Category: Luke

Sabbath in a box

Sermon Notes: Sabbath in a Box We have heard a lot about the Pharisees in our journey through Luke…And here they are again in todays passage. The Pharisees were all about keeping Judaism unpolluted- and all credit to them- they did not run off into the wilds to live as separated comunities like the Essenes but they stayed within society at large and attempted to keep the purity of the faith. And when it came to the Sabbath, they had it sorted. There had been years and years perfecting their model. God had said “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy,” and, “On it you shall not do any work”. And they had run with that. The commandment from…

Good Sam ? Great Sam

Read Luke 10: 25-37 We’re jumping forward to involve children church.  (Did you enjoy the drama ?) Many of us are familiar with this story that Jesus tells. In it there are three groups of people who react to the victim. Group 1 ) The robbers  They believe “Your Stuff is My Stuff” and will use force to take it. Their T-shirts say “Here to hurt”.   Most of us like to think we are not like them. We do sometimes have people we want to hurt or to have bad stuff happen to.  Group 2) The Passersby. They believe that their stuff is their stuff and they stand apart wearing T-shirts saying “Here to hold”. Their goal is to…

Bring a friend together

Read Luke 5: 17-25 In the healing that happened in the story before this an individual approaches Jesus. This story is more about communal responses. The friends who bring  their paralysed mate, the pharisees with  a fixed view of how things should work.  NT Wright says “The Pharisees were a pressure group, not an official body.” “(For Everyone NT 18 Vols.) The Pharisees’ kingdom-plan, in line with plenty of earlier Jewish aims and ideals, was to intensify observance of the Jewish law, the Torah.” Essentially that mean’t that they thought if they could just be religious enough then God would bring the messiah. Unsurprisingly they also thought they were right. We too have religious groups who believe this.  The friends…