Scripture Readings: Proverbs 25:6–7 | Psalm 112 | Hebrews 13:1–8, 15–16 | ​Luke 14:1, 7–14

“Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:1-2).
 
What comes to mind when you hear the word hospitality?
 
Do any examples or experiences of giving, or receiving hospitality stand out to you?
 
Once, when I was much younger, my family and I spent Christmas with a family of complete strangers. My younger brother had been in the hospital in Winnipeg for several months, as he struggled to recover from some serious, life-threatening complications that occurred after going through major surgery. During those months, my Mom had stayed with my brother in Winnipeg, while my Dad watched my older brother and I back at home. As you can imagine, it was an intense time for us all.  
 
As Christmas drew near, my Dad took us back so we could all be together for what could have been our last Christmas as a family. So many of our usual holiday traditions were set aside, but at least we could be together.
It’s funny how even some of those cherished things we seem to treasure the most can become pretty easy to let go of when we realize that something else matters so much more.
 
Anyway, during her stay in Winnipeg, my Mom had come to know some of my brother’s doctors, and one of them invited our family to join them for Christmas dinner… and it looked nothing like any Christmas I had experienced before.
 
Their large family was from another county, and had very different Christmas traditions and food… liked baked fish instead of a turkey… and yet they graciously and happily opened up their home… and their lives to us, a bunch of strangers… making space for us to find some comfort and friendship around their table. We had nothing to offer them in return, and they were not looking for a reward. They simply welcomed us as we were, and helped us know in that difficult time that we were not alone.
 
At its heart, this is what hospitality is: recognizing the needs of others… and making room to meet those needs. Some of the people we meet will need things like food, or shelter, or medical care. Others need things like friendship, opportunities to grow, and community. We all have needs, and we all have ways we can practice hospitality towards others… not seeking anything for ourselves, but simply seeking the good of those around us.
 
And one of the most common ways that we humans offer hospitality is around a table: shared meals can break down many walls, and open up our hearts as well. Here at St. Luke’s, I love that we share food and fellowship every week after the service. It’s a great habit for a community to form: making time and space… and food to share with one another, and with anyone who may happen to come to our door... offered as a gift of service and love to one another.
 
But sadly, there are times when we can forget just how important true hospitality is… and instead of being intentional about opening up space in our hearts and lives for others… we can start to focus merely on meeting our own desires, or how to use others to get what we want.
 
And we can see signs of this selfishness at work in our Gospel passage this morning, as Jesus our Lord is invited to share a meal with some prominent Pharisees.
 
We know that Jesus shared meals with all sorts of people… with devout and respectable folks, like these Pharisees, and more often with outcasts, tax-collectors, and sinners… the sort of people with scary and sketchy reputations. Jesus was open to everyone. That said, sometimes these shared meals could become a bit tense… and that’s what happened in our passage today. We’re told that his hosts were “watching him closely”… and as it turns out, Jesus was watching them too.
 
And He notices that the rest of the guests were preoccupied with choosing the best seats at the table… the places of honour for themselves. This would be a common way someone could try to build up their prestige among their peers… to gain a bit of public recognition and status as an important person. Rather than making time and space to be open to one another… to affirm the worth of those around them, and draw closer together in fellowship, Jesus could see that they were distracted by this drive for recognition and status… seeking honour for themselves, but undermining their shared community.
 
And so Jesus, echoing the wisdom of the Book of Proverbs, points out that this self-seeking attitude is actually self-defeating.
 
Luke 14:7-11, “When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. ‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
 
These words are of course much more than some practical advice about saving face when picking a seat at a party. Jesus is highlighting a pattern of life that actively counteracts the self-centred tendencies that we humans of all sorts keep giving into. From Cain killing his brother Abel out of jealousy, to many of the headlines we see in the news day after day, history is full of stories of people seeking their own glory at the expense of others. But Jesus shows us the blessed alternative: that the true path to glory is humility. Not being fixated on our own status, but being open and responsive to those around us.
 
This is the vision for the people of God offered to us in our second reading this morning, from the Letter to the Hebrews: Love one another. Share in each other’s sufferings. Protect each other’s honour. Place our confidence, not in things like money and status, but in God’s promise to be with us always. This kind of humility… one built on the foundation of faith in God’s enduring love for us, sets us free from the need to fight for recognition, and sets us free to be more at peace with ourselves… and open to those around us. When we can trust that God truly loves us, all sense of competition for attention starts to get set aside, and we begin to share in real community… able to care for and make real room for one another, and strangers of all sorts.  

Which leads us to the second part of our Gospel passage, where Jesus tells His host (and all of us too!) that when throwing a party, we’re not to simply invite our friends and neighbours, and those who can repay us in some way. We are to invite those most in need of our hospitality and fellowship to our tables: those who are struggling in mind, in body, and in spirit. Those who are neglected by the rest of their neighbours. Those who have no status or honour, and nothing to offer us. That is who Jesus calls us to welcome in, and make room for in our lives and at our table.
 
And we are to do this because this is exactly what the Living God has already done for us! God has welcomed us all in, despite all of our baggage, and brokenness. God has made room for us in His heart and at His table, even though we could never hope to repay Him. God has opened His arms wide to embrace us into His family.
 
When we had nothing at all to offer Him, God lifted us up by His love. And this is more than mere poetry. It is the Good News, the message of Jesus Christ. Remember that Jesus, the exalted Son of God, did not worry about His own status and honour, but deliberately took the lowest seat… not simply when He ate and drank with sinners… but throughout His entire incarnate life.

He entered fully into our frail humanity, uniting Himself to us completely: born of Mary, among the poor and lowly to share in our humble state. He set aside and resisted many opportunities to lift Himself up, choosing instead to stay true to the ways of His Heavenly Father, and extend God’s compassion and mercy to all, especially those on the margins. And knowing full well what it would cost Him, Jesus laid down His life at the cross to open up the way for sinners like us to be forgiven, and invited to share in the New Life of God through the power of His resurrection.
 
Jesus humbled Himself completely to offer us God’s hospitality. And He now calls us to humbly join Him in sharing this gift with those around us. What He has done, we can never repay. But we can be changed by it, and through His Spirit at work in us, we can become the tangible ways His hospitality reaches out into our world.
 
So then, how do we go about making room for others in our hearts and lives? What might we need to set aside, or start up in order to care for those God brings to our doors?
 
In our services here at St. Luke’s, how can we be more intentional about making room for those who are new, and those who are… not new… so we can all receive God’s loving welcome together?
 
In our wider communities, how can we be more open to our neighbours, and genuinely responsive to their needs, even if they never dream of darkening our doors?
 
And in the Church… how can we worship, and work alongside, and have real fellowship with our brothers and sisters from other parishes in ways that don’t lead to competition or posturing, but genuine communion?
 
The humble hospitality of Jesus is a calling to live out our faith… to put it into practice… trusting that if we make room for others, and provide for them, then God will take notice, and He will take care of our needs… not necessarily in the same way, but with a much more enduring effect.
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And it is a calling to grow in love… not to prioritize our own agendas and status, but to focus on the good of all.
 
And it is a calling to actively share our hope… to extend real help and fellowship to those around us… counteracting the isolation, and loneliness, and despair at work in our world today, and welcoming all those we meet into the blessed New Life of Jesus.
 
God has offered us all the gift of His humble, heavenly hospitality. And He has welcomed us all to come and share in His fellowship at the table of Jesus His Son. May we fully receive this generous gift of love today. And may God’s Holy Spirit open our hearts and minds and lives, so that we can sincerely share His saving welcome with our world. Amen.  

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 58:9–14 | Psalm 103:1–8 | Hebrews 12:18–29 | ​Luke 13:10–17

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe…” (Hebrews 12:28).
 
Do you remember that old saying: “A change is as good as a rest”? Well, that might be true… but I can tell you for sure that a rest can still be pretty great! I’m very grateful for the opportunity this summer to be able to take some time to unwind: to set aside for a while the pressure to be productive… to enjoy a more relaxed rhythm of life for a few weeks… resting my body and mind before the busyness of the Fall begins again.
 
We all need times of rest. And without it, things fall apart pretty quickly. We all need chances to step away, to take a break and recover our strength. But I think the best kind of rest is not necessarily an aimless rest… a rest without any purpose or limits… the kind of boring, drawn-out absence of activity that actually ends up leaving us feeling a bit more rest-less as a result… eager for something worthwhile to do.
 
No, I think the best kind of rest is a rest in service of something else… a break that allows us to catch our breath so that we can get back to the things that matter the most. That help us to engage more deeply in the life of faith, and hope, and love we have been invited to share. 
 
And in the story of Scripture, the weekly day of rest, the Sabbath, was this kind of sacred and purposeful rest: a gracious gift to God’s people Israel, that they were also commanded to keep. Not only was this weekly day of rest a gift that helped them maintain a more balanced life… it also served to reshape the lives… the hearts and minds and actions… of this whole community… giving them a common rhythm that could help cultivate virtues like humility… (by recognizing that everyone has limits) and gratitude (encouraging thankfulness for this taste of peace and refreshment). But most importantly the practice of Sabbath was meant to keep alive the story of God in His people’s hearts… reminding them of their Lord, and their partnership with Him in the world.
 
In the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, two specific reasons are given for the commandment of Sabbath rest. One is that it reminds us that the Living God created this world, and He remains its true Lord.[1] In Genesis we’re told that God rested after His labours, and so God wanted His people Israel to regularly observe this sacred pattern, and experience a foretaste of the blessed life of God’s good Kingdom. Sabbath rest was a gift reminding them of their special relationship to the Living God… which was also a call to honour and worship the gracious Creator of all.
 
The second big reason the Torah gives for the practice of Sabbath rest relates to their own story… as a reminder that the Lord God had rescued Israel from slavery.[2] For generations, they had been bent low under heavy burdens… serving the whims of Pharoah, day in and day out.

But the Lord God heard their cries, and stepped in with a mighty arm to save and redeem His people… setting them free to share in His goodness and love, and to walk in His holy ways. The Sabbath day of rest was a gift to remind them, and future generations, of all that God had done for them… a weekly taste of that saving grace all over again… as well as a warning not to become like Pharoah themselves… forgetting God’s mercy and grace towards the victims of oppression… and His just anger towards all oppressors.
 
So then, to recap: the Sabbath rest was a good gift to help God’s people remember and stay true to their place in God’s story: helping them to honour and follow the ways of their gracious Creator and Redeemer… and setting them apart as a people to help show the rest of the world that God’s ways really do lead us to life. 
 
And yet… in our Gospel reading this morning, we find Jesus our Lord at odds with the local religious leadership over what seems like His complete disregard for the sacred practice of Sabbath rest.
 
What’s going on here? Is Jesus deliberately turning His back on God’s Law, and the sacredness of the Sabbath?
 
It certainly seems that some of his contemporaries thought so. And not without reason! Several times throughout His earthly ministry, people accused Jesus of violating the Sabbath, and in some of these encounters, it seems like Jesus is deliberately trying to stir up some controversy… saying and doing things to shake up and provoke His people into making a choice.  
 
On the one hand, Jesus was clearly doing things no one else could do: performing miraculous signs, and healing all sorts of people in unheard of and amazing ways.
 
But then, on the other hand, how could Jesus be aligned with the Living God when He’s challenging some of their most treasured, sacred, and God-given practices?
 
On the surface, their choice seemed to be between faithful obedience to God their Creator and Redeemer… or listening to this impressive but unpredictable rabbi.
 
But in fact, the choice was not between obedience to the good ways of God, or the new teachings of Jesus. It was a choice between drawing closer and deeper into God’s ways, or remaining at a distance, and resisting the blessed life God has wanted for us all along.
 
To put it more plainly, Jesus was not rejecting or dismissing the gift of the Sabbath. He was embodying and bringing to light the deeper reality that the Sabbath rest was always intended to serve: the reality of God’s sovereign goodness and compassion, and ceaseless love… and calling us to make some changes in how we understand and practice the sacred way of life that the Living God has shared with us, as He works tirelessly to bring His saving story forward to it’s fulfillment.
 
Our passage from St. Luke begins with Jesus attending a service at a local synagogue on the Sabbath, where He sees the suffering of one of His people: a woman who was afflicted by a spirit that had caused her to be bent low, and unable to stand up straight for eighteen years.  
 
Picture this woman for a moment.

She was made in the image of God her Creator, but some other force was oppressing her and literally weighing her down. Being bent low evokes the image of someone forced to carry a heavy burden… just like the Israelites who spent their whole lives toiling for Pharoah as slaves in Egypt… before the Living God, their Redeemer, graciously stepped in to end their suffering.
 
And even though she had been enduring this oppression for eighteen long years, she still came to worship the Lord, her Creator and Redeemer. She was still shaped by the gift of the Sabbath, and held onto the hope of God’s story.  
 
And this is where Jesus sees her, and calls her to come to Him. Notice that she didn’t approach Him for healing. Jesus saw her need first, and He invited her to come to Him.
 
Now I’m not saying that we can’t or shouldn’t try to come closer to Jesus. Far from it! Many of us here today have come bearing our own burdens and concerns to bring before the Lord, as He Himself calls us to do.
 
The point I’m making is that Jesus isn’t just passively sitting back waiting for the woman, or for you and I to make the first move. His compassion and care are always at work, eagerly seeking to save us, and to draw us to Himself. And so, Jesus calls this woman to draw near to Him, just as He calls each of us to do the same… so that we all might find God’s New Life at work in Him.
 
And this is exactly what the she finds! She answers His call, and He and says to her: “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” (Luke 13:12). Jesus lays His hands on her, and she is immediately set loose from her heavy burden.
 
Picture her now! She is suddenly able to experience the story of God’s salvation in a whole new way! Set free to share in the sacred rest and peace of her Creator, whose faithful love has lifted her up. She is able to share in God’s liberation from bondage… experiencing her own Exodus from her painful past. In a moment of compassion and grace, Jesus brought the reality of the gift of God’s Sabbath rest into her life in a way that she had never before imagined.
 
But for that Sabbath reality to come to light and life in that beautiful moment… it meant shaking the familiar framework and rhythms of her whole community. It meant pushing up against their understanding of the Sabbath… and challenging the rules they all faithfully followed to help preserve God’s gift of rest… all so that the reality of God’s saving rest could break through in this woman’s life, and reveal God’s saving love at work in His Son Jesus to all those present.
 
And as a result, those in charge of the synagogue were shocked and scandalized by Jesus… and they were eager to shut down what they saw as a blatant disregard for God’s holy ways.
 
Luke 13:14, “But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.’”

Notice that they weren’t saying “Don’t come to Jesus for healing.” They seemed to be perfectly fine with that. Healings were all well and good. Just don’t mess with the Sabbath!

If the choice was between this miracle of New Life setting this suffering woman free, and their sacred practices, then their choice was clear: the healing must wait for another day. What mattered most was refraining from all work, and carefully preserving their Sabbath rest.
 
In response, Jesus points out that they would not think twice about caring for their livestock on the Sabbath… and yet, they would deny their own fellow Israelite the blessed rest of God’s healing and freedom. It wasn’t Christ who was ignoring or disregarding the deep reality and meaning of the Sabbath… He was at work enacting God’s saving rest, by graciously setting her free! 
 
Of course, it can be easy for us to criticize those leaders, and find fault with them… but we too can easily slip into the very same sort of trap.
 
What are you and I unwilling to have shaken? What kinds of challenges and changes would we find it very hard to get behind, or to allow without a fight?
 
Every Church has our own cherished practices and ways of doing things, whether we think about them or not. And these practices might seem to be perfectly reasonable, and important, and good. But even so, they may sometimes need to be shaken… or even shattered… if they begin to stand in the way of God’s saving love and New Life taking root and growing among us.
 
Take a moment to think of some of the really cherished ways we do things here at St. Luke’s. This list will probably be different for every one of us, but take a moment to think about what you would find hard to let go of in our parish life.
 
What if we had to change the time we met on Sundays, so that others could encounter God’s grace and saving love more easily?
 
What if the style of music changed? What if the flow of the service became less familiar?
 
What if we could not gather in this specific building, but had to worship the Lord elsewhere?

All of these would be big changes for us to face here at St. Luke’s. None of these compare at all to the big changes that Jesus seemed to be introducing to that synagogue community. What right do we have to assume that our Lord can unsettle them, but that He won’t challenge us too? And this brings up an important question for us:

Are we more devoted to receiving and sharing the New Life of Jesus Christ our Saviour King… or to preserving our own preferred experience of worship?
 
Now I’m not secretly planning to suddenly shake things up here at St. Luke’s… scrapping the ways that we do things, or jumping on some new bandwagon. But I am inviting us to remember the deep reality that lays behind and underneath all that we do here, Sunday after Sunday.
 
We come together to worship the Triune God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit… to lift up our hearts, and minds, and voices to our Lord in praise and prayer, and also in sorrow and pain. We come together to draw near to our great Creator and Redeemer… with deep humility, gratefulness, and love… open to receiving from His hands the healing and hope and help that we need.
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We come to say yes to the greatest gift of God’s saving love… Jesus Christ, who died once and for all at the cross, and was raised again to New Life to set us all free… free to share in God’s own blessed and unending life, and free to share His love with one another.
 
We come to be reminded of our place in the story of the Gospel: the Good News that Jesus has come to re-create and redeem our broken world, and that He’s sent us the Holy Spirit to empower us to live God’s way together… not just on Sundays, but seven days a week! Not only here at St. Luke’s, but out there in the world. So that all those around us can come to know and say yes to the saving love of God in Jesus Christ.
 
And if that’s what Church is all about… helping us to experience the New Life of God together as a community… and to share it with our world… then we will all probably need to hold onto everything else a bit more lightly. We may even need to let some things go. But the Good News is, Jesus our Lord is offering us so much more than He ever asks us to give up!
 
So, when we feel deeply uncomfortable… or challenged… or frightened… or shaken by changes that life may bring our way, instead of instantly saying no… let’s try to slow down and consider what God might be up to in our midst. How He might be drawing us deeper into His story. How He might actually be trying to set us free from something… or working through us to bring His salvation and freedom to those weighed down with heavy burdens all around us.
 
After all, a change may be as good as a rest… but best of all is the gift of God’s New Life in Jesus Christ! The gift that changes us all for the better, and leads us forward to share in God’s blessed rest forever. Amen.


[1] “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.” (Exodus 20:8-11).
 

[2] “Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)

​And our Songs for this week can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 23:23–29 | Psalm 82 | ​Hebrews 11:29–12:2 | ​Luke 12:49–56

“Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29).
 
This summer, many of us across Canada have been thinking a lot about fire. Specifically, the wildfires that burn through our forests, and from time to time threaten our communities. Right now especially, we remember and hold up in prayer all of our neighbours in Northeastern New Brunswick, as well as in Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, as they seek to keep lives and property safe from the many serious fires that are still burning across the Maritimes.
 
I can imagine very few things as dangerous and disturbing as these kinds of fires. These fierce forces of nature capable of consuming everything in their path, and calling for all those nearby to be constantly vigilant and ready to respond right away should the need arise.
 
And yet, at the same time wildfires are also an important part of our country’s ecosystem… a natural and necessary process of cleansing and renewing, so that new life can arise in abundance again out of the ashes.

Of course, due to our rapidly changing climate, this natural system is no longer following familiar, predictable patterns, and so we’ve been seeing much more wildfire activity then we are used to. But even so, and as frightening, and disruptive as these fires can be… they still serve an important role in the overall health of our world.  
 
In short: They are needed, but need to be taken very seriously… and whenever we face them, we need to be ready to respond to the danger they pose right away. Every other concern gets put on hold, and navigating the flames takes centre stage.
 
In our Gospel reading this morning, from Luke Chapter 12, Jesus our Lord uses some pretty alarming imagery in order to capture our attention, and to drive home the serious nature and significance of His own mission and message: He speaks of bringing fire upon the earth… and of dividing family members from one another… of not establishing an easy peace, but actively threatening things we care deeply about.
 
What’s going on here? Isn’t Jesus supposed to be our loving Saviour, and not the source of danger and division in the world? What is our Lord saying to us this morning through the inflammatory imagery in this passage?
 
Before we go too much farther, we need to remember one vital thing: the Jesus who said these words is the same Jesus we have come to know in the whole of Scripture… the same Jesus sent by the Father to rescue and redeem our world, once and for all. This is the same Jesus who fully embodies the great mercy and grace of the Living God, and gave up His life at the cross to save us sinners and set us free. This is the same Jesus who calls us to love not just our neighbours, but even our enemies… and who also, again and again, challenges us and the ways we tend to operate.
 
Wildfires really can’t be ignored. Family divisions shake us to the core. Jesus clearly has something serious to say to us in this passage. And because we know His great love for us, we can trust that what He says is for our ultimate good… even if it is deeply disruptive.
 
But after all, the Gospel itself… the Good News of Jesus Christ and His good Kingdom… is already deeply disruptive! His ways are destructive to sin… undermining a lot of things that the world around us elevates, and that we think we need. And as we follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit begins to burn away parts of our old ways of life… patterns of thought, and heart, and body that don’t really do us any good… but as He does so, He also offers us something so much better! Clearing space within us for God’s new life to take root and grow.  
 
Like an unquenchable fire, the Good News of Jesus is not simply something nice to add to our otherwise preoccupied lives. No, the Gospel claims centre stage in our lives… consuming them… cleansing them… and re-creating them for good. When faced with the reality of Jesus Christ, and all that He has come to do… we’d best be ready to respond, and focus our full attention on Him.
 
After invoking the imagery of fire, Jesus turns to another disruptive impact of the Gospel: the causing of divisions between the members of families… parents against their children, and children against their parents.

Family ties have served as an essential anchor for cultures and communities all over the world… and for good reason! They tend to offer us the stability, security, and social bonds we need to weather the storms of life, and to experience the joys of mutual love. And from the beginning, the Bible tells us that God created humans to belong together… to be bound to one another… to love and serve one another. And although humanity as a whole has become deeply divided after the Fall, God still worked through human families to bring about His saving plan.
 
And yet, as good and life giving as the bonds of family can be… our Gospel reading today reminds us that they are not where our most enduring allegiance is to be placed. For Jesus Himself lays a claim upon us that unsettles and challenges even these deep bonds of blood. Not because Jesus secretly hates families, but because He knows that they cannot save us.
 
And He’s not the first one to remind us that even though our families can be great gifts from God, they can also end up becoming a trap for us, leading us away from the Living God, and the new life that He has in store for us.
The prophet Micah, centuries earlier, offered these words to God’s people… warning them to place their ultimate trust and allegiance in the LORD, and not to be led astray even by those closest to them.

Micah 7:5-7,
“Put no trust in a friend,
have no confidence in a loved one;
guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your embrace;
for the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
your enemies are members of your own household.
But as for me, I will look to the Lord,
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.”
 
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus echoes Micah’s words… telling His listeners, back then and today, that He has come to turn our hearts back to the Living God, our only true Saviour… even if this brings serious tensions and divisions between us and those closest to us.
 
Why is that? Well, we know not everyone will embrace and believe the Good News of Jesus, and even those closest to us may turn against us when we turn our lives over to Him. It’s not that God intends to tear families apart, or wants to wreak havoc in our relationships. Far from it!
 
The Good News reminds us that God’s intentions for us are truly good! Where our world tells us to cut off those who offend us, Jesus offers us all forgiveness, and He calls us to pursue reconciliation and restoration as best we can.
 
But Jesus also knows that our current reality resists the ways of His Kingdom, and that there is much that still needs to be cleared away… both out there in our world, and inside of our own hearts as well… so that God’s new life and the fruit of the Holy Spirit can take root and grow in us… replacing the weeds and thorns that keep us from sharing in and sharing God’s love with those around us.
 
In short, Jesus is warning us that if we follow Him, we can expect it to be a bumpy ride. That even though the Good News is meant for all, not all will welcome it, and some will choose to walk away from us if we choose to stick with Jesus.
 
These words of warning are, deep down, an invitation to stay faithful. To trust Jesus, and to stay true to Him above all else, even when it costs us dearly. These words call us to being reorganizing all of our relationships… even our most settled and familiar ones… around the conviction that Jesus alone is our rock and our salvation. This kind of commitment is bound to cause tensions, but rather than asking us to turn against those we love, Jesus is ultimately inviting us to learn how to love them more completely. To learn to love others not simply as members of a close knit family, but with the holy love of the Living God that can make all things new. 
 
The Gospel is disruptive. God’s holy love is disruptive. But we are not asked to face this disruption all alone. No, as the pioneer and perfector of our faith, Jesus our Lord paved the way before us, and He has already bore the brunt of that disruption on Himself!
 
In Jesus, God has truly given Himself to the world, offering up His own faithful life as an atoning sacrifice in order to bring us peace. At the cross He was betrayed and cut off from friends and family… abandoned by all… but raised again from the grave and lifted up to draw all people to Himself. 
 
And not only do we have Jesus, we also have all of our brothers and sisters in Christ… all the saints, in the Old and New Testaments, and throughout the centuries since… whose lives have been completely turned upside down by God’s holy love, but who have stayed true to Him to the end.
 
Think of the list that we heard in our second reading from the letter to the Hebrews: Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel… not to mention all those whose names and stories we do not know. Think of how the lives of the Apostles were disrupted at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended on them like tongues of fire: setting their hearts ablaze, and through their words and deeds spreading the holy flame of the Gospel from Jerusalem out to embrace every people and nation of the earth… creating a whole new family, the Church, not bound together by natural human relationships, but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for us at the cross… a family that’s still wide open to all who turn to Christ Jesus in faith.
 
Our world needs to know this Good News of God’s disruptive love in Jesus Christ. And it needs to see this love being lived out here in Gondola Point. The signs are all around us, and the Good News of Jesus is calling us to take action. To be ready and willing to walk in His good ways, even if it means that our lives get turned upside down. 
 
So may the fire of God’s disruptive, holy, and life-giving love in Jesus Christ do its work in us, taking centre stage in our hearts, and minds, and actions… so that His New Life can grow in us and through us for the good of all. Amen.

​Since Monday July 14 Rev. Rob has been on vacation, and will be returning to St. Luke's on Monday August 11. 

While he's away our excellent team of Lay Readers will be leading our In-Person services of Morning Prayer. For the Sundays when he is away, Rev. Rob has prepared Reflection Questions to help us engage with the Scripture Readings for the week.

The reading of Holy Scripture together as a community has been a central part of Christian worship throughout the Church’s long history. It has deep roots within the spiritual practices of Israel, and sustains God’s people today.

We read Scripture together not simply to learn new information about God’s dealings with humanity in the past, but to listen in faith to what the Living God is saying to us His people today.

It is a profound act of worship, a way of turning of our full attention to our Lord. We listen to His Word to draw closer to Him, and to one another in love.

After every Scripture Reading in our At-Home Morning Prayer service, you're invited to take a few moments in silence to reflect upon the passage, and how God’s Spirit might be addressing us through it, as individuals and as a community.

In those moments, pay attention to any words, ideas, or images from the reading that stand out to you. In the silence afterwards, ask God to help you hear His word for you today.

After the Gospel Reading, take 1-2 minutes to reflect, and then read over this week's Reflection Questions. Take whatever time you need to prayerfully sit with these questions, taking notes if you find it helpful, or perhaps even returning to the questions throughout the week. ​

​And our Songs for this week can be found here:

Since Monday July 14 Rev. Rob has been on vacation, and will be returning to St. Luke's on Monday August 11. 

While he's away our excellent team of Lay Readers will be leading our In-Person services of Morning Prayer. For the Sundays when he is away, Rev. Rob has prepared Reflection Questions to help us engage with the Scripture Readings for the week.

The reading of Holy Scripture together as a community has been a central part of Christian worship throughout the Church’s long history. It has deep roots within the spiritual practices of Israel, and sustains God’s people today.

We read Scripture together not simply to learn new information about God’s dealings with humanity in the past, but to listen in faith to what the Living God is saying to us His people today.

It is a profound act of worship, a way of turning of our full attention to our Lord. We listen to His Word to draw closer to Him, and to one another in love.

After every Scripture Reading in our At-Home Morning Prayer service, you're invited to take a few moments in silence to reflect upon the passage, and how God’s Spirit might be addressing us through it, as individuals and as a community.

In those moments, pay attention to any words, ideas, or images from the reading that stand out to you. In the silence afterwards, ask God to help you hear His word for you today.

After the Gospel Reading, take 1-2 minutes to reflect, and then read over this week's Reflection Questions. Take whatever time you need to prayerfully sit with these questions, taking notes if you find it helpful, or perhaps even returning to the questions throughout the week. ​