Listening to Gospel
August 28, 2016
Text: Luke 14:1, 7-24
It is my prayer today that I bring you the Gospel. That I essentially preach the “good news” as Jesus mandated. It is easy to to say what is wrong (for instance, Donald Trump, but God calls us to hear our own vulnerabilities in the scriptures and allow this same spoken, living word to empower us with compassion as we move forward in our shared weaknesses to something altogether new and unknown.
Today’s gospel from Luke is right in the middle of chapter 14 and is the second of three somewhat conflictual, reframing discussions Jesus is having with the Pharisees. It is so easy to see how the Bible is God’s sword. Jesus spends a lot of time slicing and deconstructing the practices and understandings of the Sabbath and the common table. The passage before this one, from last week’s lectionary, is about the Sabbath and is the third exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees about the illegality of healing on the Sabbath. Jesus really wants them to understand that God’s Sabbath law, calling for us to stop, pause, and ponder on the Sabbath, is in the service of restoring a right relationship with each other and God’s creation.