When you come to a fork in the road: Confess!

Love your neighbor.  Turn the other cheek.  Go the extra mile.  and ... when you are gonna lose your job, cheat your boss by making side deals with his clients so you can get a future job.  

What???

Jesus today tells a bizarre parable (Luke 16:1-13) that highlights the reality that this world isn't one that is full of mercy and honesty.  How do we as Christians navigate this, where we know we are supposed to live as Christians in a world that isn't very Christian?

It can be tempting to compartmentalize -- but Pastor Rob offers another way.  When we live in our daily life we inevitably have to make hard decisions.  We cannot escape real life and its problems.  Nor can we decide we don't have to be Christians with this decision.  Instead, we decide, confess the sin inevitably embedded in the decision and then trust that the Lord can make good out it.

The Lost Sheep

 

Pastor Rob acknowledges living in two worlds: "Real Life" and "Screen World," with an increasing effort to block out "Screen World."  Yet certain events from "Screen World", that is the national news cycle, enter into our "Real Life" in touching ways.  This week brought some of those events.

Into that swirling storm, we hear the beloved and familiar story of the good shepherd seeking the lost sheep (Luke 15:1-10).  Pastor Rob reflects on how we can become like sheep, eating a diet of fear, anger and affirmation of prejudices until we have wandered from the teachings of Christ.  Our society has become lost in the bramble, focusing on demonizing the other rather than seeking the lost. 

The way forward is repentance, repentance that requires humility and hope, precisely the kind of repentance made possible by God.

The image is from Artist Miki de Goodaboom.  She has an online art gallery that includes Biblical images.

Carrying Your Cross

 

Jesus is locked in!  (Luke 14:25-33).  As he turns toward Jerusalem, where he will be crucified, he is no longer interested in drawing crowds, but his interested in making disciples.  To winnow out those not focused, he challenges his disciples to pick up their cross. 

Pastor Rob reflects on what it means to pick up our cross.  This does not mean to die for the sins of the world like Jesus.

Rather, carrying our cross means doing challenging things, even sacrificial things, for others. 

But with this command also comes the pitfall of thinking that every person's suffering and challenge is ours to redeem.  It is not.  Following Jesus also means entrusting others and situations to his cross, not ours.

This is a hard thing to figure out - when to carry the burden and when to entrust it to God.  For this reason, we must follow Jesus, because working through this decision involves time with Jesus, in prayer, holding to the promise that in the cross of Christ, there is finally redemption.

Where do I sit?

"Where do I sit?"

This is the question that most students ask the first day of school, especially at lunch.  This involves more than simply convenience or even friendship, but the question of "coolness" and the reality of social status and rank.

Ultimately, this question isn't simply for first day high school students, but for all of us, as we face the lunch rooms of life, those situations where we have to figure out our social status.  

In a parable today (Luke 14:7-14), Jesus takes us the reality of social status and the question of "Where do I sit?"  He first teaches humility but then goes deeper, turning the whole status game on its head.