Western Michigan, Big 10 officiating, and the Gospel

Luke 18:31–34

Luke 18:31-34

English Standard Version 

  Have you ever tried to assemble something from IKEA with those instruction booklets and you're staring at the picture and it seems like it should make sense but it just doesn't and you have no idea what the next step is?

  That's the world the disciples are in during this passage, and it's often a similar place we end up in.  It feels like we have faith, and therefore the next step of life should make sense.  

  But sometimes, we understand none of these things.  It doesn't make sense why something happened when it seemed like something else should have happened.

  The disciples were still thinking that Jesus was going to lead a triumphant victory over the Roman army.  They expected victory.

  Crucifixion was not in the cards in their minds.  Jesus was talking about death, but they didn't grasp the fullness of what would seem like defeat.

  That defeat would go on to be the first step in a massive victory over sin and death, but the path to get there didn't make sense to the disciples, any more than the path we wander in life sometimes doesn't make sense at all.

  But just because we cannot make sense of it, this does not mean that God is not at work.  Stay on the road with Jesus, take the next step, and entrust the destination to God.

Sermon on the Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18)

Luke 18:26–30

Luke 18:26-30 

English Standard Version 

  With 3 kids, there aren't many meals that everyone agrees on.  As tastes have changed, foods slowly were eliminated.  Some nights, it feels like there isn't anything that everyone agrees on, except for ice cream, so maybe it is the perfect food and we should simply start with that.

  As Jesus has taught the crowds, it feels like he's whittled away all the paths to salvation that we can try and create on our own.  Religious obedience, morality, achievement, possessions -- each of these has been taken off the shelf and discarded.  The disciples might have thought that their sacrfices would be enough, but even those fall short.  What is left?

  This is where faith begins, Jesus says, because where humans fall short, God steps in.  The Kingdom is something to be received.  Peter is looking at all that the disciples have sacrificed, but Jesus is redefining what it means to follow God.  There isn't a scoreboard that they are tracking, but rather through Christ, they are entering into a new identity, a new creation, where there are riches untold.  Can they entrust themselves to God?  

  May we lean into the Kingdom of God, even in the midst of uncertainty.  May we pursue Christ, trusting in God that what is ahead is far greater than anything that is behind us.