Luke 13: 1-9 About six years ago I bought two houseplants at a supermarket. I took them home, repotted them, and found what I thought would be good a spot for each of them. But they did not do well. They both seemed sickly. I tried different things – a location with more sun, less sun; more water, less water; a different pot. Nothing seemed to help. They didn’t look healthy. But they didn’t die, either. I couldn’t seem to make them thrive, but I wasn’t killing them, either, so I kept doing my best to care for them. After a few years, one of the plants started perking up. For no apparent reason. It started putting out bright new leaves, it grew full and bouncy, like it just decided one day to pull itself out of this funk and show some self-respect. And I am pleased to say, it […]
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Toxic Faith
Luke 18:9-14 There is a scene in the movie Beaches, with Bette Midler. Some old friends have come to see Bette Midler’s character, CC, perform on stage, and they go backstage to see her after the show. CC just can’t stop talking about herself and her performance. But finally she turns to her guests and says, “But enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What do YOU think of me? So we have another parable from Jesus today, and he tells this one for the benefit of those people who tend to think they are better than everyone else. It’s left to us to figure out who those folks might be. Do you think they are the Pharisees? Maybe…maybe not. He tells a story about two characters – one who spends his prayer time thinking about how pleased he is with himself and disparaging the other guy, the one who spends his prayer […]
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