For many of you, Fridays bring the hope of the weekend as well as the culmination of the busyness and stress of the week that has been. For many of us, the pressure and pace of DC is something that we find exhilarating and interesting. The idea of slowing down sounds appealing, but only to a point. It is good to work hard and to be tired at the end of the day. And there may be no place that expects and rewards hard work quite like this place. In this town it is all too tempting to wear busyness as a badge of honor, showing the importance of our work and securing at least some measure of our identity and purpose. That’s why this text is so important for us. This sermon continued in Luke’s Gospel with Luke 10:38-42. This story is unique to Luke and shows us the priority and opportunity Jesus opened for women, inviting Martha and Mary to sit with Him and learn alongside the men who followed Him. It is a text best known for the corrective given to Martha, who was serving Jesus diligently, and finally bubbled over in frustration toward her sister. There are important lessons for us here. Lessons about our hearts, about distraction, and about choosing “the good portion.”

For many of you, Fridays bring the hope of the weekend as well as the culmination of the busyness and stress of the week that has been. For many of us, the pressure and pace of DC is something that we find exhilarating and interesting. The idea of slowing down sounds appealing, but only to a point. It is good to work hard and to be tired at the end of the day. And there may be no place that expects and rewards hard work quite like this place. In this town it is all too tempting to wear busyness as a badge of honor, showing the importance of our work and securing at least some measure of our identity and purpose. That’s why this text is so important for us. This sermon continued in Luke’s Gospel with Luke 10:38-42. This story is unique to Luke and shows us the priority and opportunity Jesus opened for women, inviting Martha and Mary to sit with Him and learn alongside the men who followed Him. It is a text best known for the corrective given to Martha, who was serving Jesus diligently, and finally bubbled over in frustration toward her sister. There are important lessons for us here. Lessons about our hearts, about distraction, and about choosing “the good portion.”

Living in and around a city means that all of us have a lot of neighbors. We see them all the time. Life is lived in public spaces and we are surrounded by people – people of every background. This makes the Biblical command to love our neighbor an overwhelming task. How do we even begin to understand who our neighbor is? In this sermon, we continued in Luke’s Gospel with Luke 10:25-37. This is one of the most well-known parables of Jesus, “The Good Samaritan.” At times our familiarity can actually get in the way of clarity and understanding. We took a fresh look at this text to see how Jesus’ perplexing story serves to answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?”

Living in and around a city means that all of us have a lot of neighbors. We see them all the time. Life is lived in public spaces and we are surrounded by people – people of every background. This makes the Biblical command to love our neighbor an overwhelming task. How do we even begin to understand who our neighbor is? In this sermon, we continued in Luke’s Gospel with Luke 10:25-37. This is one of the most well-known parables of Jesus, “The Good Samaritan.” At times our familiarity can actually get in the way of clarity and understanding. We took a fresh look at this text to see how Jesus’ perplexing story serves to answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?”

Joy is ever elusive. We know it when we see it in others. We can even look back on times when we think we might have had it. Yet, in the present reality of our lives it is so hard to grasp, and the harder we try the more elusive it can be. In this sermon, we continued in Luke’s Gospel with Luke 10:1-24. This is a long section. In it Jesus again sends out His followers, but this time it is 70 rather than 12. As they return they are filled with joy at their experience. Jesus Himself is filled with joy through the Holy Spirit. We worked together to understand the source of their joy, and how we ought to pursue it.

Joy is ever elusive. We know it when we see it in others. We can even look back on times when we think we might have had it. Yet, in the present reality of our lives it is so hard to grasp, and the harder we try the more elusive it can be. In this sermon, we continued in Luke’s Gospel with Luke 10:1-24. This is a long section. In it Jesus again sends out His followers, but this time it is 70 rather than 12. As they return they are filled with joy at their experience. Jesus Himself is filled with joy through the Holy Spirit. We worked together to understand the source of their joy, and how we ought to pursue it.

In this text we see what happened after the disciples had identified who Jesus is and the glory of Jesus was revealed through the Transfiguration. What we see is not pretty. There are four short stories of discipleship failure. As we walk through them, each holds a lesson for us as we follow Christ.

In this text we see what happened after the disciples had identified who Jesus is and the glory of Jesus was revealed through the Transfiguration. What we see is not pretty. There are four short stories of discipleship failure. As we walk through them, each holds a lesson for us as we follow Christ.