Tidings of Comfort and Joy
Luke 12:13-21 [NIV]
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Unfortunately this service was not recorded
GATHERING FOR SUNDAY
CAN BE FOUND AT:
https://www.facebook.com/NewDayCovenantChurch/
Following the worship gathering, worship services will be uploaded to our website and will be available at www.newdaycov.org/listen.
NewDay Online Giving: https://newday.churchcenter.com/giving
Greetings all,
I remember moving to Chicago for seminary at North Park. I hadn’t been there long before I encountered a number of unhoused individuals asking for money. I seldom had any to give, mind you. Later, I heard that several university students were given a basic safety lesson that they should, “don’t even make eye contact with anyone who’s asking for money, that encourages them to approach you.”
I understand the logic behind it, I suppose. It does keep vulnerable young people safe, to a degree… again, I suppose. But I didn’t trust that advice to always be good. It seemed to me that begging for money is a humbling experience and refusing to even look at the person asking felt so dehumanizing. Instead, I’d look the person in the eye and, when there was no money, I’d say so. When I was later telling some of my pastor buddies that my choice to look those in need in the eye to either give more or apologize always cost me something.
When your neighbors are in need, especially if you can’t meet that need, it seems appropriate that it should come at some kind of a cost. A community that sees the image of God in all people demands that everyone be afforded their dignity. I am not afforded the opportunity to dismiss the dignity of others, especially in the pursuit of my own prestige.
The gospel reading for Sunday will be Luke 12:13-21. We’ll be encountering greed in this reading; an opposing force to charity and the compassion of character that leads to generosity. Discipleship will, as it must, come with a cost to the disciples and that the disciples gained so much more by being living sacrifices in Jesus’ name.
I’ll look forward to seeing you this Sunday,
Zach