Will Preach For Food Podcast

Hello, and welcome to the Will Preach for Food podcast. I’m Doug, a pastor here at Faith Lutheran Church, based out of Shelton, Washington, a congregation of the ELCA. “Great Expectations” is this week’s podcast title. That “EHR” you see in parens stands for “Emotionally Healthy Relationships.” This Fall Faith Lutheran is leaning into our congregation’s vision and dream to become “closer to and more like Jesus.” Today’s message is the second in an eight-week preaching, devotional, and small group series based on the work of Pete and Geri Scazzero.

You can learn more about Faith and about Emotionally Healthy Relationships at our website, www.faithshelton.org. Thanks for listening today. 

It starts and ends with love. That was the big idea in week one. The agape love of God is for us and what we were made for. The importance of quiet time with God, drinking deep from the well of God’s love so that we can love well. Love like this never feels like enough, yet the world is dying for love like this. 

Session Two in the Emotionally Healthy Relationships Course has to do with resisting the tendencies BOTH to think we know what other people are thinking AND that other people know what WE’RE thinking. Today we are going to learn tools to help us stop “mind-reading” and clarify expectations. Then we’ll look at how Jesus does it. And finally, I’ll give you some ways you can put some of this stuff into practice. We begin with a reading from Luke 18: 31-43.

Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. 32 He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; 33 they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”

34 The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.

35 As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”

38 He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

39 Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

40 Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?”

“Lord, I want to see,” he replied.

42 Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” 43 Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.

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Hello, and welcome to the Will Preach for Food podcast. I’m Doug, a pastor here at Faith Lutheran Church, based out of Shelton, Washington, a congregation of the ELCA. “It Starts and Ends with Love” is this week’s podcast title. That “EHR” you see in parens stands for “Emotionally Healthy Relationships.” This Fall Faith Lutheran is leaning into our congregation’s vision and dream to become “closer to and more like Jesus.” Today’s message is the first in an eight week preaching, devotional, and small group series based on the work of Pete and Geri Scazzero.

You can learn more about Faith and about Emotionally Healthy Relationships at our website, www.faithshelton.org. Thanks for listening today. 

They’ll know we are Christians by our LOVE, the old song says. So why is it that so much of Christianity that we see all around us is so judgmental, angry, and fearful? It seems like we used to be able to have differences of opinion, but still be friends, right. We could work together, go to church together, care for each other. Yet these days it feels like we’ve all been pushed into opposite corners. Earlier this week I used the word “progressive” in a conversation about my faith, and just about got my head bit off. And I’m a pastor! I can only imagine how it is with you. So, what happened? Where did love go?

As we start a fall emphasis on being Emotionally Healthy followers of Jesus Christ, we must start—and end—with love.

Dear friends, let us love one another, the Bible teaches, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us (1 John 4:7-12).

Jesus taught and modeled the life of love: love God with everything you’ve got, and you do that by loving your neighbor—and yourself—with everything you’ve got (Mark 12:30-31). 

If you’ve ever been to a Christian wedding you probably heard some bit about love being patient and kind, that faith, hope, and love abide, and the greatest of these is…love (1 Corinthians 13). Faith and love are inseparable. “Ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people,” Paul writes to a beloved congregation in Ephesus, “I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers” (Ephesians 1:15-16).

[The story of Lazarus in Luke 16 portrays a wealthy man who fundamentally lacks love, showing no care or compassion or sympathy for a beggar at his doorstep.]

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our…love.

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GOSPEL READING

1Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2So [the rich man] summoned [the manager] and said, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 

3Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ 

5So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 7Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 

8And his master commended the [unrighteous, adikaios] manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd [phronimos, wise, prudent—like serpents, or bridesmaids, or Jesus-people (Paul)] in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.10“Whoever is faithful[pistis]  in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest [adikaios] in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” 

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Today’s reading is  Luke 15:11-32, often known as the parable of the Prodigal Son. The word “prodigal,” comes from the description of the younger son’s “wild living” in verse 13. Reckless, extravagant, wasteful, over the top. A closer reading wonders about several “prodigal” characters, including both brothers and the father, and whether maybe the younger brother is actually the hero of the story, and is, in fact, a way for Jesus to describe himself and how it is that God’s kingdom is being “wasted” in the world to this day.

My sermon title for today is “The Prodigal Jesus, re-visioned.” This is a re-vision of this message, because, well, learned a few things since the original recording. 

“There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

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We are wired to ask questions from the time we are little. Where do babies come from? Why is the sky blue? Why is life so hard sometimes? What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything? 

Most of these questions defy a cookie cutter answer. And so we tell stories. The Bible is full of compelling, multi-faceted stories that make us think and help us see the world with fresh eyes. The Bible includes not just one, but two stories about how and why God created the heavens and the earth and everything in between—including you and me. 

4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

23 The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones
     and flesh of my flesh;
 she shall be called ‘woman,’
     for she was taken out of man.”

24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Here ends the reading.

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The primary image for today’s message is that of a banquet, of a big table with lots and lots of people and a table with lots and lots of free food. Think about the biggest feast you’ve ever attended. Jesus says that the kingdom of God is like THAT, and that there is a place for YOU at the table. Let’s look at what it means to be a GUEST at God’s table, then what it looks like to faithfully HOST God’s table. Today’s word of God has application for our shared worship and our shared spaces. And this podcast will end with an invitation for you to come to the table of the Lord. Just as you are. 

Let’s start with a reading from the gospel of Luke 14:12-24.

12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’

18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ 20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’

21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’

22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’

23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”

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Hello, and welcome to the Will Preach for Food podcast. I’m Doug, a pastor here at Faith Lutheran Church, based out of Shelton, Washington, a congregation of the ELCA. Faith is a welcoming community: growing closer to and more like Jesus; making Christ known; joyfully serving each other, our neighbors, and all God’s creation. You can learn more about Faith at our website, www.faithshelton.org. Thanks for listening today. 

Some of you listening/here today know all about chronic suffering. Childhood trauma. Mental illness. Cancer. An old back injury. A genetic condition. PTSD. Maybe it is you. Maybe it is a loved one. What do you do with that? How do you cope year after year? A woman in today’s Bible reading had lived with a debilitating, painful, chronic back condition for eighteen years. And Jesus heals her.

I hope that today’s podcast conveys God’s mercy and faithfulness, no matter what you might be going through these days. I hope that God’s word sets you free today, brings you healing and freedom. I hope that today’s message will help you care for others in their suffering as well. Let’s read from Luke 13:10-18.

On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she [was] straightened up and praised God.

14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

Here ends the reading.

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Today is a special episode of "Will Preach for Food." The message is presented by Rev. Brenda Satrum, my wife and coworker here at Faith. Enjoy!

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My wife (Brenda) and I just returned from an amazing week-long adventure in the Bob Marshall Wilderness of Montana. People in Montana know it simply as “The Bob.” We were two of eleven guests, six guides, seventeen horses, and sixteen mules coved over 45 miles of remote, rugged wilderness: from Wrong Creek to the North China Wall, the north fork of the Sun River and Headquarters Pass. We saw bear, elk, red-tailed hawks, towering peaks, and meadow after meadow of the most glorious wildflowers you’ll ever see.

Did I mention we were on horseback, and that I had never ridden a horse until this trip? I was assigned a horse named Bam-Bam. 

Brenda describes him as “a giant, black, half-Percheron draft horse.” Not only did I manage to stay upright and avoid saddle soreness, I also learned something about faith. Today’s podcast is about faith, wildflowers, and a horse named Bam-Bam. 

Hello, and welcome to the Will Preach for Food podcast. I’m Doug, a pastor here at Faith Lutheran Church, based out of Shelton, Washington, a congregation of the ELCA. Faith is a welcoming community: growing closer to and more like Jesus; making Christ known; joyfully serving each other, our neighbors, and all God’s creation. You can learn more about Faith at our website, www.faithshelton.org. Thanks for listening today. Please open your Bible to the book of Hebrews 11:1-6.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.

3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

This is the word of the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God.

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I am recording this podcast for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost. My sermon title is “The Art of Neighboring,” as a reflection on one of the more well-known stories told by Jesus: the story of the Good Samaritan, found in Luke 10:25-37. The story teaches us how to inherit eternal life and how to be a good neighbor. It turns out these are the same thing. Open your Bible to Luke 10, and let’s dig in. As I read, I want to invite you to close your eyes and imagine the scene. Where are you in the story? And where do you see Jesus?

 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

This is the word of the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God.

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