Galatians 6:11-18; Luke 8:41-56 What does it mean to have faith? What do we want from religion? What can we hope for from God? These are the kinds of questions that we tend to overlook because they threaten to take us out of our comfort zones. Many people do not want to think about “the big questions” too much because they can easily make us uncomfortable and…
Titus 3:8-15; Luke 8:5-15 If the Lord’s disciples had trouble grasping the meaning of the parable of the sower, we should not be surprised if we do also. Unlike them, we do not live in an agricultural society in which people were familiar with planting seeds and growing crops. In that time and place, there was no doubt that life itself depended on the success of raising…
2 Corinthians 11:31-12:9; Luke 7:11-16 People often go to extraordinary lengths to hide their weakness from others and even from themselves. Out of insecurity and fear, we do our best to appear before our neighbors as self-reliant and strong, even when that is very far from the truth. Perhaps we think that, if we can fool others, we can even fool ourselves. One of Saint Paul’s greatest…
Galatians 4:22-27; Luke 5:1-11 It is a heavy burden for married couples not to be able to conceive and bear children. That is true today in our society, and it was certainly the case for Jewish couples in the first century. Zechariah and Elizabeth had waited a very long time for God to bless them with children, and they had likely given up hope at their advanced…
Galatians 2:16-20; Mark 8:34-9:1 In some ways, people today are too familiar with the image of the cross. Some wear it as just another a piece of jewelry or otherwise use it to symbolize values or organizations that have nothing to do with the cross through which our Lord conquered death. Unfortunately, those who confess its true spiritual significance can easily rest content with beliefs about the…