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Original Postdate: 10-20-2023 ===Gospel Luke 12:1-7 At that time: So many people were crowding together  that they were trampling one another underfoot. Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples, “Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees. “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops. I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more. I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one. Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.” Reflection We all know what it's like to be around somebody constantly judging everything and everyone. The Pharisees were like that. They were filled with judgment and condemnation for anyone who wasn't following the letter of the law, and what Jesus wants so much for his disciples to understand, is don't be afraid of their condemnation and judgment because they have no real power. And what Jesus does instead of condemning and judging, is He forgives and offers life. He is a lover. He knows everything about you.   Closing Prayer There are times we find ourselves caught up in the hypocrisy of the Pharisees when we're excessively judgmental and critical of others. Help us to see others as you see them. Help us to be to each other what you are to us. Love, acceptance, forgiveness, compassion. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Postdate: 10-17-2024 ===Gospel Luke 11:47-54 The Lord said: “Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets  whom your fathers killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building. Therefore, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and Apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute’ in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood! Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.” When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.Reflection When you look at the evil there was in the system of the scribes and Pharisees, the loss of real truth, real purpose, we’re given an insight into the way in which it works in human nature, that when you live in a system that's corrupt, it will always corrupt you. It was only with the coming of Jesus that this whole system was blown apart and healed by the love of God for everyone who seeks the truth.Closing Prayer Father, your condemnation of the religious practices of the times underscores the importance of redemption that you have to enter into any system, any process has to be based in you before it can produce the abundance of goodness that is your will. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Postdate: 10-16-2024 ===Gospel Luke 11:42-46 The Lord said: “Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others. Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of honor in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces.   Woe to you! You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.” Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply, “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.” And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”Reflection Father, the spirit that you often point out in people who have lost a sense of who they really are in God, clearly seem to be pointing always to the same thing. They don't understand that they are called to love God, and you can't love God unless you know that God loves you. And there we get to the most powerful, potent teaching of the New Testament. God who condemns in the Old Testament is the God who loves the sinner in the New Testament.Closing Prayer Father, we need to have insight. You need to show us the times and the ways in which we are acting out, not love and not forgiveness and not peace, but the opposite. So bless us with attention to who we are, and underscore for us the importance that we need to be filled with your gift, the gift of love for our brothers and sisters. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Postdate: 10-15-2024 ===Gospel Luke 11:37-41 After Jesus had spoken, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home. He entered and reclined at table to eat. The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal. The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside? But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.”Reflection Jesus is pointing out something very important about the question of authenticity. You can act in any way you want, and it may not be connected to who you are, but who you are will always impact how you act. So what Jesus is pointing out, it's a very important thing, is what is going on on the inside, what is going on inside of you when it comes to understanding who you are and why you're here. That's the real work on the inside. And the outside takes care of itself.Closing Prayer Father, it's obvious that you want us to have a heart filled with you, with divinity. This is a gift. It's not something that we can find on our own, but it's something we've received. So open us to the wisdom that God has placed within us. Pay attention to its beauty and its power to save and choose to be authentic. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Postdate: 10-14-2024 ===Gospel Luke 11:29-32 While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment  the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”Reflection In the Old Testament, God used prophets and kings to present things to people that they would have to understand and fathom and grow into the truth of what he was teaching them. The same is now true in the New Testament. But Jesus underscores one crucial element. No one is going to be open to the signs that God has given unless they have a spirit of openness, wonder, curiosity, and a willingness to change. It's a challenge for all of us to read the signs today that are around us, and we need to be more open and receptive to whatever God is trying to show us today.Closing Prayer Father, open our heart, open our minds, open our spirit to what is out there to teach us. Help us to ponder things, wonder about things, spend times reflecting so we can find the kingdom of God that is in our midst. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Airdate: October 15, 2023Isaiah 25:6-10a | Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20 | Matthew 22:1-14 Opening Prayer May your grace, oh Lord, we pray, at all times go before us and follow after and make us always determined to carry out good works.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever, amen. Closing Prayer Father, your invitation is so exciting and scary at the same time.  Bless us with the courage to make the right choice so that we can experience the world as you intended us to experience it, with things that are difficult and things that are so wonderful they’re beyond our imagining.  Help us to trust in you and everything you teach, and we ask this in Jesus’ name, am Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Postdate: 10-12-2024 === Gospel Luke 11:27-28 While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, a “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” He replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” Reflection The woman in the crowd pointed out something beautiful about Mary. That she is a human being trusted in and a promise that seemed impossible that she would somehow have growing within her the presence of God, in the person of Jesus, and then she nurtured it and cared for it. What Jesus then saying is that, you know, that is a great blessing, but it really points to the blessing that everyone participates in, that God comes to everyone whose heart is open and gives him the power to nurse and give life to the people around them. That's the great blessing. Closing Prayer Father, in the person of Jesus you spoke over and over again about the greatest miraculous event in history. God dwelling in human beings. Help us to fathom this great gift. Help us to feel it and know the power that he gives to us. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Postdate: 10-11-2024 === Gospel Luke 11:15-26 When Jesus had driven out a demon, some of the crowd said: “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.” Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven. But he knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his  kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons. If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. “When an unclean spirit goes out of someone, it roams through arid regions searching for rest but, finding none, it says, ‘I shall return to my home from which I came.’ But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and brings back seven other spirits more wicked than itself who move in and dwell there, and the last condition of that man is worse than the first.” Reflection Jesus makes clear to his critics that their accusation is foolish. Can't use something that is evil to drive out something that is evil. Evil is what it desires. And so we see clearly that Jesus is saying that I will give you a power. The Holy Spirit dwelling within you that will guide you through the issue of dealing with evil. But then when he says that there is something that can happen to a person who feels that evil has been drawn out of them, and then they think they have this perfect life and everything is swept and put in order, and it thinks it is now capable of dealing with evil on its own. But seven devils, seven spirits come into that kind of person, and they will never, ever survive. Closing Prayer Father, there's a way for us to see our life when everything seems exactly as it should be. We've covered all our responsibilities, we've done everything we should. We look at ourselves and say, you know, I'm just, I'm able to handle anything. That's when the demons come back. That's when they do their best work. When we feel that we are immune to their power. We need you. We need you, God, to protect us. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Postdate: 10-10-2024 === Gospel Luke 11:5-13 Jesus said to his disciples: “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,’ and he says in reply from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father  among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” Reflection This is a story about prayer, about seeking and asking from another or from God something that you need, something that you don't have. And what is encouraging people to have is persistence in their prayer. You ask, tell God what you need, and then you basically have to be searching for the answer, seeking the answer. And then when you find it, it's like a place you enter into. You knock, a door opens and you have what you need. The point being, the process of asking God for things is not as simple as saying, please, I need this and then just waiting. No you ask, you seek the answer, and when you find it, you become someone new. Closing Prayer Father, when we ask you for something, give us the patience to wait for your answer. It comes often in ways that we would never expect. Help us to be on the alert when we ask you to do something, so that when you do it, we will receive it with a generous and thankful heart. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Postdate: 10-9-2024 === Gospel Luke 11:1-4 Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test." Reflection It's fascinating that the only prayer that Jesus taught his disciples was so concise and in heading the core of what we're here for. We are here to honor who God is and long for the work that he gives us to be accomplished in establishing his kingdom. And he feeds us, and gives us everything we need. But most important of all, he has mercy on us. He forgives our sins. That's the heart of the message of God. Closing Prayer Father, everything you teach is for us to bring us into a participation with you in saving the world. Help us to know and understand what you ask. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Postdate: 10-8-2024 === Gospel  Luke 10:38-42 Jesus entered a villageU+2029where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.  Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?  Tell her to help me.”  The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Reflection So many people identify with this particular passage, and it reminds us all that there's a way in which we are more prone to doing things than to step away from things. Reflect. Wonder. Ask the harder questions. That's what Jesus is trying to prepare the world for when he comes into the world. Take time to listen to me. Listen to who I am. Listen to my heart and try to become like me. It's not about getting everything done, it's about growing, changing, evolving. That's the call of the gospel. Closing Prayer Father, we do have a responsibility to take care of the things that we are responsible to. But give us always a longing and a desire and the discipline it takes to pause and to reflect and to take care of ourselves and open ourselves to you. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Postdate: 10-7-2024 === Gospel Luke 10:25-37 There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus,  “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied,  “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” Reflection In order to understand this story, we need to know that a Levite or a priest was forbidden to get near someone who was dead or was diseased with a skin infection, or had any kind of fluids coming out of them that they shouldn't touch. So, in a way, they were simply doing what the law required. And it's so interesting that this story then reveals the part of the law that is so dangerous when it can separate you from what is so basic to human nature, and basic to what God wants us to be. Love, mercy, compassion, a desire to feel someone else's pain. That's the call of the gospel. That's what it means, if you love God with all your heart, and all your mind, and all your soul, you will also love your neighbor in the same way. That's the law that's written on our hearts. Closing Prayer Father, it's easy for us to get caught up in regulations and rules that free us from the most human of responses. Keep us open to your compassion and your wisdom that has shared with us a way of life that brings life always to those around us. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Airdate: October 8, 2023Isaiah 5:1-7 | Philippians 4:6-9 | Matthew 21:33-43 Opening Prayer Almighty, everliving God, who in the abundance of your kindness surpasses the merits and the desires of those who entreat you, pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer does not dare to ask.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever, amen. Closing Prayer Father, you promise us a kingdom of peace, a kingdom of knowing how important we are and how blessed we are with your presence flowing through us.  Keep us from focusing on our faults and more on who you are and how your love transforms everything.  And we ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Postdate: 10-5-2024 === Gospel Luke 10:17-24 The seventy-two disciples returned rejoicing and said to Jesus, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.” Jesus said, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky. Behold, I have given you the power ‘to tread upon serpents’ and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven. ”At that very moment he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” Turning to the disciples in private he said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, 'but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” Reflection We see in this gospel a distinction between the old and the New Testament. And it’s clear what Jesus is saying is in the Old Testament, people could not see or could not know what it is that Jesus has in store for us. The thought of being free of evil was not something they could conceive of. But Jesus tells his disciples that they have been empowered to deal with evil. That is what makes the New Testament so beautiful, so powerful, and so important. Closing Prayer Father, we ask you to awaken us to the great blessing of your presence dwelling within us, resonating life and light, and having great power over evil and darkness. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Postdate: 10-2-2024 === Gospel Matthew 18:1-5, 10 The disciples approached Jesus and said, "Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?" He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, "Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name  receives me. "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.” Reflection There always is a weakness in us where we keep turning to ourselves to find whatever it is within us that we need to do the work of God to be kind and forgiving. We forget about all these other beautiful things that we have in our tradition. Angels constantly watching us, encouraging us, giving us wisdom. Even the dead who have died pray for us. We have so many things that are around us that we miss so easily. So try as best you can to be aware of these wonderful spiritual beings who surround us every day of our life, hoping for us salvation and growth and love. Closing Prayer Father, awareness of the fullness of your message is so important for us. Keep us in touch with all the marvelous things you've created for us as we work toward this kingdom of God. They're abundant, and they're necessary. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices