Luke 20:41-21:4

Give.  Give generously,give out of your poverty.

It is easy to give out of our wealth,out of the places we have the most, but what if where we find ourselves lacking, we gave from there.  What if we sought the places we are the weakest, where we have the most dirth and purposefully and calculatingly gave to God from there.  Giving from our strength, giving from our position of power and from our wealth is not only easy, but it is our place of pride.  If we are to give like the widow, if we are to seek to be unlike the scribes, then we can not give from our pride from where we are our best, because then we are giving of our best and can do so on display, for honor. This is my best see look see, I am worthy, I have so much.  But when we give out of where we have the least, out of our poverty, anything good, anything worthy, and thing breautoful the comes of it, is the strength, the wholeness, the power of God at work in and through our weakness and poverty.  Where am I least? Where am I lacking, help me to give from there, so that god's strength may be made known in me, and through me.

Luke 20:1-8

The chief priests and the scribes came to JEsus with a question.  Jesus is all about the questions .  Jesus often taught by asking questions and he very. Jesus encouraged the asking of questions. But the questions he is presented with in this passage are not Ernest question. They are designed to trap home, to trip him up.  Jesus is all about answering Ernest questions.  Jesus has no problems with doubt and reservations but Jesus wil not be waylayed by insincere questioning.  Jesus will not play into their hands he wil not allow himself to be sucked into their game.

It I'd good to remember that ther is nothing wrong with questions and doubts.  In fact in many ways Jesus encourages us to come to him with our reservations.  Jesus wants us to come to him to learn, to find the answers to delve deeper into the personhood of God and God's redemptive plan for this world and for us. But at the same time if I am coming to Christ with insincere questions and argumentative confrontation, Jesus will simply not comply.  Will not be baited.  Insincere questions will remain unsnwere, not because Jesus does not have the answers, but because that kind of questioning does not deserve answers.

Luke 18:1-8

The persistent widow. In a world where widows had very little to depend upon save the graciousness of friends and relatives, especial be she a sonless widow, justice for her would be important.  There would be someone who would be required to take care of her, to be her advocate but if that person was failing at their responsibilities she would need Justice.  But she does not sit around and be,on the broken system, she does not whine allow herself to be the victim of a society that has forgotten her, she crystal out for justice.  She cries out and cries out and cries out and does not stop until she recieves the justice she wants. And Jesus says that if this man is wiling to do that for this woman how much more will God respond when one of God's own so relentlessly cries out for justice.  Justice. Jesus tells us to persistently cry out for justice, to work to move, to advocate for justice and God will see, God will hear and God will act on our behalf and justice will come.  Too often we sees the woman's persistence and think Jesus is telling us that if we are This persistent with. God for the things thT we want, we will receive from God what it is we want.  But it does not tell us that.  It tells us yo call out for justice, to work for justice and we will find thT God is too.

Luke 16:1-9

Deall shrewdly, Jesus says.  Be like the dishonest manager, Jesus says.  Make friends by dishonest wealth, he instructs us.  Shrewdness, dishonestly, ill-gotten gains.  These are the tools Jesus is instructting me to use this morning.  I know this passage, I know the difficulties it raises.  I know how to nimbly tumble through its' array of obstacles, with all the Greek, contextual and theology skills which have been given to me.  But today I am trying to look at it as if I juast read it for the first time.  Jesus says that we are to be shrewd, like the dishonest manager, that I am to make friends via dishonest wealth.  The end game being that we will be welcomed into their houses.  So we are to act in such a way that someone will acept take us in, utlimately.  When talking about ultimate things, I am thinking that we are working to be accepted, taken in by God.  We are to deal shrewdly with God. We are to do whatever it takes to gain God's favor.  My Wesleyan roots tell me I do not need to work for God's favor.    But this passage seems to tell me that when push comes to shove, when I am out on my ear, I should work to be the kind of person God would accept, God would take in.  The manager cuts the bills in half.  The manager gives these people what they want for 1\2 price.  They get two for the price of one. Christ has paid the price, Christ has done the work, so if we are like the manager we will work to be sure that we give two for the price of one, we give twice as much as what has been paid.  This is about giving all of our selves to Christ, to be sure that Jesus is getting a deal, is getting more than what he bargained for.  Give back to God more than God could possibly expect.  Live shrewdly, give God twice as much as what God paid.  Make your life a two for one deal, a 1\2 off special.  Live so that the price paid, is a deal.  Bring heaven to Earth with who you are. Live above and beyond expectation.  Being a dishonest manager means that you give God, the one who will eventually take you in, accept you, will be getting more than God bargained for.  Your life can be worth more.  Live shrewdly, give God even more than God could possibly want.  That means living Heaven here, living abundant love, that mean giving the kind of acceptance, I have recieved, to the world around me.

Matthew 25:1-13

I am always captivated by the immage of God as a mother hen. I see a spring time farm yard, with a red hen over seaing a yard full fluffy yellow chicks.  They are running around, eating worms, sqeaking and pecking, in the warm sun.  Then the morning is disturbed by the sound of a car come in up the drive or the slam of the kitchen door and the rapid pound of a running child's feet at she tear across the farm yard on her way to somewhere.  And sudddenly all the chicks run, they don't scatter willy-nilly but they run for the hen, her wings are open wid eand she gathers them in, to protect them from what ever danger there may be, either real or percieved.

This is God, the red Hen, wings wide open calling for us to come, to be gathered in. Sheilded, protected under wing.  But Jesus is saddened here, because Jerusalem repeatedly refuses to come gather in.  They run the other way, ignore the pleas of the mother hen.  Go their own way, come what may, they will handle it on their own.  Will I be Jerusalem, going our own way, ignoring the loving arms of our Savior, or I be a chick, looking to Jesus for the guidance and protection he longs to give?

Luke 12:32-48

In the upside down kingdom.  The servant who is found good and faithful will find herself being served by the master upon his return.  The lowliest one will find that she is being treated as the one with the most honor.   That one will be put over all.  There is glory and wonder in the idea of the one on the bottom, being on top, those who are pushed to the side and live in the margins will find they now live in the center.  Those with the least will be giving the most.  Whenn we are lost we will be found.  When we have nothing, we have everything.  It feels wonderful to be the one who is brought to center stadge from the wings.  It is great to go from the back of the line to the front.  But there is responsibility to being on top, to leading the line, or being center stadge.  We are to be wise in how we use our new found positions, when we are in the center, our job is not to protect our position, but to instead then draw others  to the center as well.  To be pulling others out from the fringes, to be bringing other up from the bottom to the top.  Our postion not one of power and of authority, but of hope, and help and encouragement.  We bring the truth of the kingdom, the promises of God into fruition in the lives of others.  We have been brought into the center and now we too bring others in, making the kingdom of God a reality not only for ourselves for all those who need to be pulled in, lifted up and given honor.  Once the kingdom of God has been brought into reality in our lives, we then bring it into reality into the lives of others as well.

-Kaza

Luke 11:53-12:12

What I am hearing in this passage.

Do not be afraid of what is said or done behind your back.  People may say things in the dark of the night, they may do things in secret, and we can spend our lives afraid of others and what they may be doing, whether it affects us or not.  I can spend my life afraid of what people say about me when I am not around.  Do they like me?  Do they approve of me?  Are they paying attention to me? All questions which can consume my life.  I can worry about these things, but they are beyond my control.  There is really nothing I can do.  People will say what they will say.  They will do what they will do.   Their deeds, their words will be brought light.  Fretting and worrying about it will not change anything.

The same goes for me.  The deeds I do secretly, covertly, the words I say will all come to light.  Who I am in secret, will be known.  I cannot hide in the dark.  The person I am in the dark should always be the same person I am in the light.  The words I am willing to say in secret must be words I am willing to have been said in public.  There can be no duality of person, no bi-furcation of character.  I am a woman of God at all times, my words, my actions, where ever I am,  at all times reflects the truth of this.

-Kaza