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Showing posts from October, 2024

Sermon - Trinity IX, 2026 - Luke 16:1-13

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The Parable of the Unjust Steward , Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1540 Christian Wisdom Seeks Eternal Dwellings Wisdom is forward thinking and focused on the goal Christian wisdom employs every treasure, heavenly and worldly, for the sake of reaching the goal If there is a hardest parable, it might be this one; throws people off every time. The parable presents a rich man with a steward who was found wasting the rich man’s possessions. The job of a steward is to be faithful with someone else’s possessions, and this guy wasn’t cutting it. So obviously, he got fired. What’s crazy is the rich man lets the steward hand in the books, and he doesn’t hunt them down and take them from him immediately. The steward does exactly what you don’t want the steward to do, which is why normally the books get taken from the steward: the steward cooks the books. He meets some of the rich man’s debtors, probably tenant farmers, and in order to ingratiate himself with the debtors he adjusts how much they owe, ...
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Sermon - Proper 24, 2024 - Mark 10:23-31

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Saint John on Patmos , Limbourg Brothers, 1416  We accept our lot now, and look forward to eternal life in the age to come Wealth doesn’t help us enter into the kingdom of God We may suffer much for the sake of Christ and the Gospel Whether much or little in this life, regardless of the toil and persecution, we enjoy the days given us and anticipate the reward awaiting us The way life often works today is that if you want something you can have it, and it's just a matter of paying the right price. In some ways this feels liberating, because it makes you feel like you can have whatever you want, so long as you can afford it. In other ways it feels very depressing, since it means that if you can’t afford the things you want they remain just out of your reach. But this is not the way that it works with eternal things; it’s not a matter of affording them, instead it’s a matter of humbly receiving them. Regardless of how much or little we have, we are to accept our lot now, and look for...
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Sermon - Year B, Proper 23, 2024 - Mark 10:17-22

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If You Want to be Perfect (Christ and the Rich Young Man) , Andrey Mironov, 2017 Forsaking every earthly treasure to follow Christ Knowing Jesus and keeping the law is not enough Following Christ means we must forsake all worldly goods Greater Treasure in heaven awaits those who love the Lord alone “ He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. ” Perhaps when you heard the readings this morning you were also filled with sorrow, because Jesus’ words are very challenging. “ Sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. ” For the rich young man these words were devastating, because he was now at a crossroads and must choose either to follow Christ and gain a heavenly treasure, or follow this world and keep his worldly treasures. Today Jesus places us at the same crossroad, and our Lord bids us to forsake every earthly treasure to follow Him. The tempting thought for us though is that we can have both treasures: treasure on...
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