[Propertalk] Sermon tidbits for Luke 14 for Aug. 29 - III

[Joe Parrish]

Mission schools and hospitals should be run primarily for the poor and disadvantaged who cannot pay the fees. We are called to get past society's balanced 50/50 arrangement.
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Should Christians invite people of the third group? Yes. Buddhists? Taoists? Marxists? Atheists? Yes, since they cannot, figuratively speaking, repay Christians in the language Christians know. Sincere dialogue with people whose convictions are different from ours would broaden the horizon of our spiritual commitment to Christ. Then Christ would receive a larger doxology from humanity.

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=854

Kosuke Koyama
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Where I grew up, unlimited hydroplane racing was a very popular sport. The Gold Cup races often took place on Lake Washington. How well I can remember boats like Slo Mo IV and Slo Mo V. The boats could cross the starting line at the sound of the starting gun. They were allowed to have a "flying start," which meant that they would all mill about the lake, a good distance away, and then begin to charge the starting line at about 160 miles per hour. The first boat across the starting line (sometimes their timing was off and they crossed too soon and were disqualified) had the distinct advantage. For one thing, it could leave the rest of the boats not only in its wake, but also under its rooster tail of water, which made visibility difficult, and sometimes drowned out engines.
http://bible.org/seriespage/table-talks-luke-141-24

Bob Deffinbaugh
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Luke himself is showing a definite progression of our Lord. Jesus had a determined march that included encounters with religious leaders for a singular purpose; to highlight the difference between their religion of ritual and his acts of mercy.  So, this event was no chance encounter by either Jesus or the Leader of Pharisees. 
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There is only one thing that changes self-undermining beliefs on that deep of a core. We need to change down deep where the negative messages of a lifetime of neglect or abuse have taken root.  On that level, a person changes beliefs about themselves - not because they changed their minds -- but because they changed their behaviors.  As adults, the only way to learn we are loved is we love. So many people are still waiting on words of affirmation they will never hear spoken by a fragile or broken parent. Instead of waiting in hopeless expectation, we need to practice loving until it becomes habitual in our lives.

In our outreaches we restore lives by creating opportunities where those around us can "catch themselves loving."  The people we work with are frequently at the crossroads of the hopeless, forgotten, and defenseless. What a better place to practice being a "stream in the desert," or a "lamp in the darkness."  This is what restores dignity and recovers lives.


http://onefamilyoutreach.com/bible/Luke/lk_14_01-14.html

Source: Jerry Goebel: 2007 © http://onefamilyoutreach.com.
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The comments of a pagan emperor from the fourth century suggest how
widely recognized Christian practices of hospitality had become. In an effort
to reestablish Hellenic religion in the Roman Empire in 362, Julian instructed
the high priest of the Hellenic faith to imitate the Christian concern for
strangers and poor people. Referring to Christianity as atheism, he asked,
"Why do we not observe that it is their benevolence to strangers, their care
for the graves of the dead and the pretended holiness of their lives that
have done most to increase atheism?" He instructed the priest that hostels
in every city should be established for strangers and ordered a distribution
of food for the poor, strangers, and beggars. He wrote: "For it is disgraceful
that, when no Jew ever has to beg, and the impious Galileans [Christians]
support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people
lack aid from us. Teach those of the Hellenic faith to contribute to public
service of this sort."3
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We cannot eliminate all of the risks that are present in offering and
receiving hospitality. People will sometimes misuse generosity. Efforts to
protect ourselves and our communities from every possible contingency
and risk can result in inhumane rules and demeaning practices.
Finally, because today we have many large-scale institutions that offer
assistance without providing community, followers of Jesus can be especially
attentive to opportunities to reconnect hospitality and community in our
homes, congregations, and social ministries.

http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/53383.pdf

Christine D. Pohl, 2007
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A few years ago, I participated in a training program for research assistants who would be interviewing long-term survivors of childhood cancer. Members of "Candlelighters" and their children were present to give the fledgling researchers a taste of "real life."2 These families were not unlike those upon whom they would call to interview. The project director suggested a session of role-playing in which we would all be at a meal together.

(Diane Komp is Professor of Pediatrics at Yale University School of Medicine, Attending Physician at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and past deacon of the First Congregational Church, Guilford, CT. Parts of this essay are taken from the book A Window to Heaven, copyright 1992, used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

2 "Candlelighters" is an organization of parents of children with cancer. The name is taken from the saying, "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.")

One of the trainees found that proposition untenable. It was unrealistic, she said, to have the oncologist eating with the family. One of the participating children piped up, "No, you're wrong! I sat next to Dr. Komp at dinner last week." And so he had, prior to a support group for parents sponsored by "Candlelighters." The practice of medicine can be a vocation based upon covenantal relationship

http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jan1993/v49-4-article3.htm

Diane M. Komp
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