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| Summary: The parable of the rich fool is an easy-to-understand but hard-to-live story. Perhaps we cannot incorporate its lesson about true treasure into our lives because, like the rich man, we cannot see or recognize the miracles of God’s abundance, of God’s gift of community and of God’s incessant call that are offered to the man — and to us. |
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| Summary: Jesus warned against calling anyone a fool, so when he used the word, he was defining it. We had better listen to his definition. |
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| Summary: The parable of the rich fool leaves room to think about the good he could have done with his abundance and the positive ripple effect it could have had. This has implications for our churches.
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| Summary: By working hard, saving and investing money we can gain material wealth. Such wealth is never totally secure. The rich farmer whose abundant crops compelled him to build bigger barns thought he was setting himself up for a nice retirement. God had another idea, and the farmer was taken into eternity.
There is a wealth, however, he could have taken with him into eternity. The main goal, our Lord instructed, is to “become rich toward God.”
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| Summary: When empty-nesters build bigger homes to hold their possessions, they run the risk of acting like rich fools. Better to be rich toward God. |
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| Summary: How we handle great blessings and great opportunities can be just as revealing about our faith as how we handle great pains and great troubles. |
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| Summary: The content of your prayers reveals the focus of your life. |
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| Summary: It would seem that faith should be easier when our lives are untroubled, but sometimes we actually take our faith for granted during good times. It’s wise to be as attentive to our faith in good times as in bad, because the easier periods let us build the faith resources we need for when difficulties come.
Periods of personal blessings do give us a hint of life as God intends it, and in such times, we can also gain strength to help those who are having it rough. Further, we need to tend our faith in good times because contentment often breeds discontent. The final lesson is that our changing circumstances are no measure of our need for God, nor of his love for us.
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| Summary: Jesus advised his followers to “be dressed for action,” and to “be like those waiting for their master to return.” A lot of us are dressed for success, excess and recess but not for the appearance of Lord of the Manor.
This passage calls us to tuck in our tunics and togas, and be ready for the Lord. Kingdom people are servants who stay alert, who put worrying aside, who know where their true treasure is, who stand at the ready knowing the Jesus may put in an appearance at any time, and who, are not only to put to work by Jesus, but also served by him.
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| Summary: While anticipating Jesus’ return, we should neither become so preoccupied with his return that we neglect the day-to-day kingdom work nor become complacent about his return. The goal is this: While we are waiting, keep on serving. |
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| Summary: Jesus wants us to loosen our grip on that which we fear losing so that we can lay up treasures in heaven which are utterly secure from loss. A “loose hold” on the things of this world only increases our sense of expectation and readiness for his return. Jesus tells us to be in a lifelong state of expectation for his return, able to function fruitfully and productively in the world, but ready to let it all go in a moment’s notice in order to take on a new set of responsibilities when he returns. |
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| Summary: Though the monsters of popular fiction are just fiction, there are frightening things in the real world. When Jesus tells his followers not to be afraid, he isn’t denying that fact. But the threats that the world and our own sins present have to be seen in light of God’s decision to make Jesus’ followers his own people. That fact should change ideas about what is most important in life and motivate us to act as God’s people. |
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| Summary: This passage may sound like a call to abstemiousness, bitter and parsimonious “self-denial” in the bad sense of the word, but it is not. It is, above all, a promise of a joyous new life. We are being called to leave possessions behind so that we may “possess” a new life even greater than the familiar life we’ve come to know. |
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| Summary: God’s presence can break through our fear to offer strength for today. |
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| Summary: These words of Jesus have to do with preparation for his coming. We are not so much being called to action as to readiness, making ready to welcome him; the real action will begin when he comes. How do we prepare ourselves to receive him? |
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| Summary: This is a message that challenges our fear, on a couple of levels. It challenges the fear that confronts us now — fear of plague, loss, disease and death. And it challenges our hidden fear of Christ’s return like a thief in the night — and the loss that that will bring.
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| Summary: After a quick reading of this text, we might dismiss it as being an obvious mis-remembering of what Jesus actually said. Perhaps Luke has injected his own political perspective into a conversation which, many years after the fact, he can only dimly recall. However, a closer look at Jesus’ manic outburst is telling - telling us that he said what he meant and meant what he said.
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| Summary: Jesus, whose birth was surrounded by promises of peace, said he came to bring division even in families. This division is over whether Jesus is Lord or something else is Lord. |
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| Summary: It is true that Jesus said that he came to spread fire upon the earth. However, not all fire is destructive. If there is anything that Jesus was not, it was destructive. So we look beyond the destructive power of fire to reflect on the meaning of divine fire, the gift that it can be and how we are called to spread it. |
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| Summary: What looks like an almost senseless rant on the part of Jesus (Who, after all, would want to be labeled anti-family today?) really speaks to the need for us to be a community of faith and support against the temptations of the world that surround us. What choices are you making between the world’s priorities and those of Jesus? |
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| Summary: Jesus and his call for repentance and announcement of God’s kingdom bring about a crisis: the need to decide for him or against him. Each person must make that decision, while recognizing that it is God who makes it possible for us to make the right decision. |
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| Summary: Jesus is heading toward Jerusalem where he knows he will be arrested, humiliated and finally nailed to a cross. On his way, he talks with his followers about the hardships ahead for them as well. In case they are being carried along on a spiritual cloud, he wants them to face the harsh realities of being Christian.
For you and me the specifics of those dangers are not the same as in Jesus’ day. Few of us will have to sacrifice the love of our parents, brothers or sisters. For us, the challenge of following Jesus is different but just as real. That’s why Jesus provides us with this boot camp conversation about discipleship.
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| Summary: We think we would like an uncontroversial, comforting Jesus. But Jesus doesn’t fit that mold. Jesus the Savior, healer and teacher is also a Jesus who brings division and conflict as a result of change and discipleship. We must give up our efforts to keep Jesus on a shelf, and instead leave our comfort zone to join him in his work in the world. |
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| Summary: Though Jesus words sound like he desires for families to be at odds with each other, in reality he is merely trying to help his followers understand the consequences of his truth. |
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| There are 24 sermons in your results. |
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