Discipleship

Sunday Reflection – June 18, 2023

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Making Disciples, Sharing the Word

Matthew 9 35  Jesus went to every town and village. He taught in their synagogues and preached the good news about God’s kingdom. Jesus also healed every kind of disease and sickness. 36  When he saw the crowds, he felt sorry for them. They were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 He said to his disciples, “A large crop is in the fields, but there are only a few workers. 38 Ask the Lord in charge of the harvest to send out workers to bring it in.”

Matthew 10 Jesus called together his twelve disciples. He gave them the power to force out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and sickness. 2 The first of the twelve apostles was Simon, better known as Peter. His brother Andrew was an apostle, and so were James and John, the two sons of Zebedee. 3 Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew the tax collector,James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus were also apostles. 4 The others were Simon, known as the Eager One, and Judas Iscariot, who later betrayed Jesus.

5 Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions:

Stay away from the Gentiles and don’t go to any Samaritan town. 6 Go only to the people of Israel, because they are like a flock of lost sheep. 7  As you go, announce that the kingdom of heaven will soon be here. 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead to life, heal people who have leprosy, and force out demons. You received without paying, now give without being paid. 9 Don’t take along any gold, silver, or copper coins. 10  And don’t carry a traveling bag or an extra shirt or sandals or a walking stick.

Workers deserve their food. 11 So when you go to a town or a village, find someone able and willing to have you as their guest and stay with them until you leave. 12 When you go to a home, give it your blessing of peace. 13 If the home is deserving, let your blessing remain with them. But if the home doesn’t accept you, take back your blessing of peace. 14  If someone won’t welcome you or listen to your message, leave their home or town. And shake the dust from your feet at them. 15  I promise you the day of judgment will be easier for the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

16  I am sending you like lambs into a pack of wolves. So be as wise as snakes and as innocent as doves. 17  Watch out for people who will take you to court and have you beaten in their synagogues. 18 Because of me, you will be dragged before rulers and kings to tell them and the Gentiles about your faith. 19 But when someone arrests you, don’t worry about what you will say or how you will say it. At that time you will be given the words to say. 20 But you will not really be the one speaking. The Spirit from your Father will tell you what to say.

21  Brothers and sisters will betray one another and have each other put to death. Parents will betray their own children, and children will turn against their parents and have them killed. 22  Everyone will hate you because of me. But if you remain faithful until the end, you will be saved. 23 When people mistreat you in one town, hurry to another one. I promise you before you have gone to all the towns of Israel, the Son of Man will come.

Kids Korner: Sharing Jesus’ message (June 18th)

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Read Matthew 9:35 – 10:23 with your family.

Today’s reading is very long and it talks about how to be disciples and teachers of Jesus’ message. The early church had rules about how leaders should behave. There were a lot of other teachers walking around in Galilee and Judea at the time of Jesus, some of them charged money that poor people couldn’t afford, often telling them bad things would happen if they didn’t pay the teachers.

Jesus knew his message was for everyone, not just the rich, and he wanted to make sure his followers were there to heal people and teach people, but not get paid to do it. God’s gifts are free for everyone.

Jesus also knew that if they spoke about God and allowed the Spirit to guide their words, then people would hear the good news and believe that a different way of living was possible: loving each other and sharing everything we have so everyone has enough.

Sunday Reflection – September 4, 2022

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Being A Disciple

Luke 14 25 Large crowds were walking along with Jesus, when he turned and said:

26  You cannot be my disciple, unless you love me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. You cannot follow me unless you love me more than you love your own life.

27  You cannot be my disciple unless you carry your own cross and follow me.

28 Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. What is the first thing you will do? Won’t you sit down and figure out how much it will cost and if you have enough money to pay for it? 29 Otherwise, you will start building the tower, but not be able to finish. Then everyone who sees what is happening will laugh at you. 30 They will say, “You started building, but could not finish the job.”

31 What will a king do if he has only 10,000 soldiers to defend himself against a king who is about to attack him with 20,000 soldiers? Before he goes out to battle, won’t he first sit down and decide if he can win? 32 If he thinks he won’t be able to defend himself, he will send messengers and ask for peace while the other king is still a long way off. 33 So then, you cannot be my disciple unless you give away everything you own.

Performed by Margaret Whisselle

Kids Korner: Following Jesus (September 4th)

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Read Luke 14:25-33 with your family.

Jesus had two types of followers: those he chose or who chose him early in his ministry, and those who had heard about Jesus’ reputation and wanted to be close to see what Jesus would do next. This second group of people were the ones Jesus was talking to in this story.

He knew a lot of people wanted to hang around to see him perform miracles, but they really didn’t understand in their hearts or heads what it meant to be Jesus’ follower. These were not the people who Jesus camped with and talked with late at night. These people went home and carried on with their lives after seeing Jesus. Very few of them experienced a true desire to follow Jesus through the bad times as well as the good.

In this story Jesus tries to explain it to them that they have to turn away (the word in the Bible is ‘hate’, but it was used a bit differently in Jesus time that in is today) from the pull and comfort of their family and choose a very difficult path. They had to really think long and hard about what it would cost them to truly follow Jesus, because it might mean their death. In Roman occupied Palestine, that was a very real possibility. Were they prepared to do that? That is what Jesus challenged them to think about.

Even today, though most Christians want to live the life Jesus asked us to live by being kind to others and trying to make the world a better place, very few Christians feel the strong pull to leave everything they know and do their ministry in a place far from home, a place where they might die.

Sunday Reflection – October 3, 2021

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divorce and remarriage

Mark 10 Jesus left that place and went beyond the Jordan and into the region of Judea. Crowds gathered around him again and, as usual, he taught them.2 Some Pharisees came and, trying to test him, they asked, “Does the Law allow a man to divorce his wife?”

3 Jesus answered, “What did Moses command you?”

4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a divorce certificate and to divorce his wife.”

5 Jesus said to them, “He wrote this commandment for you because of your unyielding hearts. 6 At the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. 7 Because of this, a man should leave his father and mother and be joined together with his wife, 8 and the two will be one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 Therefore, humans must not pull apart what God has put together.”

10 Inside the house, the disciples asked him again about this. 11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12 and if a wife divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Jesus blesses children

13 People were bringing children to Jesus so that he would bless them. But the disciples scolded them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he grew angry and said to them, “Allow the children to come to me. Don’t forbid them, because God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children. 15 I assure you that whoever doesn’t welcome God’s kingdom like a child will never enter it.”16 Then he hugged the children and blessed them.

Performed by Margaret Whisselle

Sunday Reflection – September 26, 2021

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Recognize your allies

Mark 9 38 John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone throwing demons out in your name, and we tried to stop him because he wasn’t following us.”

39 Jesus replied, “Don’t stop him. No one who does powerful acts in my name can quickly turn around and curse me. 40 Whoever isn’t against us is for us. 41 I assure you that whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will certainly be rewarded.

42 “As for whoever causes these little ones who believe in me to trip and fall into sin, it would be better for them to have a huge stone hung around their necks and to be thrown into the lake. 43 If your hand causes you to fall into sin, chop it off. It’s better for you to enter into life crippled than to go away with two hands into the fire of hell, which can’t be put out. 45 If your foot causes you to fall into sin, chop it off. It’s better for you to enter life lame than to be thrown into hell with two feet. 47 If your eye causes you to fall into sin, tear it out. It’s better for you to enter God’s kingdom with one eye than to be thrown into hell with two. 48 That’s a place where worms don’t die and the fire never goes out. 49 Everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good; but if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again? Maintain salt among yourselves and keep peace with each other.”

Performed by Margaret Whisselle