It would be SO much easier if he were exploitative and arrogant about his wealth.  But it is easy to see the jealousy lying at the root of feelings of dislike.  The man earned his treasure and he’s made the choice that he is going to sit on it, save it up for himself.

Then our rich man evolves a plan when he comes to this realization, ‘And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’  I can identify with that plan.  Imagine winning the lottery?  Whatcha gunna do?  Get off the merry-go-round of life, like the man says, “Eat, drink, and be merry.”  That is where he is going to put his time, use his riches, invest the results of his talents, to fund the stereotypical ‘lifestyle of the rich and famous’.  Leisure, lazy, whatever catches his fancy.  Maybe there is a party circuit, like Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, and Damascus or something. 

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

It would be easier if the rich man was a villain.  Easier to look at him in a negative light, to consider him one of ‘those’ people.  But its not easy because we live in the United States, and there is an American dream of freedom and prosperity.  Economically, that is defined by the ‘free enterprise’ system, the capitalist system.  Someone once said that we do not live in a society of the rich and poor, but live in a society of the rich and those aspiring to be rich.  There is some powerful truth going on there.    

The passage concludes with “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” 

So there’s the ‘hook’, if you will.  For Sunday’s sermon, a consideration of what, based on the parable Jesus has given to us, does it look like to be “rich toward God?” 

Peace,

pastor pete

“All Kinds of Greed”

There Jesus gives us something to think about.  There isn’t just one kind of greed.  But can we expand on what 'kinds' there are as we read Jesus' words?  This got my brain going.  Is there greed in the very event that spurred these words by our Lord Jesus?  It begins with a demand that Jesus tell one brother to split the family inheritance with the other brother.  We could speculate ad nauseum on what this means exactly.

But greed is not just about wanting 'more' as its own end.  How often is greed wanting what someone else has?  I don’t have it, you do, and I want it.  Makes me think of kids and toys.  There is the toy the one kid hasn’t touched in forever until their sibling dares to pick it up.  His brother has the inheritance and he wants it!

There is greed to be found in seeking favor.  This one person is seeking the intervention of Jesus in the matter of the inheritance.  Might there be another authority that he could appeal to?  Judges or something among the Jewish leadership?  The gospel records a whole lot of different kinds of leaders among the Jews.  Certainly, there must be someone appropriate for the issue.  But go to Jesus, the one whose power is on the rise, seems indisputable, is doing amazing, powerful things in the name of God.  Maybe greed feels like ‘bragging rights’. “I got JESUS on my brother…”  I think there is a reason Jesus did not baptize anyone himself, but left that to his disciples.  Precisely to prevent someone boasting their greed that they got Jesus' 'real' baptism.

In his parable, Jesus outlines what is typically considered as greed, that our life does not consist of an abundance of possessions.  I am not what I have.  Which leads us to the rich man.  His lands produce abundantly.  He does not have enough barns to store all the crops.  He’s got barns, and I think it is fair to say that with those barns filled to the brim, he’s got more than enough.  So, tear them down and build bigger ones!  Man’s got grain and got goods!!  He is just out for more and more and more without any consideration to anyone else.

Then there is greed for what abundance can provide.  A life of leisure, to eat, drink and be merry!  (Note the word Merry, not Happy...)  No more work, no more responsibilities in the world.  Party time!  Leisure, eating, drinking, being merry, none of these are greedy unto themselves.  In discerning greedy behavior, look at the motivations.  This is not something shared.  This is very individual.  The rich man has it, is going to spend it, all for himself.  That's the greed.

But no matter what kind of greed, or how many kinds of greed that someone pursues, there is the great equalizer that shall not be overcome.  Be as rich and greedy as you want, gather as much as you can, trample whoever you can to get there, but it will NEVER save you.  Each of our lives will be demanded from us someday.  Question is where our hearts are, with God or not, to move to what is promised in Christ Jesus.

Peace

pastor pete

Luke 12: 13-21 Our Scripture for Sunday With A Retelling. The Parable of the Rich Man Whose Life is Demanded of Him.

Luke 12: 13-21 

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” ¹⁴ But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” ¹⁵ And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” ¹⁶ Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. ¹⁷ And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ ¹⁸ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ ²¹ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Luke 12: 13-21, A Retelling.

            Somebody in the crowd decided that Jesus was important enough and honest enough to correct a wrong.  Mr. Somebody wants arbitration for his father's final will and estate.  Jesus does everything else, so he ought to do this too?  It is not the first time Jesus has been asked to intervene in a sibling dispute.  Remember Mary and Martha from a few Sundays ago?

            Jesus’ initial response, “So who put me in charge of your life?”  Nobody except Mr. Somebody. 

            Jesus turns this moment into the opportunity to talk about greed.  As in, DON’T BE greedy.  One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.  Or, to put it another way, whoever dies with the most DOES NOT ‘win’ the game of life.  Then...a parable to illuminate.

            There is a rich man.  He has so much stuff he has no place to keep it.  Thus, the obvious solution is to build more storage!!  Then there is my favorite line in the parable, the Rich Man says, "I will say to my soul, Soul, time to relax and party."  And God said, “You are a fool because you are going to die tonight.”  Except God does not say the rich man is going to die this night but “your life is being demanded of you.” Feels like there is a reckoning about to happen.  “Now then", God continues, “Who gets your stuff?” 

I wonder if Jesus looked back over at Mr. Somebody in that moment.  

Then comes the punchline.  You people who store up treasures and grain and stuff and money, you will die and it will come to nothing IF you are not rich with God. 

Peace

pastor pete

 

Sermon for Sunday, July 27, 2025: Luke 11: 1-13

 “When the Prayer is Jesus’ Own”         Rev. Peter Hofstra

            “Lord, teach us to pray…”  It’s not like they couldn’t before.  There is a powerful tradition of prayer in Judaism.  But notice that the request comes with a clarifier.  Lord, as John taught his disciples, teach us to pray.”  Like the prayers of John the Baptist are something different from what came before.

            Jesus begins the lesson, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name…”  I believe we have learned that lesson well.  Consider the prayers that are part of our own worship service, including our service of healing and wholeness.  In our unison prayer of confession, we lead with ‘merciful God’.  Our call to worship, begins as joyful prayer ‘God is SO good…’  Today is our service of healing.  How do we begin?  We pray our way in with the words of Psalm 130, “Out of the depths, I cry to you O Lord…”  Our call and response then, the “Q&A” segment, based on our Sending Statement, begins with the same presumption, “Who are we, the church family of Merchantville, that we come prayerfully before our Father in heaven?”  And we close the liturgy again, in the name of the Father, “Father, in your mercy, hear our prayers…”  Our offertory prayer is also in the name of the Father as we ask Him to bless the gifts we give back for God’s work in this church and in this community.’

            In addition to giving us the template of wording that continues in our Lord’s Prayer, offered weekly to this day, the prayer lessons include two other integral components.  The first is persistence.  If you read the blog, you will find that I had great fun looking at the parable Jesus tells of what should go into our persistence in prayer. 

            The second is the guarantee of response.  As we have sung in service, “ask and it will be given, search and you will find, knock, and the door will be opened for you.”  Not only is a response guaranteed but the quality of the response is also given, in another mini-parable.  Ask for fish, we do not receive snakes.  Ask for eggs, we do not receive scorpions.  The windup is wonderful.  If EVIL parents give their children good things, how much more will God give YOU good things when you ask (because God isn’t evil)

            More specifically, “how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”  In terms of our Trinitarian understanding of God, in God the Father we ask, and in God the Holy Spirit, we receive response.

            Now, as I got to this point in preparing for this morning, I hit something of a crossroads in my thought processes.  It is about the ‘giving of the Holy Spirit’.  Should this be the point in the sermon where we move down that path?  What are the things we might need to know?  In the bible of Jesus, “Holy Spirit” is a gift from God that elevates the recipient.  Samsom gains superstrength.  Isaiah gains the power of prophecy and speaking the Lord’s Word to the people.  David gains the power of kingship, becoming THE pattern of faithful leadership to God.  Moses is able to do the work of more than seventy accomplished leaders-there is a passage where part of the spirit upon Moses was divided among seventy others to help him with the work of running the landless nation of Israel. 

            In the Bible of the Church, the Holy Spirit is the power that jump starts the church at Pentecost.  In John 14, the Holy Spirit is what Jesus self-identifies as the divine presence that will remain with His followers after He as ascended into heaven.  There are the fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, the inspiration of the Spirit.  We could deep dive into the swimming pool that is the Holy Spirit and explore far and wide how the gift of the Spirit is the answer God sends to prayer.

            Or we could flip it.  Let me explain.  We have Bible Study on Wednesday evenings.  One evening, a number of our phones kept buzzing-some we could hear but I know other phones were also going off as well.  It was the prayer-net all abuzz.  We had a real-time request being lifted in prayer to the 20 people who make up this prayer group.  We had real-time responses, real-time updates, and real-time resolution, prayers answered to the relief and calm of the person we were praying for.

            That’s what it means when Jesus says that our Father in heaven gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask.  Prayers answered are the demonstrable evidences of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  What does that look like?

            The person being prayed for is undergoing medical care for their situation.  The gift of the Holy Spirit comes in the hands and talents of the nurses and doctors and others who are on hand to provide the interventions that will lead to healing.  The gift of the Holy Spirit comes in the hands and text messages of a group of people who have committed to being on standby to pray when the need comes down the pike.  Twenty people in the one group, fourteen listed in the other I have on my phone, no idea how many others are out there.  Perhaps this crosses over into the lesson on persistence in the middle part of our passage that Jesus provides for his ‘prayer lessons’.  Ane while not in this case, there was another where the person in question knew about the activation of the prayer-net, and the feedback I received is how blown away they were at the reality that there were people who cared enough to pray, but in that reality were able to find the peace of the Lord, another expression of the gift of the Holy Spirit, surrounding them in what might have been panicked and dire circumstances otherwise. 

            This is one episode in the life of the prayer-net of this church.  On a given weekday evening, when a request drops into the net, do we begin with the words “Our Father in Heaven”?  Probably not.  But we pray those words every week.  Every time the Lord’s Prayer is offered, the persistence of our life in Christ in prayer is reinforced.  The Holy Spirit is gifted to us every time around.  Does that mean we receive the Holy Spirit afresh every time we say the Lord’s Prayer?  No, that turns the Lord’s prayer into some kind of conjuring magic.  The gift of the Holy Spirit is given to each and every one of us when we come to Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  The reason we pray this prayer always and every time we worship is not because God needs to be reminded of that, but because WE DO.

            This is one episode where we can clearly see the appeal to God the Father and the work accomplished in answer to our prayer through the Holy Spirt.  But what is the guarantee?  How do we know?  Well, to quote some of the most powerful wisdom of the church, “Our hope is built on nothing less that Jesus and his righteousness.”  That’s another piece that would do well in a hymn, don’t you think?

            We depend on prayer because we depend on Jesus, our Lord and Savior, as He who came down and stood with us, between the Father above and the Holy Spirit within.  John the Baptist knew that, had seen that, was called to prophecy to that, baptized our Lord Jesus and saw how the baptism of the Holy Spirit came upon him over and above the sign of the baptism of water.  So, consider this, John taught his disciples how to pray in a way where Jesus formed the central emplacement of the sure and certain knowledge that He is our Messiah, that, in Him, prayer is answered.

            That is a piece that is not in the bible of Jesus when prayer is offered.  There is faith in the Lord to answer prayer, there is even the expectation of a Messiah, but the bible of Jesus ebbs and flows, not with God’s faithfulness, but with the faithfulness of humanity.  Until Jesus.  Until His death of the cross, the final sacrifice by the blood of the Lamb, capital “L”, one of the most powerful names we have for our Lord Jesus Christ, in turn the guarantee of life eternal in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. 

            What exactly did John teach his disciples in prayer that was of such appeal to the disciples of Jesus?  We don’t know.  But it is worth repeating that what was different for John and his disciples from all the prayers that came before, is that they were built upon the assurance of the reality of God’s promised Messiah standing among them in the person of Christ Jesus.  And Jesus himself has said that, in faith, if they tell a mountain to jump into the sea, it will do a swan dive in the name of the Lord.

            So, I see this passage as sudden insight and wisdom on the part of the disciples.  They’ve lived in the presence of the light of the world.  Their hope is built on nothing less.  John is gone (his beheading is reported earlier in the chapter).  Jesus has said there will be a time he no longer stands among them.  How then can they be sure that they will remain fully and properly ‘in touch’ with Jesus in that time?  Jesus teaches them.  And it is the gift of prayer, the gift of the Holy Spirit, that we continue to see at work as we pray.

Hallelujah and thanks be to God.

Amen.

Think of the Weirdest Person and Prayer You Have Been Witness To, Compare That To Jesus' Rules of Prayer

So the disciples come to Jesus with the request that He teach them how to pray “as John taught his disciples”.  We have no way to compare, because we do not have a record of John (this one being John the Baptist) when he was conducting ‘prayer lessons’.  Of course, Jesus (being Jesus), would he actually use John’s syllabus on prayer?  Probably not.

So, to start, Lesson #1, Jesus goes with the obvious.  Words.  And I say that like its obvious, but it might not be to some people.  I have seen people who appear to need to enter come kind of emotionally altered state in order to pray.  Hands clenched, eyes squeezed shut, body bent at an unnatural angle, some deep breathing (I suppose to hyper-oxygenate the blood?), and they’re off.  Sometimes there is an earnestness that feels like the person is seeking to pulse it outward in palpable waves.  My grandfather, before saying grace, used to bow his head, fold his hands, and then take a couple of heartbeats.  He had thick, thick eyebrows and I remember growing up thinking that he was scanning the table looking for stragglers in the ‘eye-closing’ department.  But then he prayed in a mumbling undertone that might have been English, might have Dutch (his native language); he might have been speaking in tongues for all I could perceive.

Jesus’ "prayer words" are on point.  First, remember Our Father, that He is Holy.  Give the Lord His due.  Then, remember the big mission, “Your kingdom come.”  In the "now", we have a lot going on, but we want Jesus back first and foremost.  I mean, Jesus is not gone yet in the gospel story, but its coming.  Jesus is clear on that point.  Next, remember the little mission, “Feed us today, day by day, each day, daily bread.”  Don’t get caught up with stuff.  Then, what comes around, goes around.  “Forgive our sins…like we forgive others…”  In one of the other gospels, that’s becomes a whole thing (Matthew 6).  But here, in Luke, it is golden rule stuff.  "Forgive unto others as You would have Jesus forgive unto you" (sort of).  God is not there simply to wave His hand and vanish our sins.  We need to learn from Him, imitate Christ, and do unto others.

We don’t get to stand on some kind of prideful box and claim forgiveness and salvation while selectively deciding who doesn't get the gift of salvation through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  I mean, we can, we have sin and free will.  But there are consequences.  How we decide to forgive is the measure Jesus will use to forgive us.  (Seriously, take some time to think on that one).

The final 'word' bit seems to speak to that, do not bring us into a time of trial.  May we not be tempted to claim forgiveness for ourselves but presume to judge everybody else.  Or maybe just ignore everybody else. 

Lesson #2, be persistent.  Not repetitive, but persistent.  I love the image Jesus lays down.  Pray like you are pounding on the door of your friend’s house at midnight after he has gone to bed-his sleep already interrupted by the bad dreams plaguing his children (maybe of crazy people banging on the door in the wee hours of the morning because they are hungry) so that he’s let the whole tribe of them invade HIS bed because he has them all up in bed with him, after which he locked down and sealed the family into their home to the fearful satisfaction of his children so that the crazy people from their dreams can’t get in and, from the depths of their overactive imaginations, carry off the ‘tastiest’ one as a meal; during which dad has developed a migraine trying to settle the argument over which kid ‘tastes’ the best…  Pray with such persistence that your friend (former friend?) will get up and wade through all of this insanity just to shove the three loaves of bread (NOT the tastiest kid) into your hands just to get rid of you and restore peace.  Not because of friendship, not because of love, but because it is the lesser evil, the greater and FAR MORE SATISFYING evil being to throttle you on his doorstep.

 For the sake of emphasis, I may have...inflated...the narrative a teeny bit.   

Finally, Lesson #3, prayer comes with a guarantee.  Ask, it’ll be given.  Search, you’ll find.  Knock, the door’ll open for you.   And it will be the good stuff.  Nobody gives their kid a snake when they ask for a fish.  Nobody gives their kid a scorpion when they ask for an egg.  NOT EVEN EVIL PEOPLE DO THAT!!  

The Guarantee: “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Peace

pastor pete

They Are The Disciples: Why Has It Taken So Long To Ask About Prayer?

The deep thought that prompted this blog post about the Lord’s Prayer is “Why are they asking now?”  What are bringing the disciples to the Lord at this moment, in the eleventh of twenty four chapters, to ask after prayer?  One rule of life I seek to follow is that if I am going to raise a problem, to consider a fix.

My 'fix' for this question is that something had triggered the event.  I was on a walkabout and the story that ran through my head was the story of the Recalcitrant Demon that the disciples were unable to exorcise so the "Big Gun"-Jesus-was called in (and he did).  As I recalled, Jesus’ reply was that some demons could only be driven out by prayer.  That episode is recorded in Luke, chapter 9, beginning at verse 37.  It is also recorded in Mark and Matthew.  But only Mark records the detail of Jesus’ response, “This kind can come out only through prayer.”

Does this dismiss the possibility of a connection?  No, the gospels are complimentary to each other, each with their emphases and focal points in the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. 

But Luke does provide a ‘triggering event’ at the beginning of Luke 11.  Jesus was in a time of prayer and the disciples were observing this faithful observance.  They (the disciples) observe that John (the Baptist) taught his disciples how to pray and they want to learn.  Luke does record John’s death by beheading back in chapter 9, so there might be a connection there-especially since, later in chapter 9, Jesus tells them that he too shall see betrayal into human hands.

The plain reading is they see what Jesus is doing and they want to learn.  It seems to have something to do with John, because John gave ‘prayer lessons’, perhaps his final legacy after his beheading?  Now Jesus is talking about that happening to himself...  It could have to do with the Recalcitrant Demon.  After all, in Mark, Jesus specifics that this ‘kind’ requires prayer to exorcise.  But in Matthew, although Jesus does not invoke the ‘prayer cure’, he does present as frustrated with their lack of faith in being able to toss the demon...so maybe some kind of 'faith vitamins' to build their strength?  

Pull all these details together and there is a compelling case for learning to pray.  Knowing that other people of faith have this ‘learning’ and that it seems to serve them well (in this case, the followers of John the Baptist).  Knowing that there are some things that do not seem achievable in the faith except by prayer (Mark’s telling of the Recalcitrant Demon).  Knowing that Jesus has been upset with us (the disciples) for displaying weakness of faith (Matthew’s telling of the Recalcitrant Demon).  Knowing that Jesus is speaking of the day when the disciples will be operating on their own because Jesus predicts an endpoint to his life and ministry (Like the whole New Testament).

But the overarching point, Jesus is fully powered up in the Father.  His faith is without issue.  His healing capacity is unmatched.  And he spends a whole lot of time in personal, private, out-of-the-public-eye prayer with his Father in heaven.   

Some people get caught up in the dynamics, the mechanics of prayer.  What do I say?  How often do I say? What are my intentions?  What are expected results?  Those are not wrong questions, but understanding the “why”, there is the first question.  The disciples have had a bunch of chapters to wonder ‘why’ Jesus is so good at what He does.  Maybe this is why we are almost halfway through the gospel before they get up the nerve to ask ‘what’ and ‘how’?

Peace

pastor pete

Luke 11: 1-13: Scripture Lesson for Sunday, July 27, 2025

Luke 11: 1-13

11 He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” ² So he said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, may your name be revered as holy.
    May your kingdom come.
³     Give us each day our daily bread.
⁴     And forgive us our sins,
        for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
    And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

⁵ And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, ⁶ for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ ⁷ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

⁹ “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ¹¹ Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for a fish, would give a snake instead of a fish? ¹² Or if the child asked for an egg, would give a scorpion? ¹³ If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Sermon for July 20, 2025: Luke 10: 38-42

            What I like about a study bible are the footnotes.  Not because they provide me the “proper and accepted” interpretation of a particular bible passage, but they provide a starting point.    As in today’s passage, “In the story about Mary and Martha, Jesus insisted that a right balance must be maintained between the life of active service and that of quiet meditation and communion with the Lord.  Serving Jesus a meal was not as important as sitting at his feet and learning what he had to teach.”

            This clarified for me a struggle about ‘balance’ and putting the sisters on a continuum, from work, aka “Martha” to communion, aka “Mary”.  The footnote calls for balance but definitely skews the ‘correct’ behavior toward the quiet meditative end of the range.

            Next step, read the passage and the footnote, see if they resonate with each other.  This time they did not.  The Bible expresses in a verse or two what other literature might take chapters to unfold.  Consider Martha.  She welcomed Jesus into her home.  I cannot help but connect this to what happens at the beginning of Luke 10.  The 72 are sent out two by two to prepare the way of the Lord across the towns and villages Jesus is preparing to visit.  It feels like Martha has been prepared and is now preparing, because she’s heard Jesus is on his way.

            When Jesus gets there, Mary chooses to sit at his feet and listen, and Martha is left on her own to do all the work.  The Bible says, in a bit of understatement, “Martha was distracted by her many tasks…”  But then she loses it completely, comes out into the public view of Jesus, Mary, and whoever else is gathered there and not only tries to embarrass Jesus onto her side of her troubles, but she publicly shames her sister in the process.

            “Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?”  Jesus, who cares for us so much that He is on the way to giving His life for us in a most cruel and dreadful manner?  “Tell her then to help me.”  I was thinking about how this might translate to today.  Imagine I have kids here in church and their enthusiasm tends to skew their behavior.   Then, when we have a time of joys and concerns before the pastoral prayer, somebody stands up and looks at me and says, “Pastor, don’t you care that I am trying to worship here?  Curb your offspring.”

            Martha is not looking for balance, she is looking for help.  She is crying out for help.  She is so burnt and resentful that she will shame the people closest to her in her personal pain. 

            To look at life around us, I see more connections in Martha with the ads I get for pastoral burnout on Social Media.  I see connections to the frustrations and resentments of people who are committed to their churches and their congregations, only to see things continuing to shrink and shrivel, no matter how hard we try.  Martha is trying so desperately to keep things going in the welcoming of the Savior that she’s lost sight of what the Savior is even doing there in the first place.

            Jesus’ response might be mistaken as our Lord tossing her a softball in reply, something quiet and easy for her to respond to.  “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things…”  It is straight to the point, Jesus sees into her heart and speaks her truth.  She is worried, she is distracted.  He names what he, as the Son of God, sees as her moment.  But while He names her feelings, He also holds her accountable for her behavior.  Mary shall not be shamed and he shall not be blamed.

            “There is need of only one thing.”  (key word NEED).  Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

            What has Mary picked?  It is not simply a life of quiet meditation and communion with the Lord.  She has taken her place at the feet of Jesus to receive from Him the only thing that is NEEDED.  She needs Jesus. 

            She needs Jesus as we need Jesus, our Savior whose death and resurrection have brought to us God’s mercy, God’s forgiveness, and God’s salvation from our sins.  In a world where all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  In a world where the devil appears to reign supreme (He thinks he does).  In a world that is broken, our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus and his righteousness.  We ought to put that in a hymn.

            Why was Martha so overwhelmed by it all?  I believe it was because this was Jesus in her house and she wanted everything to be up to the standards of have God in the room.  That’s something I see in church as well.  Arguments and disagreements and mis-statements and faults that arise in the church setting, they seem to last longer and dig deeper into the lives of church folks than they do in the rest of life.  Every six months or so someone will come to me and tell me about something deeply personal and cutting that has happened to them in their church or religious life and I am falling back to full pastoral care mode.  Let me listen, let me care, let me bring the love. 

            Then I find out it happened five or fifteen or more years ago.  My favorite was the thing that happened to grandparents that not only their kids, but their grandkids talked like it happened to them.  It was fifty seven years, but to hear it, you’d think they just had a fight after choir practice.

            It blows my mind, but I think arguments here carry more weight, because they carry into our spiritual lives.  Like Martha, church folks want everything to be up to the standards of having God in the room.  We are at our most personal and vulnerable here. 

            Which is why Jesus brings Martha back to the need for one thing, and one thing only.  And that is the love of Jesus Christ.  That is basking in the glow of the Light of the World.  That is the sure and certain knowledge that it is Jesus who is our Lord and Savior.  That ultimately, it comes down to that one on one relationship.  Jesus has done EVERYTHING and all I need do is open my heart to him.  And the rest will follow.

            I would go so far as to say that the potential to burnout and the fears of irrelevance and the feelings of resentment to those ‘not doing enough’ come from we ourselves slipping away from the one thing that we need.  There is a word for this in the techno-babble of Christianity.  It’s called ‘contemplation’.  It’s more basic than the things we do, its more basic than the words we share, even the prayers that we might offer.  It is loving God at a most foundational, soul-based level of our existence.  There are Christians who have specialized in this across the history of the church.  We label them as “Mystics” and, quite frankly, such folks can appear a little…well…nuts.

            But what Jesus is telling Martha, what Mary has received, that shall not be taken from her, is raw exposure to the love of God and, in returning that love, moving through all of what the beauty and forgiveness of Jesus is.  It is not simply accepting the death and resurrection of Jesus for our salvation, it is living into all that means at the deepest levels of our being.  Disease and crime and violence and brokenness and addiction and everything that rips us down as human beings, it melts into healing and peace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ.  And when we are anchored in that hope, in that strength, in that reality, our foundation is upon Jesus.

            From there, our love of God, meditatively and contemplatively considered, the rest of it comes.  The work we do, the hospitality we show, the haven of a congregational life that we built to be intentionally safe, intentionally loving, and intentionally connectional, all of that flows from simply floating in the joy of being God’s own (this is why I call mystics “weird”, when they try to describe in words the whole reality of living into God’s love).

            So its not a balance at all.  Martha’s work does not balance with Mary’s quite meditation.  One flows from the other.  Martha needs what Mary has received so that the gifts that Martha has to share will flow out of a sense of gratitude, peace, and cooperation with the love of Jesus in the world instead of a sense of necessity, responsibility, and resentment.  I want to versus I have to.

            Where Martha was, we are.  We have the same stuff going on today.  We have pressures, we have problems, it can feel like we are flapping in the breeze.  What she needed, we need.  There is one thing that we truly need, only one thing.  And that is to sit at the feet of our Lord and allow all his truth, all his love, all his strength, all of HIM, to fill us, empower us, embolden us, excite us, and lead us back into the world where we, His Presbyterian Church in Merchantville, will celebrate Him.

Amen.

Rev. Peter Hofstra

Introducing Some of Jesus’ Friends: Mary and Martha

 These two sisters are the centerpiece of our passage from Luke 10.  While this is the only “Martha” in the gospels, this “Mary” needs to be distinguished from the others.  In particular, she should not be confused with Mary, the mother of Jesus, or Mary Magdalene. 

Mary and Martha are from Bethany, not Magdala (thus 'Magdalene').  Although this detail is NOT in Luke, but the gospel of  John.  Luke says when Jesus entered a ‘certain’ village, Martha welcomed her into her home.  It would seem that this follows on from the beginning of Luke 10, where the seventy two were sent out to prepare the way of the Lord.

In our passage for Sunday, Mary is the one who sits at the feet of Jesus and Martha is the one who is called to sit at the feet of Jesus.  But this is not the only time we read about them.

Turns out they have a brother, whose name is Lazarus.  In the gospel of John, we read of the death of Lazarus and the powerful miracle of Jesus to bring him back to life.  In John 11, Jesus spends time with each sister, not to forestall their grief by news of the coming miracle, but rather to share with them, to weep with them, to be there for them in this broken time in their lives.

Mary and Martha return to the gospel account in the next chapter in John.  We are coming to the moment of the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, the beginning of Holy Week in our celebrations.  In this case, Martha is mentioned as serving the dinner, Lazarus is at the table, but it is Mary who stands out.

It is recorded that Mary anointed Jesus feet, and wiped them clean with her hair.  This event is recorded in other gospels, but it is in John where Mary is identified by name.  She is remembered for this because Jesus tells us she is anointing him for  his coming burial. 

Many other details surround these interactions.  Those details are surely worthy of closer reading and interpretation.  But there are many people who have, for want of a better expression, 'minor roles' in the life and ministry of Jesus.  But their presence should be acknowledged, for even in few verses, their personalities are drawn out and their humanity in the face of the Son of God is laid bare.  In them, we see Jesus as human too, living and loving and learning.  It is a reality that comes across at a different level than from a parable or the interaction with an anonymous crowd.

I treasure these moments in the gospel for the personal connections they offer to our Messiah.

Peace,

pastor pete

A Living Parable: Luke 10: 38-42

 It is a living parable, isn’t it?  The story of Mary and Martha.  Mary listens at the feet of Jesus, Martha is busy with pretty much everything.  So Martha complains to Jesus, “Make Mary help…”  The most human moment is how Martha leads into that question, “Jesus, don’t you care that I’m doing everything?”

Who might dismiss that as an attempt by Martha to make Jesus feel guilty?  But there is something far more powerful there.  It’s a confession of vulnerability.  She’s feeling overwhelmed.  That is hard to own and share.  So bury the admission in a challenge.  Add some personal ‘protection’ against vulnerability.

And Jesus response?  "There is only one thing that is important here, and Mary has found it."  But, like Martha, he does not just drop the response and dismiss where Martha ‘is coming from’.  He looks right into her heart, she is worried and distracted by many things; she is working desperately to keep her head above water.   

See how this connects to Jesus’ actual parables?  A recurring theme is how the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.  Martha seems to be "one of  the few", the epitome of the church ‘busy person’, all churches have them, always doing. 

Jesus does not tell a parable about burnout.  Here we cross into real life.  Martha is overwhelmed and overburdened.  She is seeking to serve but at the cost of her basic relationship with Christ.

Notice her words, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her, then, to help me.”  Those are words that should be ringing alarm bells for us.  She is SO devoted to the Lord’s work that the 'work' is displacing Jesus.  She is SO close to burning out she is going after the closest people in her life.  If she has not crossed over as yet, she is on the border of her foundational relationship with Jesus being built not on love but on resentment.

And Jesus calls her back.  Not only is Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet to listen to him, it IS the better part.  It will not be taken from her.  It is an invitation for Martha to do the same thing.  Come to the feet of the Lord, sit and be filled with the words and grace of the Messiah.

This is why Sabbath is so important.  In the law of Moses, all the prep work is legally moved off that day (look up the gathering of manna in the wilderness) so on the Sabbath, they shall just ‘be’ in the Lord.  It is why sabbaticals are important, times to refresh and renew in the Lord.  One of my favorite writers is a Franciscan monk who talks about the enforced times of Sabbath, where the members of the Order are taken off the line and returned to be immersed in the love and community of Christ Jesus.

We have a word for that in life, that word is “balance”.  Mary represents one edge, simple contemplation, just being in the presence of the Lord, acknowledging that which is wonderful in the light of the Savior.  Martha is the other edge, service, serving the Lord, doing for Jesus, doing for others.  A full life in Christ brings the examples of Mary and Martha together.

Peace

pastor pete

Luke 10: 38-42 is our Scripture Lesson for Sunday, July 20, 2025.

This is where it begins.

Luke 10: 38-42

³⁸ Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him. ³⁹ She had a sister named Mary, who sat at Jesus’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 but few things are needed—indeed only one. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Peace,

pastor pete 

Sermon for July 13, 2025: Luke 10: 25-37

 Sermon: July 13, 2025                        Luke 10: 25-37

Rev. Peter Hofstra                   “What Does It Mean To Be A Neighbor?”

            Seems like in some parts of the gospel, people are just lining up to take on Jesus.  Challenge him on this point or that point.  Today, we have a legal expert, coming to challenge Jesus for all the marbles, nothing less than Jesus’ eternal promise.

            “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

            Now remember, Jesus does not have the Bible of the Church, our gathered Old and New Testaments.  The bible of Jesus is the Old Testament.  But Jesus flips the question, “What does the bible say?”  Or more precisely, “What does the law say?  What do you read there?”

            And the lawyer replies, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” 

            These words occur in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  There are a couple of points of interest here.  First, in Matthew and Mark, it is Jesus who utters them.  Here, it is a legal expert, indicating this summary is a bigger legal precept of the time.  Secondly, it seems sufficient to answer the legal challenge.

            Jesus said, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” 

This introductory bit often gets lost in the power of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, but look at its fundamental implications.  So, in the bible Jesus knew, eternal life is achieved in loving God and loving neighbor, while in the bible Jesus has given, loving God is accepting Jesus, the Lamb of God who died to take away the sins of the world, is accepting the Jesus who rose to new life with the free gift of salvation and forgiveness that opens the way to the gift of life eternal.   

            You think Jesus looked at the lawyer with expectation as he considered, “What will he think of next?”  And the lawyer does not disappoint. 

            Can you imagine the lawyer, desperate to pick a hole in Jesus’ response.  Except Jesus essentially said nothing, He got the lawyer to say it all.  Okay, okay, okay, okay…love God…how do I pick that apart?  Heart, soul, strength, and mind…  Can I poke at the question of someone being in their right mind?  That has possibilities?

Can you imagine the lawyer putting Jesus Christ on the Stand, “Mr. Christ, do you believe you were in your right mind when you expressed the totality of the mind is required to love God?”

            And Jesus would reply, “I did not say that, YOU did.”

            What is the weak point of any legal argument?  Religious or civil?  People!  We are the weak link, always have been.  So, to vindicate himself (which the Oxford Languages portion of the Google defines as “clearing someone of blame”), to clear himself of the blame of proving Jesus was right!!, “And who is my neighbor?” 

Put Jesus Christ back on the stand, “So, Mr. Christ, how would you define someone to qualify as my “neighbor”?”  And Jesus, as Son of God, would be well credentialled to answer that question.

            “Well councilor,” Jesus might answer from the witness box, “Let me tell you a story.” 

            A man is beaten, stripped of all his possessions, and left for dead.  If we are going to talk about who “my neighbor” is, first thing to define is me.  I’m the one lying there, bleeding out on the Jerusalem-Jericho turnpike.  With the one eye that isn’t puffed shut, I see someone coming.  I know those clothes, that outfit.  He’s a priest, leader of the people, servant of God in the temple, God’s own…maybe I can croak out a plea…till I watch him cross the road, barely glance in my direction, and walk on.

            A while later, there are more footsteps.  Not a priest, but his outfit is also familiar.  He’s a Levite, of the tribe of Levi, dressed to serve in the temple.  Not sacrifice-makers, but the ones who do all the day to day stuff to keep the temple functioning.  Not holier than thou, but a servant of God nonetheless…and I can’t get any words out, but I wave a hand, the one not broken…and I watch him cross the road, practically run past me.

            Then there’s the third guy, this one riding a donkey.  His clothes are unfamiliar…sort of…he looks different.  Maybe he stops and says something, but his accent is strange.  He’s a Samaritan!  The unloved.  Those hypocrites who claim to love God but refuse to worship where God said to worship, in Jerusalem…then, as Jesus tells it;

But a Samaritan while traveling came upon him, and when he saw him he was moved with compassion. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him, and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 

            Now Jesus has the lawyer on the stand, “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 

            It’s obvious, “The one who showed him mercy.”

            Jesus says, “Go and do likewise.”  Which means “be that neighbor.”  Jesus deliberately chose the Samaritan, the outsider, not a non-believer, but worse, a corrupt believer, a hypocrite, one who mocks God, a person and a race who are taboo, who are ‘those people’, who are the enemy, the unloved, who stand for all that is not “proper”, “approved”, “preferred” believers. 

Doesn’t matter.  Be that neighbor, show mercy.

            I wonder if that law expert continued to follow Jesus, maybe in the news, after this confrontation.  Maybe he was in Jerusalem for the arrest, on the edges of the crowds calling for Jesus’ crucifixion, maybe there on Calvary to see what was done to Jesus.  I wonder if he was there in the aftermath, when the rumors and then the reality of Jesus’ resurrection took hold in the land?  I wonder, I hope, that he came to a day in his own life where he accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, and, in that moment, realized that the Samaritan Jesus described in His parable, it was foreshadowing the mercy that Christ, at the expense of his own life, showed to the world?

            So here’s the thing.  In a few minutes, we are going to welcome Parker into this family of faith, this congregation for whom the gift of eternal life is assured in Jesus Christ and is promised to those who love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our mind and our neighbor as ourselves. 

            What this church has done, in the preparation for calling their new pastor-long winded fellow that he might be-and in preparation to live into God’s law as given, is to prepare a Sending Statement.  For those of you not familiar with that, you might recognize it as a “Mission Statement”.  But Jesus said in the gospel of John, “As the Father has sent me so I am sending you.”  What can I say, Bible geek here, I like Bible language.

That sending statement is on the back cover of our bulletins.  We’ve been walking through it, laying it alongside Scripture these last few weeks.

            Today, our focus is on “we make the love of God real to our neighbors as we seek to live out Scripture and grow in faith.”  And if we take nothing else away from this Scripture today, take away this.  How do we make the love of God real to our neighbors?”  When we are the ones who show mercy.

            And if we fall back to the objection of our legal expert, “So who’s our neighbor?”  Jesus’ response flips it, “Who is NOT our neighbor?”  So, to everyone shall this congregation take the call to live out Scripture, take the call to grow in faith, take the call to make the love of God real. 

            They are our neighbors.  We are their neighbors. 

            The world today is a lot like in the time of Jesus.  People were lining up to take on Jesus.  They were there to challenge him on this point and on that point.  Feels like the world is lining up to take on the church.  Challenge us on this point or that point, knock us down, trample us under, prove that we are somehow not what we claim to be?

            But they are our neighbors.  It is not for us to pick and choose where to apply mercy.  Stand firm, love God and neighbor, show mercy to all.  Do not live into the games of sin and division that the world wants to play against us.  God’s Word, our Scripture, is sufficient.  Our faith in God shall overcome.  The love of God shall always be our shield.  The grace of Jesus Christ is always more than enough.  

Amen.

Love God and Neighbor: There are some AMAZING details here!

 So this is interesting.  The summary of the whole law of Moses, when summarized; “loving God with heart, soul, mind, and strength; and loving neighbor as myself” occurs in the first three gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  But there is a difference.  Matthew and Mark are parallel to one another.  Luke is not.

In the first two gospels, Jesus summarizes the Law.

In Matthew, it is by challenge; "Which is the greatest commandment in the law?"  Jesus replies.  Then He remarks that all the rest of the law and the prophets, (understand that to mean the bible of Jesus, Old Testament) hang on these verses.  In Mark, it is a consideration of primacy; "Which commandment is first?"  In Mark, Jesus remarks that there is no other commandment greater than these.  There are slight variations in the text, but the point is very clear.  Two commandments, with the greater weight laid to the first, to Love God.

But it is easy to miss the gospel parallel in Luke.  First of all, the summary of the law is buried in the introduction of what is arguably Jesus’ most famous parable.  Secondly, in this version, Jesus is not the one who lays out the summary of the law.  This time, a lawyer challenges Jesus on how to inherit eternal life.  Jesus, being Jesus, flips the question.  What does the law say…lawyer?  This time, it is the lawyer who provides the summary of the law. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 

In Matthew and Mark, Jesus ends the debate with these words.  This time, we go a step further.  “So who’s my neighbor?”  Seems like a very ‘lawyerly’ interpretive question to ask to clarify (or confuse) the issue.  This, in turn, led to the story of the Good Samaritan.  Notice, the lawyer did NOT touch the question of loving God with a ten-cubit pole.  The only apparent legal weakness in the debate was over the term ‘neighbor’. 

What do we do with parallel stories that don’t match up cheek to jowl?  I think there are a few ways to look at them.  The first is ‘in context’.  How does each story fit into the context of its own gospel?  These are all rather short portions inset into longer pieces.  What is the flow?  What is writer inspired to share with us?  Where does it take place in the gospel?  Pre or Post Palm Sunday?  Yes, that’s a thing. Taken together, there are 68 chapters in the first three gospels (of 1189 in the WHOLE bible).  And in John, the writer supposes there is not enough paper in the world to write down everything Jesus did.  So, every word counts.

Or we can look at them side by side.  The thing that connects these three is the summary of the law.  What do we learn about that summary?  What is the bigger picture of this key connection between the bible of Jesus and the bible of the Church?  What is the nuance of the difference?  What is the connection of the similarity?  How is this reflected in the life and personhood of Jesus?  How should it be reflected in our own lives and personhoods? 

Or we can dig back into the ‘law’ in the bible of Jesus.  There is a LOT of law there.  How do these two statements draw together the meaning and intent of what came before?  How the meaning and intent of the law drawn together into Jesus with these 2 that summarize the whole law and the prophets? 

Finally, or maybe as the place to start, be reminded that the call to love God comes because God first loved us.

pastor pete