September 20th Sermon

"Luke is known as the Gospel of the poor and marginalized because he shows more concern for women, who were the most marginalized group in the first century, and for those who existed on the bottom rung of Jewish society. Luke alone tells us of the shepherds who are the first recipients of the good news of the birth of Jesus. Shepherds were regarded as outcasts in first-century Judaism, barred even from testifying in a court of law. Only Luke tells of the impoverished baby who sleeps in a cattle trough. Only Luke tells us the story of the widow of Nain, as well as the widow who offers both of her remaining coins to the temple treasury. We might expect that a slave would have longed to see the world turned upside down, and this is also exactly what we find in Luke’s Gospel. From Mary’s song of the radical reversal that the coming of Messiah will bring, to the Beatitudes of Jesus, which announce that those who are laughing now will mourn while the mourners will soon find reason to laugh, Luke the slave celebrates the coming of Jesus. He longs for and wonders at the world being turned upside down by this arrival." MICHAEL CARD, Luke: The Gospel of Amazement   "Glory follows afflictions, not as the day follows the night but as the spring follows the winter; for the winter prepares the earth for the spring, so do afflictions sanctified prepare the soul for glory." -RICHARD SIBBES