Receiving

Luke 7:41-47, 8:16-18

“Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”

You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” –Luke 7:41-47

Loving comes through receiving.  We are a “pull myself up by my own bootstraps” society in America.  Our society takes pride in being able to come back from adversity, to overcome failure, to resuscitate an economy, to fight back our enemies and to invent a greater future.  We are very self-reliant.  

Building

Matthew 9:16-17, 5:14-15; Luke 6:46-49

Good Morning!  Welcome to our ongoing series on the parables of Jesus.  Many of these parables are well-known to us. From the earliest ages, we learn parables.   Perhaps you noticed that the verse on the front of the bulletin: "The wise man built his house upon a rock, and the rains came a tumbling down … The rains came down and the floods came up, and the house on the rock stood firm."  It’s not a direct quote from the Bible, but rather a paraphrase of one of today’s parables taken from the children’s song.  These stories are familiar to many.

And yet, even though we’ve heard some of them times again and again, and even though Jesus explained some of them directly to the disciples in the gospels; there are still passages which hold treasures which we have not grasped totally.  There are also parables that we maybe don’t understand so well.  What was Jesus getting at anyway? 

Introduction to Parables Series

Matthew 13:10-17, Judges 9:1-20

Once upon a time, a group of trees went out to anoint for themselves a king. They looked around and then leaned their branches in the direction of an olive tree, one from among their number, aiming them at him like long pointy fingers. They moved in closer and closer, now crowding the olive tree so much that they began to knock off some of its olives to the ground. They said, “Olive tree, you be our king.” The olive tree replied, “What, and give up providing my oil, sought after throughout the world by regular men and by lords? This is my purpose, to serve man in this way. I was never meant to rule over you. That is God’s job. No thanks.”

The trees looked around again and this time focused on a fig tree. Their branches began to move, and in a little while no longer aimed at the olive tree but instead pointed to the fig tree. Again they moved in closer and closer, now crowding the fig tree so much that some of its figs also fell to the ground. As one, they all said, “Fig tree, you be our king.” The fig tree replied, “What, and give up providing my tasty wonderful fruit loved throughout the world? This is my purpose, to serve man in this way. I was never meant to rule over you. That is God’s job. No thanks.”

He is Risen Indeed!

Resurrection Sunday: a day we celebrate the resurrected Lord. The Christian Resurrection Sunday greeting is: "He is Risen," with the response being "He is Risen Indeed!"

We celebrate Resurrection on Sunday because Jesus was resurrected on the first day of the week.  The apostle John gives the best firsthand accounts of what took place that first Resurrection morning, and we will look at that in detail, but first we will look at what took place just after Jesus' body was taken down from the cross.

"At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.  Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there." --John 19:41-42