The Weekly View

Sunday September 30, 2018

This Sunday 

Dear St Luke Community, 

If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard well-intentioned pastors criticize “other” churches, I’d be able to retire early. “Too conservative, too progressive, too new age, like a country club, out of touch….” you get the idea. Most of the time these comparisons are made so that the person making them can feel better about the way they are doing church. I’m guilty of this too. Despite my mother’s warnings of no good coming from comparing ourselves to others, I still occasionally fail. 

Sunday’s scripture (Mark 9: 38-50) begins with someone who is not physically following Jesus but is healing in Jesus’ name. The disciples complain about it and Jesus has a lot to say including; whoever is not against us is for us. (9:40) 

There’s a bigger picture here for Jesus and all of us. What unites us supersedes the different ways we approach ministry in the spirit of healing and repairing. In a perfect world, the same is true for our country and in an even more perfect world, the same is true for all of humanity. It so often takes a tragedy to remind us of that. 

So how do we help contribute to fulfilling this call from God to help repair a broken world? We can begin by following the St Luke Mission to Practice Love; that is to say, seeing every moment of our lives as an opportunity to practice being kind, quit the judging and stop comparing. Keep your eye on your own plate. It is abundantly full of nourishment if only we would take the time to feast on its goodness. 

See you Sunday,
Nicole