Jeremiah 8:18-9:1, I Timothy 2: 1 -7 Jeremiah is beside himself – no joy, grief, and a sick heart. Why? Because Israel has turned from God provoking God to anger with their foreign idols. They have been conquered and many killed by other nations. When, oh God will you save these poor people? They have cried past harvest and summer. Jeremiah emphasizes with the hurt of these poor people. Mourning and dismay have overtaken him. Is there no solution – no salvation for his people? If only a healing balm could be found to restore the health of these poor people. He compares his sorrow needing a spring of water and his eyes as a fountain of tears so that he can weep day and night for those who have been slain. In I Timothy the apostle Paul tells of the balm that can save – Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all. There is no balm in Gilead – even if the song says so. The balm is in Jesus who due to his death on the cross has the power to save. He is now the mediator between Go...

  Luke 15: 1-10, I Timothy 1:12-17   In Luke 15 the Pharisees are grumbling because Christ not only welcomes sinners but eats with them. In response Jesus tells them two parables one about a sheep that is lost and how the shepherd leaves the other 99 to look for it. Then he talks about a woman who loses a coin and drops everything to search for it. In both stories the shepherd and the woman rejoice in finding what they have lost. Jesus is telling then that he has come for the lost – those sinners – including tax collectors – IRS beware and how heaven rejoices over one who repents over the 99 who don’t need to repent – it rejoices over the one sinner who repents. Timothy is the letter that Paul writes to new pastor Timothy. In I Timothy 1 Paul tells how he was one of the greatest sinners – a blasphemer, a persecutor of Christians, a man of violence. But Jesus approached this lost sheep and Paul accepted Christ, repented of his sinful life. Paul talks about God’s mercy and...

  Jeremiah 18: 1-11, Psalms 139: 1-6, 13-18   In our Jeremiah passage, God uses common things to explain a profound message from God. Jeremiah is told to go down to the potter’s house. So, he does so and observes the potter working with the clay. He notices then when the clay becomes spoiled, the potter reshapes it into another vessel. God then describes this metaphor as God being the potter and Israel being the clay. God has great intentions for Israel – for the vessel they can become. But if Israel is spoiled by the evil and being unfaithful, God’s mind may be changed about the good God had intended to do and will reshape it devising a plan against it. It is as if Israel is now on God’s potter’s wheel and God is giving them a chance to amend their ways and their deeds so that God can shape them into what God has intended. Psalms 139 tells how wonderfully made we are by the Creator. It tells how God knit us together in our mother’s womb. All the days that were formed for ...

Luke 14: 1-14; Hebrews 13: 1-8, 15,16 In Luke 14 Jesus goes to the house of the leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath. He is approached by a man with edema. The question on the Pharisees’ minds is, “will he heal this man on the Sabbath?” Healing is considered work, so it is forbidden on the Sabbath. Jesus answers them back with another question. “How many would rescue an ox or their child if they fell into a pit on the Sabbath? To this they can’t respond so he heals the man. Now Jesus watches while the guests of this meal choose places of honor, sitting closer to the host. So, Jesus tells them a parable. He tells them that it’s better to sit at the lower seat so they can be moved up instead of being asked to be moved down from a higher seat. Jesus adds another note to this seating in humbleness rule. It is not to just invite – be hospitable to those who can repay you but to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind – those who cannot repay you. In ...