This week we continue reading in Luke about Jesus’ teachings on money and wealth. Navigating the expectations of the world and the teachings of Jesus can be confusing, even contradictory. Those contradictions are persistent in our daily lives, as we see the rush of fancy cars speeding down onramps past homeless encampments and as the hungry stand in the median by the exits of malls and Costco.

I hope you will join us on Sunday as we work through another of Jesus’s parables that offers guidance on how to navigate the complexities of the world we live in and to manifest God’s love for us, both to those whose needs we know to those whose suffering we can’t comprehend.

I look forward to worshiping with you this week.

Peace,

Jim

Please join us immediately following the service for our Coffee Hour

(in-person in the sanctuary or online via Zoom).

“Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it.”

― Henri Nouwen

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' He said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house―for I have five brothers―that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"