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Time after Pentecost • Lectionary 17—July 30, 2017
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Genesis 29:15-28 | Psalm 119:129–136 | Romans 8:26–39 | Matthew 13:31–33, 44–52
Summary: Today’s Gospel is made up of a series of parables. The kingdom of God is likened to a mustard seed that becomes a great weed and takes over a whole field, yeast hidden in flour that leavens it all, a treasure hidden in a field that someone goes to great lengths to buy, and a pearl for which the merchant sacrifices everything. These parables seem crazy, but they show us that God’s kingdom overtakes our ordered lives so that we loose the control over them we desire. The disciples told Jesus they understood his parables, but the kingdom of God is for living and not understanding. We are called to go out into the world like the mustard weed and the yeast hidden in flour.
Time after Pentecost • Lectionary 16—July 23, 2017
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Genesis 28:10-19a | Psalm 86:11–17 | Romans 8:12–25 | Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43
Summary: Today’s Gospel of the wheat and weeds is very familiar, but we often interpret it as a morality tale. We do the same with our first lesson when we think of Jacob’s ladder as something we climb up to get to God. But God blesses scheming Jacob, and the householder tells the workers not to try to pull up the weeds. We know that our own lives are a combination of wheat and weeds, but God blesses us. Like Jacob, let us know that we are in an awesome place, and let us remember that God is with us always.
Time after Pentecost • Lectionary 15—July 16, 2017
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Genesis 25:19-34 | Psalm 65:1–13 | Romans 8:1–11 | Matthew 13:1–9, 18–23
Summary: Many people understand today’s Gospel story of the sower to be saying we are the sower and our job is to make the church grow. But what if the sower is God who foolishly sows the word of God all over. In Genesis, God promises to make Abraham the father of a great nation, but in recent weeks all we have heard about are problems. And today we hear about crafty Jacob who steals his brother’s birthright. From the beginning, God’s everything seems to be unraveling, but God’s promise remains. God scatters seeds wildly without a plan. God’s garden seems to be a mess, but it is beautiful because it is covered over with God’s love. The Gospel is less about farming and more about love, we are less good soil and more parking lot, but the seeds of God’s love are strong enough to break apart that parking lot so love grows.
Time after Pentecost • Lectionary 14—July 9, 2017
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67 | Psalm 145:8–14 | Romans 7:15–25a | Matthew 11:16–19, 25–30
Summary: We’ve had some horrifying stories about Abraham the last few weeks, but this week’s story from Genesis is a love story. Sarah has died, and it’s time to find Isaac a wife, so an unnamed servant journeys to Abraham’s home country, finds Rebekah, and brings her back. The hero of the story is the unnamed servant. He s a model disciple who prepares for the job, waits for the right time, prays, and takes action. The whole story unfolds within God’s steadfast love. That steadfast love endures form generation to generation, and we are called to take up our burden of discipleship within God’s steadfast love. As Jesus says in the Gospel, living in God’s steadfast love, the yoke we take on is easy, and our burden is light.
Time after Pentecost • Lectionary 13—July 2, 2017
Preacher: Pastor J.P. Sabbithi
Lessons: Genesis 22:1-14 | Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18 | Romans 6:12-23 | Matthew 10:40-42
Summary: Our readings today are all about making the ultimate sacrifice. Abraham was ready to offer his beloved son, and God provided a lamb for the sacrifice. Paul tells us in our second lesson that God provides his son, Jesus, as the sacrifice. God welcomes us into the kingdom. If God has done so much for us, we share our love with others, as Jesus tells the disciples in our Gospel. But whatever we give is a donation and not the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Time after Pentecost • Lectionary 12—June 25, 2017
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Genesis 21:8-21 | Psalm 69:7–18 | Romans 6:1b–11 | Matthew 10:24–39
Summary: Last week we heard how Abraham welcomed the strangers, and he and Sarah were promised a child. Sarah laughed in that story, but in today’s first lesson Sarah is angry because she’s afraid the first son Abraham had with her slave girl might displace her son. Sarah makes Abraham send them away with just enough food and water so they die out of sight. But when the food and water run out, God hears the boy’s cry and saves them. Just like with us, Abraham’s life of faith was not easy. Jesus tells the disciples in today’s Gospel that their faith will lead to times of dissention and the sword. We see that this is not a metaphorical sword when we remember the troubles after the Augsburg Confession was delivered to the emperor on this date in 1730. In the midst of everything, God’s presence is true. God hears us and is with us.
Time after Pentecost • Lectionary 11—June 18, 2017
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7) | Psalm 100 | Romans 5:1-8 | Matthew 9:35—10:8 (9–23)
Summary: An established church fixed up their unused formal parlor and invited all kinds of community groups to use it. This act of hospitality was a blessing to the community and to the congregation. Abraham offered hospitality to three strangers and in doing so opened his family to the blessings of God. Like Sarah, we sometimes laugh at God’s extravagant hospitality. It is our joy to be both host and guest at God’s table, and we have no idea of the blessing that can come from answering God’s call to offer hospitality to strangers.
Trinity Sunday—June 11, 2017
Preacher: Pastor Jeff Lilley
Lessons: Genesis 1:1—2:4a | Psalm 8 | 2 Corinthians 13:11–13 | Matthew 28:16–20
Summary: Today is Trinity Sunday, but should we care? At the end of his life Martin Luther wrote about his beliefs and began with the story of creation from Genesis that we heard as our first lesson. From this story, Luther concluded that God is present in everything—even the most difficult parts of our lives. Do we feel the presence of God in our troubled world? The doctrine of the Trinity may not explain God in a meaningful way to us, but it does remind us of God’s abiding presence. We lift up the Trinity not to prove that we are Christians but to profess the presence of God. In the midst of joy and sorrow God remains Emmanuel—God with us.