κήρυξον τὸν λόγον

[Introduction] Maybe you’ve seen the videos on YouTube or Facebook ... videos of babies and children and teens and adults alike all hearing sound for the first time in their life through a device called a cochlear implant. Their reactions are priceless and overwhelming. They are left with WIDE eyes, HUGE smiles, and tears of pure joy as they HEAR the word of their loved ones for the first time. If you’ve never seen one of these videos, let me tell you, when you watch, you can’t help but cry.  What must it be like not to be able to hear a Word ... or anything at all ... ever?  I know many of you have hearing aids, and if you turn them off, you might have a sense of what the man in our Gospel reading experienced when Jesus said Ephphatha . But what would it be like to live years and years never hearing anything? How disorienting would that be? In our Gospel reading, Jesus healed a man such as this. Because he could hardly speak, I suspect that means there was at least a time in ...

[Introduction] Did you know we are both dead and alive?  That seems to be a weird thought, doesn’t it ... that we are dying, yet living ... dead and alive? But that is what our reading from Saint Paul’s epistle to the Ephesian church is declaring today. And this is not the first time Peter, Paul, or our Lord Jesus has said this.  In John 5, Jesus said, an hour comes and now is here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. Paul tells us in Romans 6 that you must consider yourselves to be dead to sin, on the one hand, but living to God in Christ Jesus, on the other. ... And again in Romans 8 that although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Peter preaches this same word in his first epistle, saying ... this is why the Gospel was preached even to those who are dead, so that in being judged according to human flesh, they might live according to God in the Spirit (4:6).  Which leads us into t...

[Introduction] Today we are on the road with Jesus, traveling from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. It’s a short walk ... not quite a mile ... to the temple. The city’s population is swelling because Passover is near. And with Jesus in sight, the people begin rejoicing and praising God, waving palm branches and spreading their cloaks on the path in front of him. They’re rolling out a red carpet, so to speak. Their refrain ... Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord ... is echoing. Meanwhile, the magnificent white, marble temple that’s overlaid with gold, is shimmering in the sunlight (vv 36-38).  Yet right in the middle of this chorus of praise, Jesus pauses, looks up, sees the city and temple and ... he weeps, saying, If you knew on this day, even you, the things that bring peace . But now, [that which brings peace] is hidden from your eyes because the days will come upon you when your enemies will encircle you, and barricade you, and surround you, and confine...

[Introduction] Have you ever heard the phrase “cooking the books”? Cooking the Books is the same thing as creative accounting. It refers to deceptive accounting practices. A person in charge of finances cooks the books by creatively manipulating their accounting to make expenses seem lesser than they really are, and to make profit appear greater than it really is. When a man is convicted of embezzlement, it’s most likely because he was cooking the books.  4. That is what seems to be happening in our Gospel reading. Luke writes, Jesus also said to his disciples, There was a certain rich man, who had a house manager, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting what already belonged to him (v 1).  This parable is truly one of the most difficult lessons in the New Testament. Part of the problem stems from the title we give it. Sometimes we call it the Parable of the “Dishonest Manager.” Another part of the problem is that when we read it too quickly it sounds li...