Cwirla

Last week, we heard that life is more than the abundance of possessions. Today we hear that life is more than the essentials - food and clothing. Jesus zeros in on our basic, core anxiety - our everyday needs. And He says, “Don’t be anxious about your life, what you will eat,…

It’s all about money this morning. And stuff. And how you can’t take it with you, and how foolish it is to try. And how you’ll never enjoy whatever riches you have if you make a religion out of wealth and an idol out of riches. When it comes to wealth,…

The topic on the table this morning is prayer. Abraham prays for Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus teaches His disciples to pray, giving them the words for prayer, a parable about prayer, and some encouragement to pray. Prayer is one of those least common denominator religious activity. Whenever people get religious, prayer…

What do you do when you have important company coming over to your house? What would you do if you knew that Jesus was coming over to your house? Maybe bringing a few of His friends along with Him? Of course, you’d clean, scrub, polish, plan a nice menu, go shopping, maybe…

Love God, love your neighbor. It sounds simple, right? In fact you can summarize the entire Law of God in one little four-letter word: Love. What could be more simple than that? Or is it that simple? Not when the lawyers get a hold of it. A lawyer,…

The days drew near for Jesus to be taken up. That means be crucified, rise from the dead, and ascend into heaven. That was His purpose, HIs mission. That’s why He came in the flesh, born of the Virgin. That’s why He was circumcised under the Law and became obedient to it.…

OK, let’s admit it up front. Today’s Gospel reading is just plain weird. Weirder than weird. It was weird enough when Jesus stilled the storm with a word from a boat on the sea of Galilee. When they landed on the other side in the country of the Gerasenes…

Much forgiveness, much love. In today’s Gospel reading, the one who who is forgiven much and loves much is a “woman of the city,” a streetwalker, a prostitute who happens to crash in on a dinner party at the house of a prominent Pharisee named Simon. He had invited Jesus, along with some…

Jesus was on the road from Capernaum. He had just healed a centurion’s servant with nothing but a word. He hadn’t even shown up at the door or touched the man. In fact, the centurion insisted that Jesus not come to his house, for he didn’t consider himself worthy of the honor.…